Network-based statistic: Identifying differences in brain networks

Abstract

Large-scale functional or structural brain connectivity can be modeled as a network, or graph. This paper presents a statistical approach to identify connections in such a graph that may be associated with a diagnostic status in case-control studies, changing psychological contexts in task-based studies, or correlations with various cognitive and behavioral measures. The new approach, called the network-based statistic (NBS), is a method to control the family-wise error rate (in the weak sense) when mass-univariate testing is performed at every connection comprising the graph. To potentially offer a substantial gain in power, the NBS exploits the extent to which the connections comprising th..