Variability may limit the translation of neuroimaging findings Comment on “Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams”

Abstract fMRI data analysis from different research teams on the same data set makes the scientific findings of similar studies using fMRI less persuasive. We want to comment that this reproductivity issue is largely caused by the hypothesis testing paradigm, which can be mitigated by a machine learning based predictive modeling approach. Furthermore, such an approach also opens new possibilities in detecting subtle spatial patterns across the brain and in estimating more useful individual effects in neurology and psychiatry.