Freesurfer Support,

I'd like to create a design matrix for a group analysis outside of the DODS and DOSS models. I understand that in order to do this the -X flag must be used. However, I have been unable to find examples of how to do this.

I am hoping to reveal a difference in thickness or gyrification amongst a clinical population. The data set contains two factors: diagnosis, and study site and one covariate: age. Diagnosis has two levels: controls, and patients. Study site has four levels, one level for each location the data has been collected from.

What I would ideally like to do is:

1) Take into account offset differences amongst diagnosis and study site.

2) Allowing a difference in age slope amongst the diagnosis levels

3) Modeling the age slope as the same for the study site levels

My FSGD file is designed as follows

Class SITE 1-Control   
Class SITE 1-PATIENT
Class SITE 2-Control   
Class SITE 2-PATIENT
Class SITE 3-Control   
Class SITE 3-PATIENT
Class SITE 4-Control   
Class SITE 4-PATIENT
Variables age_at_scan

study site levels = 1,2,3 and 4
diagnosis levels = PATIENT and Control
age_at_scan = covariate age

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Respectfully,

Tim

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Timothy Hendrickson
Department of Psychiatry
University of Minnesota
Mobile: 507-259-3434 (texts okay)