Hi FS,
I want to conduct a within-subjects longitudinal analysis, I thought I would be able to run a LME model in QDEC but this doesn't seem to be the case at all, is this correct? It seems I have to do everything using Matlab (big sigh).

https://surfer.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/fswiki/LinearMixedEffectsModels

I have already preprocessed the data: 1) cross for all time points, 2) base, and then 3) long according to the awesome tutorial provided by FS.

I have only one group, a patient population that was scanned prior to (bseline) and at various time points (3 time points post) following treatment. Would you agree that the best analytical approach for me would be the LME model, especially since I have a few subjects with a couple of missing post-treatment time points?

Is there any way you would recommend another approach using QDEC?

Lastly, I have done everything in FS version 5.1, I'm considering upgrading to 5.3, since my freeview software seems to be out of date. It also seems that the Matlab tools I need to run LME are only available in FS version 5.2. At this point a little concerned since I'm hoping I didn't waste a bunch of time just realizing all this now, would upgrading to 5.3 negatively impact all the work I've done thus far using version 5.1?

Thanks for the help!!