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Dear FS experts,
I have longitudinal data:
Three time-points [T1-T3] with an interval of about 6 months between T1 and T2 and 6 months between T2 and T3 from a control group as well as from a clinical group (again three time-points [T1-T3] with an interval of about 6 months between T1 and T2 and 6 months between T2 and T3).
Sample sizes are: - For control group: 48 (for T1), 36 (for T2) and 33 (for T3) - For clinical group: 38 (for T1), 33 (for T2) and 31 (for T3)
I was wondering if it's fine to consider and combine three time-points within each group as independent samples for classification purposes (i.e., N = 117 (48+36+33) for the control group and N = 102 (38+33+31) for clinical group) between the two groups (based on brain morphometry measures). If so, I was wondering whether the recon-all should be done in the longitudinal way ( https://secure-web.cisco.com/17EJvCDRair_uWYfmRy5gjgpT3fQihw2Qeo96vmyp96h9ni...) i.e., making it unbiased towards a specific time-point, OR, the recon all should be run cross-sectionally so that we can keep all the time-points independent from each other.
Any detailed explanation/justification would be really helpful. Also, I would greatly appreciate the response at earliest convenience.
Thanks, M