修稿,答复审稿人的问题,求教

各位老师,大家好,我的一篇文章大修,是研究基因型与疾病关系的。

我首先用VBM,做了基因型与组间(正常/患病)的方差分析,得到有两个cluster存在交互作用,然后用这两个cluster做全脑的FC,再做FC的方差分析

审稿人除了指出样本和效应量的问题以外,还提出“Is there a bias for picking up ROI seeds correlated with GENE and then evaluating the relationship between GENE with the FC connected to these seed ROIs?'

不知道审稿人的这个问题怎么回答合适?多谢指教!

There is no circulation as the first step only identifies the cluster with gray matter differences. There is no functional information (especially connectivity with other brain regions) was used.