Statistical Analysis of Neuroimages

When we talk about statistics in psychological research, we usually think of statistical tests. But statistics have contributed in other ways. Modern imaging techniques, such as CAT scans or MRIs, rely heavily on statistics to work. CAT scans pass X-rays through the brain from several angles and record the images. MRI use magnetic fields to form brain images from several angles. Once these images are available, statistical procedures, which are conceptually similar to multidimensional scaling, determine what the three-dimensional brain must look like in order to produce all of these images. These statistical procedures were so clever that their developers received the Nobel Prize for their work. The imaging techniques that rely on these statistical procedures have had an incredible impact on our ability to study the human brain and understand how it functions (e.g., DeLisi et al. 1997; Lewine et al., 1990).

References

DeLisi, L. E., Sakuma, M., Kushner, M., Finer, D. L., Hoff, A. L., & Crow, T. J. (1997). Anomalous cerebral asymmetry and language processing in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 23, 255-271.

Lewine, R. R. J., Gulley, L. R., Risch, S. C., Jewart, R., & Houpt, J. L. (1990). Sexual dimorphism, brain morphology, and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 16, 195–203.