How representative are neuroimaging samples? Large-scale evidence for trait anxiety differences between fMRI and behaviour-only research participants
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, vol. 16, pp. 1057–1070
Abstract
Over the past three decades, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become crucial to study how cognitive processes are implemented in the human brain. However, the question of whether participants recruited into fMRI studies differ from participants recruited into other study contexts has received little to no attention. This is particularly pertinent when effects fail to generalize across study contexts: for example, a behavioural effect discovered in a non-imaging context not replicating in a neuroimaging environment. Here, we tested the hypothesis, motivated by preliminary findings (N = 272), that fMRI participants differ from behaviour-only participants on one fundamental individual difference variable: trait anxiety. Analysing trait anxiety scores and possible confounding variables from healthy volunteers across multiple institutions (N = 3317), we found robust support for lower trait anxiety in fMRI study participants, consistent with a sampling or self-selection bias. The bias was larger in studies that relied on phone screening (compared with full in-person psychiatric screening), recruited at least partly from convenience samples (compared with community samples), and in pharmacology studies. Our findings highlight the need for surveying trait anxiety at recruitment and for appropriate screening procedures or sampling strategies to mitigate this bias.
Authors 35
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Caroline Juliette Charpentier corresponding
California Institute of Technology · University College London
Affiliation as printed
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Roehampton, London SW15 5PJ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK, The Netherlands
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands
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Marieke S. Tollenaar Aachen Department of Clinical Psychology Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition
Affiliation as printed
Department of Clinical Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 AK, The Netherlands
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden 2300 RC, The Netherlands
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California Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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California Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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University of Maryland, College Park
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
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Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust · Warneford Hospital · University of Oxford
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX4 4XN, UK
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University of Oxford · Medical University of Vienna
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Clinical Division of Social Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
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Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust · Warneford Hospital · University of Oxford
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX4 4XN, UK
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California Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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Radboud University Nijmegen · Radboud University Medical Center · Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen 6500 HB, The Netherlands
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands
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Radboud University Nijmegen · Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Affiliation as printed
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, 6525 AJ, The Netherlands
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University of Maryland, College Park
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust · Warneford Hospital · University of Oxford
Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX4 4XN, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
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National Institute of Mental Health
Affiliation as printed
National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
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Affiliation as printed
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Universität, Hamburg 20146, Germany
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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Affiliation as printed
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK
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California Institute of Technology
Affiliation as printed
Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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