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Dear Meg,

2. When SPM prompts you "FWE", "FDR", and "none", choose "none" and try
0.001 (or 0.01, 0.005 etc). If you choose "FWE" p<0.05, then SPM uses an
FWE-corrected threshold at the VOXEL-LEVEL, which is often creates
spurious results on cluster p-values. The corrected cluster p-values are
FWE corrected, even if you choose "none", or an uncorrected threshold.
Cluster p-values are adaptive, meaning that they are adjusted for the
threshold chosen by the user.

I'm not clear on exactly what is being said here.  Say i choose "none"
and set my level to 0.001.  You say that the "cluster p-values are FWE
corrected even if I choose "none" ?  Is that true?  Does this mean I
don't need to do any further corrections?

 

You are correct. The three options SPM gives, "FWE", "FDR", and "none"
(or uncorrected) only apply to voxel-level p-values. Although the
threshold you choose is taken into account, cluster p-values are
calculated differently from voxel-level p-values. So the "Corrected"
p-values for the cluster-level in your SPM output are already corrected
for FWE, if you are doing PET, SPECT, or fMRI analyses. In VBM, cluster
p-values need an additional correction, as I noted in my email earlier. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Satoru