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Comment
. 2010 Jun 9;30(23):7755-7.
doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1560-10.2010.

Variability in brain activity as an individual difference measure in neuroscience?

Peter N C Mohr  1 , Irene E Nagel
Affiliations
Comment

Variability in brain activity as an individual difference measure in neuroscience?

Peter N C Mohr et al. J Neurosci. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Comparison of variability measures for a simulated hemodynamic response. Variability can be measured by both the SD and the MSSD. While the SD often largely overestimates the true temporal variability, the MSSD is usually a good approximation of the true temporal variability. A, The simulated signal of the hemodynamic response (here in red) varies around the expected (mean) signal (here in black). B, The true temporal variability of the simulated signal in A can be described as the SD of the difference between the simulated signal and the expected (mean) signal [SD(sim − exp), size indicated by the purple arrow]. As the expected (mean) signal is unobservable, it is impossible to compute the true temporal variability of the simulated signal around it. The SD of the simulated signal [SD(sim), size indicated by the blue arrow] is based on the difference between the simulated signal and the overall mean (dashed line in A). The SD of the simulated signal therefore largely overestimates the true temporal variability and is insensitive to changes in the expected (mean) signal. The MSSD of the simulated signal (size indicated by the green arrow), in contrast, is based on differences of successive observations of the simulated signal. It therefore takes changes in the expected (mean) signal into account and better approximates the true temporal variability of the signal.
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