1. Introduction to normative modelling

COEX 

10 Minutes introduction and agenda
We will take 10 minutes for introductions.

20 Minutes introduction to normative modeling
Normative modeling is an emerging methodology for comprehending variation within populations. Much like growth charts used in pediatric medicine to chart the distribution of children's height or weight with respect to their age and sex, normative models are key in modeling the distribution of neuroimaging-derived traits within a population. These models primarily focus on establishing the mean and centiles of variation (Marquand et al., 2019) across different parameters like age, gender, or other demographic and clinical variables (Marquand et al., 2016a). Individual deviations from the normative range are captured through deviation or Z-scores, which can then be correlated with various psychiatric disorders.

This tutorial aims to provide students with a first understanding of normative modeling using various Jupyter notebooks. Firstly, participants will be constructing normative models from scratch using open source neuroimaging datasets. Following this, the tutorial will demonstrate the practical usage of pre-existing normative models to assess and compute deviation scores using their own datasets. Lastly, the tutorial will show methods to interpret and visualize the outcomes derived from the normative modelling framework, providing a deeper understanding of the deviation or z-scores per participant.

Stats:
(Duration: 30min; Presenter: Charlotte Fraza; Format: Jupyter notebooks in follow along format; Programming language: Python; Libraries and Toolboxes: PCNToolkit and various standard python libraries; Degree of interactivity: 100% )

Relevant papers:
Fraza, Charlotte J., et al. ‘Warped Bayesian Linear Regression for Normative Modelling of Big Data’. NeuroImage, vol. 245, Dec. 2021, p. 118715. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118715.
Marquand, Andre F., Seyed Mostafa Kia, et al. ‘Conceptualizing Mental Disorders as Deviations from Normative Functioning’. Molecular Psychiatry, vol. 24, no. 10, 2019, pp. 1415–24. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-019-0441-1.
Marquand, Andre F., Iead Rezek, et al. ‘Understanding Heterogeneity in Clinical Cohorts Using Normative Models: Beyond Case-Control Studies’. Biological Psychiatry, vol. 80, no. 7,