May the power be with you: are there highly powered studies in neuroscience, and how can we get more of them?

Abstract

Statistical power is essential for robust science and replicability, but a meta-analysis by Button et al. in 2013 diagnosed a “power failure” for neuroscience. In contrast, Nord et al. ( J Neurosci 37: 8051–8061, 2017) reanalyzed these data and suggested that some studies feature high power. We illustrate how publication and researcher bias might have inflated power estimates, and review recently introduced techniques that can improve analysis pipelines and increase power in neuroscience studies.