title: Reproducibility of brain-cognition relationships using three cortical surface-based protocols: An exhaustive analysis based on cortical thickness.
abstract: People differ in their cognitive functioning. This variability has been exhaustively examined at the behavioral, neural and genetic level to uncover the mechanisms by which some individuals are more cognitively efficient than others. Studies investigating the neural underpinnings of interindividual differences in cognition aim to establish a reliable nexus between functional/structural properties of a given brain network and higher order cognitive performance. However, these studies have produced inconsistent results, which might be partly attributed to methodological variations. In the current study, 82 healthy young participants underwent MRI scanning and completed a comprehensive cognitive battery including measurements of fluid, crystallized, and spatial intelligence, along with working memory capacity/executive updating, controlled attention, and processing speed. The cognitive scores were obtained by confirmatory factor analyses. T1 -weighted images were processed using three different surface-based morphometry (SBM) pipelines, varying in their degree of user intervention, for obtaining measures of cortical thickness (CT) across the brain surface. Distribution and variability of CT and CT-cognition relationships were systematically compared across pipelines and between two cognitively/demographically matched samples to overcome potential sources of variability affecting the reproducibility of findings. We demonstrated that estimation of CT was not consistent across methods. In addition, among SBM methods, there was considerable variation in the spatial pattern of CT-cognition relationships. Finally, within each SBM method, results did not replicate in matched subsamples.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud, Facultad De Psicología, Universidad Autónoma De Madrid, Spain.|Departamento de Psiquiatría del Niño y del Adolescente, Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Kenia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Imaging Genetics Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Sarah K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Group, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Anand A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, University of California Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Shantanu H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud, Facultad De Psicología, Universidad Autónoma De Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Francisco J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Román
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Group, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Villalon-Reina
authors.affiliation: Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burgaleta
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Montreal, Canada.
authors.forename: Sherif
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karama
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatría del Niño y del Adolescente, Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.|Ciber del área de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.|Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joost
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Janssen
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatría del Niño y del Adolescente, Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.|Departamento De Bioingeniería E Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III De Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Eugenio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marinetto
authors.affiliation: Ciber del área de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Madrid, Spain.|Departamento De Bioingeniería E Ingeniería Aeroespacial, Universidad Carlos III De Madrid, Madrid, Spain.|Unidad De Medicina Y Cirugía Experimental, Instituto De Investigación Sanitaria Hospital Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Desco
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Group, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psicología Biológica y de la Salud, Facultad De Psicología, Universidad Autónoma De Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Colom
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009929:Organ Size; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cortical thickness; higher order cognition; surface-based methods