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Limits to the generalizability of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of youth: An examination of ABCD Study® baseline data

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Abstract

This study examined how resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data quality and availability relate to clinical and sociodemographic variables within the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. A sample of participants with an adequate sample of quality baseline rs-fMRI data containing low average motion (framewise displacement ≤ 0.15; low-noise; n = 4,356) was compared to a sample of participants without an adequate sample of quality data and/or containing high average motion (higher-noise; n = 7,437) using Chi-squared analyses and t-tests. A linear mixed model examined relationships between clinical and sociodemographic characteristics and average head motion in the sample with low-noise data. Relative to the sample with higher-noise data, the low-noise sample included more females, youth identified by parents as non-Hispanic white, and youth with married parents, higher parent education, and greater household incomes (ORs = 1.32–1.42). Youth in the low-noise sample were also older and had higher neurocognitive skills, lower BMIs, and fewer externalizing and neurodevelopmental problems (ds = 0.12–0.30). Within the low-noise sample, several clinical and demographic characteristics related to motion. Thus, participants with low-noise rs-fMRI data may be less representative of the general population and motion may remain a confound in this sample. Future rs-fMRI studies of youth should consider these limitations in the design and analysis stages in order to optimize the representativeness and clinical relevance of analyses and results.

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Fig. 1

Availability of data and material

All data are available through the NIMH Data Archive (NDA; https://doi.org/10.15154/1519007). The R scripts used for the present analyses are included as supplemental material.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the ABCD Study participants and their families for their commitment to the study. We would also like to thank the members of the ABCD JEDI Workgroup 3 (Responsible Use of ABCD Study Data) for their input on this paper.

Funding

Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multisite, longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 10,000 children age 9–10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study® is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, U24DA041147. A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/federal-partners.html. A listing of participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/consortium_members/. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The ABCD data used in this report came from https://doi.org/10.15154/1519007 and is associated with NDA Study https://doi.org/10.15154/1523108. Authors received additional research support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute Of Child Health & Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Institute of General Medical Sciences: F31HD103340 (KTC), F31MH122090 (TJM), R01MH123691 (RLA), P20GM121312 (RLA, MPP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 S. Yale Avenue, Tulsa, OK, 74136, USA

    Kelly T. Cosgrove, Timothy J. McDermott, Evan J. White, Martin P. Paulus & Robin L. Aupperle

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Dr., Tulsa, OK, 74104, USA

    Kelly T. Cosgrove & Timothy J. McDermott

  3. Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, University of Kansas, 1450 Jayhawk Blvd., Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA

    Matthew W. Mosconi

  4. Division of Biostatistics and Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Wesley K. Thompson

  5. School of Community Medicine, University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Dr., Tulsa, OK, 74104, USA

    Martin P. Paulus & Robin L. Aupperle

  6. Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, 2001 N Soto St, Los Angeles, CA, 90032, USA

    Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez

Authors
  1. Kelly T. Cosgrove
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  2. Timothy J. McDermott
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  3. Evan J. White
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  5. Wesley K. Thompson
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  6. Martin P. Paulus
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  7. Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez
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  8. Robin L. Aupperle
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Contributions

Author contributions included conception (KTC, TJM, and RLA), statistical analysis (KTC, WKT, and RLA), interpretation of results (KTC, TJM, EJW, MWM, CCI, and RLA), drafting and revising the manuscript for submission (All authors).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robin L. Aupperle.

Ethics declarations

The ABCD Study protocol is approved by a central Institutional Review Board (cIRB) at the University of California, San Diego. Parents provided written informed consent for youth to participate in the ABCD Study. Youth also provided assent.

Conflicts of interest/Competing interest

Not applicable.

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Cosgrove, K.T., McDermott, T.J., White, E.J. et al. Limits to the generalizability of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of youth: An examination of ABCD Study® baseline data. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 1919–1925 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-022-00665-2

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