Summary statistics for laboratory data should be interpreted carefully in view of the variation between time windows and the numbers of patients with available data.
We calculated Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between various time windows of exposure and highly correlated variables that is, correlation coefficients > 0.80 were combined into one variable; this was the case only for use of solvent during the preconception and pregnancy periods combined into prenatal period.
This score was not confounded by any general trend over time, making comparisons of TMS effects between time windows possible.
The correlation between the different time windows of NOx exposure was very high (>0.9), which is why results for the different time windows cannot be distinguished, and only the results for the first trimester NOx are reported.
Although there were only 29 patients, the data analysis for each patient was based on a large number of observations; for each patient, recordings between 1,022 and 12,388 6-s time windows of good quality were available for analysis (median 7,416 6-s time windows; Table 3).
The time course of ERF differences between conditions was assessed using a priori time windows of interest: 85 115 ms, 115 150 ms, 150 200 ms, 200 500 ms, and 500 700 ms. The first time window (85 115 ms) was motivated by aforementioned animal findings [6, 7]; 150–200 ms, 200 500 ms, and 500 700 ms were chosen based on novelty effects reported in humans [2 5].
Time windows of development for connections between brain regions influence the topology of cortical connectivity.
Kaiser and Hilgetag (Kaiser and Hilgetag 2007) and Nisbach and Kaiser (Nisbach and Kaiser 2007) showed that overlapping time windows of development could generate clusters in brain networks by having more connections between neurons with overlapping time windows of network development.
Between the time window of 150 and 200 ms, task type had a significant effect in mean amplitude [ F 2,30) = 7.451, p < 0.05].
This suggests no statistically significant topography differences between the earliest time window of both experiments.
