Better together: A systematic review of studies combining Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Ecological Momentary Assessment

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) are two powerful methods to study psychological processes that have become increasingly popular in the last two decades. Though each method is valuable in its own right, their complementary strengths have the potential to further advance our understanding of typical and atypical human behavior. Despite the increase in the number of studies that combine these methods over the last decade, there are no existing recommendations for best practices or norms for conducting and reporting the findings from these types of studies. To address the absence of such standards in the field, we conducted a systematic review of papers that combine these methods. A systematic search of peer-reviewed papers using Google Scholar resulted in a pool of 11,558 articles. Inclusion criteria were 1) data-based study in which 2) participants completed (a) Structural or functional MRI and (b) an EMA protocol that included self-report. Seventy-one papers met inclusion criteria. The following review compares these studies based on several key parameters (e.g., population age and type, type of MRI scans and EMA assessments, sample size) with the aim of determining feasibility and current standards for design and reporting in the field. The review concludes with recommendations for future research guidelines. A special focus is given to the ways in which the two methods are combined on an analytical level and suggestions for novel computational methods that could further advance the field.