Cortical similarities in psychiatric and mood disorders identified in federated VBM analysis via COINSTAC

Structural neuroimaging studies have identified a combination of shared and disorder-specific patterns of gray matter (GM) deficits across psychiatric disorders. Pooling large data allows for examination of a possible common neuroanatomical basis that may identify a certain vulnerability for mental illness. Large-scale collaborative research is already facilitated by data repositories, institutionally supported databases, and data archives. However, these data-sharing methodologies can suffer from significant barriers. Federated approaches augment these approaches by enabling access or more sophisticated, shareable and scaled-up analyses of large-scale data. We examined GM alterations using Collaborative Informatics and Neuroimaging Suite Toolkit for Anonymous Computation, an open-source, decentralized analysis application. Through federated analysis of eight sites, we identified significant overlap in the GM patterns (n = 4,102) of individuals with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. These results show cortical and subcortical regions that may indicate a shared vulnerability to psychiatric disorders.