ABOVE: FLICKR, LIZ WEST
A new study casts doubt on the utility of combining neuroimaging and genetics in hopes of understanding the genetic underpinnings of cognition. The researchers report today (September 30) in the Journal of Neuroscience that they were unable to reproduce the results of an influential 2012 study in the same journal that showed an association between genetic variants and brain function as shown on an fMRI during a reading test. In analyzing and replicating the experiment, the team noted several characteristics common to neuroimaging and genetics studies that they say could be responsible for the false-positive result.
“There was a belief that we could find out why different brains work in different ways by running basically the same MRI studies we always did, but now also taking a saliva sample to examine the genetic variation in the people being studied,” Julia Uddén, a psychologist at Stockholm University ...
