Lessons from a catalogue of 6674 brain recordings

Elife. 2022 Jun 15:11:e66388. doi: 10.7554/eLife.66388.

Abstract

It is now possible for scientists to publicly catalogue all the data they have ever collected on one phenomenon. For a decade, we have been measuring a brain response to visual symmetry called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN). Here we report how we have made a total of 6674 individual SPNs from 2215 participants publicly available, along with data extraction and visualization tools (https://osf.io/2sncj/). We also report how re-analysis of the SPN catalogue has shed light on aspects of the scientific process, such as statistical power and publication bias, and revealed new scientific insights.

Keywords: big data; extrastriate cortex; human; meta-research; neuroscience; replication crisis; sustained posterior negativity; symmetry perception.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Brain* / physiology
  • Electroencephalography*
  • Humans

Grants and funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.