New template for the pre-registration of fMRI studies available
The analysis of fMRI data is complex and requires many decisions on the way. Beyond formulating hypotheses regarding the outcomes of the study, a multitude of decisions regarding the design of the study and preprocessing of data have to be made. In turn, seemingly subtle, procedural and data analytical details may have a huge impact on the results*,**. Consequently, writing a preregistration in which analytical decisions are fixed prior to data analysis is not an easy task for a fMRI study .
Aiming to facilitate pre-registrations in the field of fMRI, the MPI CBS Open Science Initiative, Jessica Flannery and Remi Gau and several other researchers have combined their efforts and experience to provide you with a detailed pre-registration template for your next fMRI study. This template is now available on PreReg as Google Doc.
*Lonsdorf, T. B., Menz, M. M., Andreatta, M., Fullana, M. A., Golkar, A., Haaker, J., ... & Merz, C. J. (2017). Don’t fear ‘fear conditioning’: Methodological considerations for the design and analysis of studies on human fear acquisition, extinction, and return of fear. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 77, 247-285.
**Botvinik-Nezer, R., Holzmeister, F., Camerer, C.F. et al. Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams. Nature 582, 84–88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2314-9