Statistics

Recent articles

Research images shows areas of cortex that differed across scans of variable quality.

Poor image quality introduces systematic bias into large neuroimaging datasets

Analyses that include low-quality MRI data underestimate cortical thickness and overestimate cortical surface area, according to new findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.

By Natalia Mesa
31 July 2025 | 7 min listen
Overlapping speech bubbles.

Memory study sparks debate over statistical methods

Critics of a 2024 Nature paper suggest the authors failed to address the risk of false-positive findings. The authors argue more rigorous methods can result in missed leads.

By Katie Moisse
2 July 2025 | 5 min read
An opaque cube is repeated multiple times to create the appearance of overlapping cubes.

Sounding the alarm on pseudoreplication: Q&A with Constantinos Eleftheriou and Peter Kind

Most studies of neurological disorders in mice erroneously treat multiple samples from a single animal as independent replicates, according to a new analysis. But scientists and journals can take steps to curb this practice.

By Lauren Schenkman
12 June 2025 | 6 min read
A curly line connects two pencils that are hovering over overlapping speech bubbles.

Say what? The Transmitter’s top quotes of 2024

“We’ve cured mouse-heimer’s thousands of times...”—find out who said this to a Transmitter reporter, and read our other favorite quotes from the past year.

By The Transmitter
23 December 2024 | 2 min read
Illustration of a single digitally rendered figure wandering a fragmented and distorted virtual environment.

Nonsense correlations and how to avoid them

This statistical error is common in systems neuroscience. Fortunately, straightforward methods can help you prevent it.

By Kenneth Harris
12 August 2024 | 6 min listen

Explore more from The Transmitter

Michael Breakspear and Mac Shine explain how brain processing changes across neural population scales

Breakspear and Shine find a scale-free property of brain activity that is conserved across diverse species, suggesting that a universal principle of brain activity underlies cognition.

By Paul Middlebrooks
10 September 2025 | 1 min read
Research image of neural progenitor cells derived from people with 16p11.2 duplications and 16p11.2 deletions, which have cilia that are shorter or longer, respectively, than in controls.

Protein interactions important to SYNGAP1-related conditions; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 8 September.

By Jill Adams
9 September 2025 | 2 min read
Sleep-control neurons glow cyan in the central nervous system of a fly.

Mitochondria set ‘ancient’ metabolic thermostat for sleep in flies, separate from circadian rhythms

During waking hours, a specialized set of sleep neurons in the fly brain accumulates reactive oxygen species, which eventually trigger sleep to clean up and repair the damage they do.

By Viviane Callier
9 September 2025 | 7 min listen

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