Test-retest reliability of FreeSurfer measures of neurodegeneration.
Overview
- Department of Radiology and Psychiatry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 660 First Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 145 East 32nd Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Neurology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 145 East 32nd Street, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, NYU School of Global Public Health, 708 Broadway, New York, NY 10003, USA
- Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 550 First Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
- Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 550 First Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Abstract
Reliable structural brain measurements are essential for studying neurodegeneration and for designing adequately powered aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. We evaluated the test–retest reliability of FreeSurfer 7.1 morphometric measures in 100 older adults (mean age 73.5 years) ranging from cognitively unimpaired to dementia. Each participant underwent two T1-weighted 3T MRI scans on the same scanner within a short interval (mean 5.5 weeks), minimizing biological change. Segmentation was performed in both standard cross-sectional and longitudinal FreeSurfer modes, focusing on AD-relevant volumes of entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, lateral ventricles, choroid plexus, and the AD cortical thickness signature. Reliability was quantified using absolute and root-mean-square test–retest differences, standard deviation of differences, and intraclass correlation coefficients. Longitudinal processing improved precision by 15–50% across most measures compared with cross-sectional processing, with the largest gain observed for entorhinal thickness. Larger, anatomically well-defined regions (e.g., hippocampus, AD signature) demonstrated higher reliability than small structures or those with complex geometry (e.g., entorhinal cortex, choroid plexus). Image quality, indexed by the Euler characteristic, was the only factor significantly associated with measurement variability; reliability was unrelated to age, sex, cognitive status, inter-scan interval, or amyloid/
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
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Data and code availability statement
The data used in this study contain sensitive human participant information and cannot be made publicly available due to institutional ethical restrictions and participant privacy protections. De-identified data may be made available to qualified researchers upon reasonable request and completion of a data use agreement.
Analysis code used in this study is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.
Versions
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Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record
Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, pages, dates, 12 authors, 10 MeSH terms, 3 funders, 35 references.
Cite
This paper
Rusinek, H., Bokacheva, L., Chen, H., Masurkar, A., Osorio, R., Betensky, R., Vedvyas, A., Chodosh, J., Shao, Y., Shepherd, T., Marsh, K., & Wisniewski, T. (2026). Test-retest reliability of FreeSurfer measures of neurodegeneration. NeuroImage, 333, 121920. https://
BibTeX
@article{rusinek2026test
author = {Rusinek, Henry and Bokacheva, Louisa and Chen, Haiyun and Masurkar, Arjun and Osorio, Ricardo and Betensky, Rebecca and Vedvyas, Alok and Chodosh, Joshua and Shao, Yongzhao and Shepherd, Timothy and Marsh, Karyn and Wisniewski, Thomas},
title = {{Test-retest reliability of FreeSurfer measures of neurodegeneration}},
journal = {NeuroImage},
year = {2026},
month = apr,
volume = {333},
pages = {121920},
publisher = {Elsevier BV},
issn = {1053-8119},
doi = {10.1016/
url = {https://
pmid = {41966233},
pmcid = {PMC13293555}
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
AU - Rusinek, Henry
AU - Bokacheva, Louisa
AU - Chen, Haiyun
AU - Masurkar, Arjun
AU - Osorio, Ricardo
AU - Betensky, Rebecca
AU - Vedvyas, Alok
AU - Chodosh, Joshua
AU - Shao, Yongzhao
AU - Shepherd, Timothy
AU - Marsh, Karyn
AU - Wisniewski, Thomas
TI - Test-retest reliability of FreeSurfer measures of neurodegeneration
T2 - NeuroImage
J2 - Neuroimage
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/
VL - 333
SP - 121920
SN - 1053-8119
PB - Elsevier BV
DO - 10.1016/
UR - https://
LA - en
ER -
CSL-JSON
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