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Peer-reviewedCC BYCommunications Biology

Replicability of multivariate brain-behaviour associations depends on clinical profile

  • Michelle Wang1
  • Brent C. McPherson1
  • Bratislav Misic1
  • Franco Pestilli2
  • Celia M. T. Greenwood3
  • Jean-Baptiste Poline1
  1. 1McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), McGill University
  2. 2Department of Psychology, Department of Neuroscience, Center for Perceptual Systems, Center for Learning and Memory, The University of Texas
  3. 3Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, McGill University
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Abstract

Recent work suggests that thousands of individuals are required in multivariate brain-behaviour analyses to obtain consistently replicable results. Some believe, however, that smaller sample sizes may be sufficient if specific subpopulations are targeted. We investigate how sample size and cohort composition influence the replicability of Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) results using the UK Biobank (N = 40,514). We apply CCA to diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) phenotypes and cognitive assessment test scores. We define four participant cohorts based on clinical profile and find that, across all cohorts, sample sizes of ≈500 are needed to obtain replicable canonical correlations and variable loadings. The most targeted cohort (comprising individuals with a history of psychoactive substance use) requires much fewer samples to achieve similar or greater correlations than the other cohorts. Our findings support the idea that moderate sample sizes from targeted cohorts can be sufficient for obtaining replicable brain-behaviour associations.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{wang2026replicability,
  title = {{Replicability of multivariate brain-behaviour associations depends on clinical profile}},
  author = {Michelle Wang and Brent C. McPherson and Bratislav Misic and Franco Pestilli and Celia M. T. Greenwood and Jean-Baptiste Poline},
  journal = {Communications Biology},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1038/s42003-026-10364-z},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10364-z},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Replicability of multivariate brain-behaviour associations depends on clinical profile
AU  - Michelle Wang
AU  - Brent C. McPherson
AU  - Bratislav Misic
AU  - Franco Pestilli
AU  - Celia M. T. Greenwood
AU  - Jean-Baptiste Poline
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/01
JO  - Communications Biology
DO  - 10.1038/s42003-026-10364-z
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-10364-z
AB  - Recent work suggests that thousands of individuals are required in multivariate brain-behaviour analyses to obtain consistently replicable results. Some believe, however, that smaller sample sizes may be sufficient if specific subpopulations are targeted. We investigate how sample size and cohort composition influence the replicability of Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) results using the UK Biobank (N = 40,514). We apply CCA to diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) phenotypes and cognitive assessment test scores. We define four participant cohorts based on clinical profile and find that, across all cohorts, sample sizes of ≈500 are needed to obtain replicable canonical correlations and variable loadings. The most targeted cohort (comprising individuals with a history of psychoactive substance use) requires much fewer samples to achieve similar or greater correlations than the other cohorts. Our findings support the idea that moderate sample sizes from targeted cohorts can be sufficient for obtaining replicable brain-behaviour associations.
SN  - 2399-3642
ER  -