Individual differences in cognitive paradigms are increasingly employed to relate cognition to brain structure, chemistry, and function. However, such efforts are often unfruitful, even with the most well established tasks. Here we offer an explanation for failures in the application of robust cognitive paradigms to the study of individual differences. Experimental effects become well established – and thus those tasks become popular – when between-subject variability is low. However, low between-subject variability causes low reliability for individual differences, destroying replicable correlations with other factors and potentially undermining published conclusions drawn from correlational relationships. Though these statistical issues have a long history in psychology, they are widely overlooked in cognitive psychology and neuroscience today. In three studies, we assessed test-retest reliability of seven classic tasks: Eriksen Flanker, Stroop, stop-signal, go/no-go, Posner cueing, Navon, and Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Code (SNARC). Reliabilities ranged from 0 to .82, being surprisingly low for most tasks given their common use. As we predicted, this emerged from low variance between individuals rather than high measurement variance. In other words, the very reason such tasks produce robust and easily replicable experimental effects – low between-participant variability – makes their use as correlational tools problematic. We demonstrate that taking such reliability estimates into account has the potential to qualitatively change theoretical conclusions. The implications of our findings are that well-established approaches in experimental psychology and neuropsychology may not directly translate to the study of individual differences in brain structure, chemistry, and function, and alternative metrics may be required.

/pdf/the-reliability-paradox-why-robust-cognitive-tasks-do-not-5gcvwhnf7s.pdf

The reliability paradox: Why robust cognitive tasks do not produce reliable individual differences.

Identifying brain biomarkers of disease risk is a growing priority in neuroscience. The ability to identify meaningful biomarkers is limited by measurement reliability; unreliable measures are unsuitable for predicting clinical outcomes. Measuring brain activity using task functional MRI (fMRI) is a major focus of biomarker development; however, the reliability of task fMRI has not been systematically evaluated. We present converging evidence demonstrating poor reliability of task-fMRI measures. First, a meta-analysis of 90 experiments (N = 1,008) revealed poor overall reliability-mean intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = .397. Second, the test-retest reliabilities of activity in a priori regions of interest across 11 common fMRI tasks collected by the Human Connectome Project (N = 45) and the Dunedin Study (N = 20) were poor (ICCs = .067-.485). Collectively, these findings demonstrate that common task-fMRI measures are not currently suitable for brain biomarker discovery or for individual-differences research. We review how this state of affairs came to be and highlight avenues for improving task-fMRI reliability.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956797620916786

What Is the Test-Retest Reliability of Common Task-Functional MRI Measures? New Empirical Evidence and a Meta-Analysis.

Neuroimaging biomarkers as predictors of treatment outcome in Major Depressive Disorder.

Explaining and predicting individual behavioural differences induced by clinical and social factors constitutes one of the most promising applications of neuroimaging. In this Perspective, we discuss the theoretical and statistical foundations of the analyses of inter-individual differences in task-related functional neuroimaging. Leveraging a five-year literature review (July 2013-2018), we show that researchers often assess how activations elicited by a variable of interest differ between individuals. We argue that the rationale for such analyses, typically grounded in resource theory, offers an over-large analytical and interpretational flexibility that undermines their validity. We also recall how, in the established framework of the general linear model, inter-individual differences in behaviour can act as hidden moderators and spuriously induce differences in activations. We conclude with a set of recommendations and directions, which we hope will contribute to improving the statistical validity and the neurobiological interpretability of inter-individual difference analyses in task-related functional neuroimaging.

Assessing inter-individual differences with task-related functional neuroimaging.

We investigate the effects of social media influencers’ (SMIs) intimate self-disclosure (ISD) on consumers’ intent to purchase products from an endorsed brand through the underlying mechanisms of s...

The effects of social media influencers’ self-disclosure on behavioral intentions: The role of source credibility, parasocial relationships, and brand trust

Unreliability of putative fMRI biomarkers during emotional face processing.

One of the most exciting translational prospects for brain imaging research is the potential use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) 'biomarkers' to predict an individual's risk of developing a neuropsychiatric disorder or the likelihood of responding to a particular intervention. This proposal depends critically on reliable measurements at the level of the individual. Several previous studies have reported relatively poor reliability of amygdala activation during emotional face processing, a key putative fMRI 'biomarker'. However, the reliability of amygdala connectivity measures is much less well understood. Here, we assessed the reliability of task-modulated coupling between three seed regions (left and right amygdala and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex) and the dorsomedial frontal/cingulate cortex (DMFC), measured using a psychophysiological interaction analysis in 29 healthy individuals scanned approximately two weeks apart. We performed two runs on each day of three different emotional face-processing tasks: emotion identification, emotion matching, and gender classification. We tested both between-day reliability and within-day (between-run) reliability. We found good-to-excellent within-subject reliability of amygdala-DMFC coupling, both between days (in two tasks), and within day (in one task). This suggests that disorder-relevant regional coupling may be sufficiently reliable to be used as a predictor of treatment response or clinical risk in future clinical studies.

Reliability of Fronto-Amygdala Coupling during Emotional Face Processing

Neural, Cognitive, and Clinical Effects of Prefrontal Cortex Stimulation in Depression Combined with Psychological Therapy: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

If laughter functions to build relationships between individuals, as current theory suggests, laughter should be linked to interpersonal behaviors that have been shown to be critical to relationship development Given the importance of disclosing behaviors in facilitating the development of intense social bonds, it is possible that the act of laughing may temporarily influence the laugher's willingness to disclose personal information We tested this hypothesis experimentally by comparing the characteristics of self-disclosing statements produced by those who had previously watched one of three video clips that differed in the extent to which they elicited laughter and positive affect The results show that disclosure intimacy is significantly higher after laughter than in the control condition, suggesting that this effect may be due, at least in part, to laughter itself and not simply to a change in positive affect However, the disclosure intimacy effect was only found for observers' ratings of participants' disclosures and was absent in the participants' own ratings We suggest that laughter increases people's willingness to disclose, but that they may not necessarily be aware that it is doing so

/pdf/laughter-s-influence-on-the-intimacy-of-self-disclosure-3mq4h3tt8e.pdf

Laughter’s Influence on the Intimacy of Self-Disclosure

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Papers

Unreliability of putative fMRI biomarkers during emotional face processing.

Reliability of Fronto-Amygdala Coupling during Emotional Face Processing

Neural, Cognitive, and Clinical Effects of Prefrontal Cortex Stimulation in Depression Combined with Psychological Therapy: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial

Laughter’s Influence on the Intimacy of Self-Disclosure