Hello Ariadna,
as always, the answer is "it depends". The issue when comparing children vs. adults can indeed be expected to be more pronounced as you have a systematic bias between groups. If you compare children with children using an adult template, you must expect to have a systematic bias for both groups. You could argue that this therefore does not invalidate your comparison but it will be a bias nonetheless. It is up to you if you want to go there. My suggestion (not suprprisingly) would be to use a pediatric template as 8-12 year-old brains are really rather different from adults.
Cheers
Marko
> Dear SPMexperts,
>
> I am comparing groups of children within the same age range (patients versus
> controls) aged 8 to 12 and I was wondering if in this case it is necessary to
> use a pediatric template . I have read that it is specially important if we
> compare children to adults, but it is not my case. Is it necessary if we
> compare children with the same age?
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> Ariadna
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Prof. Dr. med. Marko Wilke
Facharzt für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin
Leiter, Experimentelle Pädiatrische Neurobildgebung
Oberarzt der Abteilung Neuropädiatrie
Universitäts-Kinderklinik
Marko Wilke, MD, PhD
Pediatrician
Head, Experimental Pediatric Neuroimaging
Consultant in Pediatric Neurology
University Children's Hospital
Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 1
D - 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Tel. +49 7071 29-83416
Fax +49 7071 29-5473
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http://www.medizin.uni-tuebingen.de/kinder/epn/
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