ArticleNeuroradiology2022
Different FreeSurfer versions might generate different statistical outcomes in case-control comparison studies.
Article in Neuroradiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Brain volumes in congenital heart disease from childhood to adulthood: A pooled neuroimaging study.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Encoding Discordance in the Alzheimer's Disease A/T/N Framework.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Quantifying brain atrophy in Frontotemporal Dementia: a head-to-head comparison of neuroimaging techniques.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Generalizable MRI normative modelling to detect age-inappropriate neurodegeneration.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- The Knight Alzheimer Research Imaging (KARI) dataset: a comprehensive multimodal resource for exploring aging, preclinical, and symptomatic Alzheimer disease pathology.Research square · 2025Article
- A FastSurfer Database for Age-Specific Brain Volumes in Healthy Children: A Tool for Quantifying Localized and Global Brain Volume Alterations in Pediatric Patients.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Voxel-based and surface-based cortical morphometric MRI applications for identifying the epileptogenic zone: A narrative review.Epilepsia open · 2025Review
- Personalizing progressive changes to brain structure in Alzheimer's disease using normative modeling.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Efficacy of MRI data harmonization in the age of machine learning: a multicenter study across 36 datasets.Scientific data · 2024Article
- Bridging Huntington's disease research with big data science: Harmonized neuroimaging datasets from multiple studies.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Increased brain gyrification and cortical thinning in winter-born patients with schizophrenia spectrum.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Evidence for embracing normative modeling.eLife · 2023Article
- Multisite test-retest reliability and compatibility of brain metrics derived from FreeSurfer versions 7.1, 6.0, and 5.3.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- A large-scale ENIGMA multisite replication study of brain age in depression.Neuroimage. Reports · 2022Article
- Structural brain differences in professional Australian rules footballers following mild traumatic brain injury: When head size matters.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
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Abstract
purposeNeuroimaging pipelines have long been known to generate mildly differing results depending on various factors, including software version. While considered generally acceptable and within the margin of reasonable error, little is known about their effect in common research scenarios such as inter-group comparisons between healthy controls and various pathological conditions. The aim of the presented study was to explore the differences in the inferences and statistical significances in a model situation comparing volumetric parameters between healthy controls and type 1 diabetes patients using various FreeSurfer versions.
methodsT1- and T2-weighted structural scans of healthy controls and type 1 diabetes patients were processed with FreeSurfer 5.3, FreeSurfer 5.3 HCP, FreeSurfer 6.0 and FreeSurfer 7.1, followed by inter-group statistical comparison using outputs of individual FreeSurfer versions.
resultsWorryingly, FreeSurfer 5.3 detected both cortical and subcortical volume differences out of the preselected regions of interest, but newer versions such as FreeSurfer 5.3 HCP and FreeSurfer 6.0 reported only subcortical differences of lower magnitude and FreeSurfer 7.1 failed to find any statistically significant inter-group differences.
conclusionSince group averages of individual FreeSurfer versions closely matched, in keeping with previous literature, the main origin of this disparity seemed to lie in substantially higher within-group variability in the model pathological condition. Ergo, until validation in common research scenarios as case-control comparison studies is included into the development process of new software suites, confirmatory analyses utilising a similar software based on analogous, but not fully equivalent principles, might be considered as supplement to careful quality control.
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