Hi, 

We are hoping to carry out a meta-analysis including studies that use both voxel- and surface-based morphometry. Is is possible to include studies that use surface-based techniques within the SDM framework? Apologies, I am new to this using only functional studies previously.
Many thanks
Jack

Hi Jack,

very good question. I think that it should be possible to include findings from surface-based morphometry into SDM. However, note that the mask should only include the cortical gray matter, or more specifically the gray matter analyzed in surface-based morphometry software. This is indeed similar to the adaptation we did for TBSS studies. Please contact me directly if you want specific help with it.

With the best wishes,

Joaquim

Originally posted by Joaquim Radua: Hi professor,

I have a question on the surface based morphometry, that is how should I deal with the vertex in the surface based morphometry study? VBM studies used voxel and SDM shows the meta-analysis results with voxels. But if I applied SDM on the surface based morphometry studies, it surely will show the voxel results. Can I just transfer the voxel number to vertex number equally?Will this method influence the results and reliability? Hope you can give me some advice.

Best wishes,

Robert

Dear Robert,

as you say, SDM only deals with voxels. However, you can use external tools such as mri_surf2vol / mri_vol2surf from FreeSurfer to resample surface into volume and viceversa. Remember to specify or transform to the correct stereotactic space (e.g. MNI), and that the SDM mask should only include the gray matter analyzed in the surface-based morphometry software!

With the best wishes,

Joaquim