Statistics for Neurodummies I. On the meaning of the p-value in t-test and ANOVA: sampling, bias, and estimation.

Many Neurobiologists dislike Statistics, and many more are disheartened by the underlying Mathematics. Too few properly apply the most commonly used tests in Neurobiology, the t-test and ANOVA. And too few understand the meaning of the p-value, the probability we calculate to determine if an experiment “worked”. Truth be told, most statisticians speak what seems to us biologist an obscure, arcane language that we do not know how to translate into our own research.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to dedicate this Commentary to the memory of my dear Agora Highschool Math teacher, Eugenio Rodrigo, who taught me to love Mathematics. I am deeply grateful for enriching discussions to Eva Benito, Luis Miguel García-Segura, Carlos Matute, students of the Achucarro Introductory course on Statistics for Neurobiologists, and researchers of the Sierra lab, who inspired this article. This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (https://www.ciencia.gob.es/) with FEDER funds to A.S. (RTI2018-099267-B-I00) and a Tatiana Foundation project (P-048-FTPGB 2018).