Statistical considerations in the evaluation of potential contributions of individual neurobiological differences to cognitive performance. Commentary on Lazic (2010) "Relating hippocampal neurogenesis to behavior: the dangers of ignoring confounding variables".
Evaluating the contribution of neurobiological individual differences to cognitive function is critical in order to understand the normal process of learning and memory, to identify the effects of aging and disease states, and to develop targets for therapeutics. The aging model is commonly used for such research as the variability in the aging process provides a naturalistic setting in which to evaluate neurobiological differences in both cognitively impaired and cognitively intact aged individuals. In this commentary we explore Lazic's discussion (2010) about the significance of confounding variables to the interpretation of this research and the effect of common statistical main effects on correlational analyses.
Shamy
Jul Lea
JL
Department of Neuroscience, Glickenhaus Laboratory of Neuropsychology, Friedman Brain Institute and Kastor Neurobiology of Aging Laboratories, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA. jullea.shamy@mssm.edu
Baxter
Mark G
MG
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D023421:Models, Animal; D055495:Neurogenesis / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D012044:Regression Analysis