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Yang G, Jiang J. Cost-benefit Tradeoff Mediates the Rule- to Memory-based Processing Transition during Practice. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.02.13.580214. [PMID: 38405946 PMCID: PMC10888779 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.13.580214] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Practice not only improves task performance, but also changes task execution from rule- to memory-based processing by incorporating experiences from practice. However, how and when this change occurs is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that strategy transition in task learning results from cost-benefit analysis. Participants learned two task sequences and were then queried about the task type at a cued sequence and position. Behavioral improvement with practice can be accounted for by a computational model implementing cost-benefit analysis. Model-predicted strategy transition points are related to behavioral slowing and changes in fMRI activation patterns in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Strategy transition is also related to increased pattern separation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The cost-benefit analysis model outperforms alternative models (e.g., both strategies racing for being expressed in behavior) in accounting for empirical data. These findings support cost-benefit analysis as a mechanism of practice-induced strategy shift.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guochun Yang
- Cognitive Control Collaborative, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
| | - Jiefeng Jiang
- Cognitive Control Collaborative, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA
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2
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Tiemann JKS, Szczuka M, Bouarroudj L, Oussaren M, Garcia S, Howard RJ, Delemotte L, Lindahl E, Baaden M, Lindorff-Larsen K, Chavent M, Poulain P. MDverse: Shedding Light on the Dark Matter of Molecular Dynamics Simulations. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2023.05.02.538537. [PMID: 37205542 PMCID: PMC10187166 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.02.538537] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
The rise of open science and the absence of a global dedicated data repository for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has led to the accumulation of MD files in generalist data repositories, constituting the dark matter of MD - data that is technically accessible, but neither indexed, curated, or easily searchable. Leveraging an original search strategy, we found and indexed about 250,000 files and 2,000 datasets from Zenodo, Figshare and Open Science Framework. With a focus on files produced by the Gromacs MD software, we illustrate the potential offered by the mining of publicly available MD data. We identified systems with specific molecular composition and were able to characterize essential parameters of MD simulation such as temperature and simulation length, and could identify model resolution, such as all-atom and coarse-grain. Based on this analysis, we inferred metadata to propose a search engine prototype to explore the MD data. To continue in this direction, we call on the community to pursue the effort of sharing MD data, and to report and standardize metadata to reuse this valuable matter.
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3
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Revsine C, Gonzalez-Castillo J, Merriam EP, Bandettini PA, Ramírez FM. A Unifying Model for Discordant and Concordant Results in Human Neuroimaging Studies of Facial Viewpoint Selectivity. J Neurosci 2024; 44:e0296232024. [PMID: 38438256 PMCID: PMC11044116 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0296-23.2024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Revised: 02/06/2024] [Accepted: 02/15/2024] [Indexed: 03/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Recognizing faces regardless of their viewpoint is critical for social interactions. Traditional theories hold that view-selective early visual representations gradually become tolerant to viewpoint changes along the ventral visual hierarchy. Newer theories, based on single-neuron monkey electrophysiological recordings, suggest a three-stage architecture including an intermediate face-selective patch abruptly achieving invariance to mirror-symmetric face views. Human studies combining neuroimaging and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) have provided convergent evidence of view selectivity in early visual areas. However, contradictory conclusions have been reached concerning the existence in humans of a mirror-symmetric representation like that observed in macaques. We believe these contradictions arise from low-level stimulus confounds and data analysis choices. To probe for low-level confounds, we analyzed images from two face databases. Analyses of image luminance and contrast revealed biases across face views described by even polynomials-i.e., mirror-symmetric. To explain major trends across neuroimaging studies, we constructed a network model incorporating three constraints: cortical magnification, convergent feedforward projections, and interhemispheric connections. Given the identified low-level biases, we show that a gradual increase of interhemispheric connections across network-layers is sufficient to replicate view-tuning in early processing stages and mirror-symmetry in later stages. Data analysis decisions-pattern dissimilarity measure and data recentering-accounted for the inconsistent observation of mirror-symmetry across prior studies. Pattern analyses of human fMRI data (of either sex) revealed biases compatible with our model. The model provides a unifying explanation of MVPA studies of viewpoint selectivity and suggests observations of mirror-symmetry originate from ineffectively normalized signal imbalances across different face views.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cambria Revsine
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
| | - Javier Gonzalez-Castillo
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Elisha P Merriam
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Peter A Bandettini
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
- Functional MRI Core Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
| | - Fernando M Ramírez
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
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4
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Edelson MG, Hare TA. Goal-Dependent Hippocampal Representations Facilitate Self-Control. J Neurosci 2023; 43:7822-7830. [PMID: 37714706 PMCID: PMC10648530 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0951-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/12/2023] [Indexed: 09/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Hippocampal activity linking past experiences and simulations of the future with current goals can play an important role in decision-making. The representation of information within the hippocampus may be especially critical in situations where one needs to overcome past rewarding experiences and exert self-control. Self-control success or failure may depend on how information is represented in the hippocampus and how effectively the representation process can be modified to achieve a specific goal. We test this hypothesis using representational similarity analyses of human (female/male) neuroimaging data during a dietary self-control task in which individuals must overcome taste temptations to choose healthy foods. We find that self-control is indeed associated with the way individuals represent taste information (valance) in the hippocampus and how taste representations there adapt to align with different goals/contexts. Importantly, individuals who were able to shift their hippocampal representations to a larger degree to align with the current motivation were better able to exert self-control when facing a dietary challenge. These results suggest an alternative or complementary neurobiological pathway leading to self-control success and indicate the need to update the classical view of self-control to continue to advance our understanding of its behavioral and neural underpinnings.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The paper provides a new perspective on what leads to successful self-control at the behavioral and neurobiological levels. Our data suggest that self-control is enhanced when individuals adjust hippocampal processing to align with current goals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Micah G Edelson
- Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zürich, 8006, Switzerland
| | - Todd A Hare
- Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zürich, 8006, Switzerland
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5
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Sagar V, Shanahan LK, Zelano CM, Gottfried JA, Kahnt T. High-precision mapping reveals the structure of odor coding in the human brain. Nat Neurosci 2023; 26:1595-1602. [PMID: 37620443 PMCID: PMC10726579 DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01414-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/18/2023] [Indexed: 08/26/2023]
Abstract
Odor perception is inherently subjective. Previous work has shown that odorous molecules evoke distributed activity patterns in olfactory cortices, but how these patterns map on to subjective odor percepts remains unclear. In the present study, we collected neuroimaging responses to 160 odors from 3 individual subjects (18 h per subject) to probe the neural coding scheme underlying idiosyncratic odor perception. We found that activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) represents the fine-grained perceptual identity of odors over and above coarsely defined percepts, whereas this difference is less pronounced in the piriform cortex (PirC) and amygdala. Furthermore, the implementation of perceptual encoding models enabled us to predict olfactory functional magnetic resonance imaging responses to new odors, revealing that the dimensionality of the encoded perceptual spaces increases from the PirC to the OFC. Whereas encoding of lower-order dimensions generalizes across subjects, encoding of higher-order dimensions is idiosyncratic. These results provide new insights into cortical mechanisms of odor coding and suggest that subjective olfactory percepts reside in the OFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivek Sagar
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | - Christina M Zelano
- Department of Neurology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Jay A Gottfried
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Thorsten Kahnt
- National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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6
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Schütt HH, Kipnis AD, Diedrichsen J, Kriegeskorte N. Statistical inference on representational geometries. eLife 2023; 12:e82566. [PMID: 37610302 PMCID: PMC10446828 DOI: 10.7554/elife.82566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Neuroscience has recently made much progress, expanding the complexity of both neural activity measurements and brain-computational models. However, we lack robust methods for connecting theory and experiment by evaluating our new big models with our new big data. Here, we introduce new inference methods enabling researchers to evaluate and compare models based on the accuracy of their predictions of representational geometries: A good model should accurately predict the distances among the neural population representations (e.g. of a set of stimuli). Our inference methods combine novel 2-factor extensions of crossvalidation (to prevent overfitting to either subjects or conditions from inflating our estimates of model accuracy) and bootstrapping (to enable inferential model comparison with simultaneous generalization to both new subjects and new conditions). We validate the inference methods on data where the ground-truth model is known, by simulating data with deep neural networks and by resampling of calcium-imaging and functional MRI data. Results demonstrate that the methods are valid and conclusions generalize correctly. These data analysis methods are available in an open-source Python toolbox (rsatoolbox.readthedocs.io).
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Affiliation(s)
- Heiko H Schütt
- Zuckerman Institute, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
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7
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Shi L, Liu C, Peng X, Cao Y, Levy DA, Xue G. The neural representations underlying asymmetric cross-modal prediction of words. Hum Brain Mapp 2023; 44:2418-2435. [PMID: 36715307 PMCID: PMC10028649 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Cross-modal prediction serves a crucial adaptive role in the multisensory world, yet the neural mechanisms underlying this prediction are poorly understood. The present study addressed this important question by combining a novel audiovisual sequence memory task, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and multivariate neural representational analyses. Our behavioral results revealed a reliable asymmetric cross-modal predictive effect, with a stronger prediction from visual to auditory (VA) modality than auditory to visual (AV) modality. Mirroring the behavioral pattern, we found the superior parietal lobe (SPL) showed higher pattern similarity for VA than AV pairs, and the strength of the predictive coding in the SPL was positively correlated with the behavioral predictive effect in the VA condition. Representational connectivity analyses further revealed that the SPL mediated the neural pathway from the visual to the auditory cortex in the VA condition but was not involved in the auditory to visual cortex pathway in the AV condition. Direct neural pathways within the unimodal regions were found for the visual-to-visual and auditory-to-auditory predictions. Together, these results provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cross-modal sequence prediction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Shi
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Chuqi Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiaojing Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yifei Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Daniel A Levy
- Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya, Israel
| | - Gui Xue
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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8
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Revsine C, Gonzalez-Castillo J, Merriam EP, Bandettini PA, Ramírez FM. A unifying model for discordant and concordant results in human neuroimaging studies of facial viewpoint selectivity. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.02.08.527219. [PMID: 36945636 PMCID: PMC10028835 DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.08.527219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Abstract
Our ability to recognize faces regardless of viewpoint is a key property of the primate visual system. Traditional theories hold that facial viewpoint is represented by view-selective mechanisms at early visual processing stages and that representations become increasingly tolerant to viewpoint changes in higher-level visual areas. Newer theories, based on single-neuron monkey electrophysiological recordings, suggest an additional intermediate processing stage invariant to mirror-symmetric face views. Consistent with traditional theories, human studies combining neuroimaging and multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) methods have provided evidence of view-selectivity in early visual cortex. However, contradictory results have been reported in higher-level visual areas concerning the existence in humans of mirror-symmetrically tuned representations. We believe these results reflect low-level stimulus confounds and data analysis choices. To probe for low-level confounds, we analyzed images from two popular face databases. Analyses of mean image luminance and contrast revealed biases across face views described by even polynomials-i.e., mirror-symmetric. To explain major trends across human neuroimaging studies of viewpoint selectivity, we constructed a network model that incorporates three biological constraints: cortical magnification, convergent feedforward projections, and interhemispheric connections. Given the identified low-level biases, we show that a gradual increase of interhemispheric connections across network layers is sufficient to replicate findings of mirror-symmetry in high-level processing stages, as well as view-tuning in early processing stages. Data analysis decisions-pattern dissimilarity measure and data recentering-accounted for the variable observation of mirror-symmetry in late processing stages. The model provides a unifying explanation of MVPA studies of viewpoint selectivity. We also show how common analysis choices can lead to erroneous conclusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cambria Revsine
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
- Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
| | - Javier Gonzalez-Castillo
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Elisha P Merriam
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Peter A Bandettini
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
- Functional MRI Core, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
| | - Fernando M Ramírez
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
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9
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Ciarlo A, Russo AG, Ponticorvo S, Di Salle F, Lührs M, Goebel R, Esposito F. Semantic fMRI neurofeedback: A Multi-Subject Study at 3 Tesla. J Neural Eng 2022; 19. [PMID: 35561669 DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ac6f81] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Real-time fMRI neurofeedback is a non-invasive procedure allowing the self-regulation of brain functions via enhanced self-control of fMRI based neural activation. In semantic real-time fMRI neurofeedback, an estimated relation between multivariate fMRI activation patterns and abstract mental states is exploited for a multi-dimensional feedback stimulus via real-time representational similarity analysis (rt-RSA). Here, we assessed the performances of this framework in a multi-subject multi-session study on a 3T MRI clinical scanner. APPROACH Eighteen healthy volunteers underwent two semantic real-time fMRI neurofeedback sessions on two different days. In each session, participants were first requested to engage in specific mental states while local fMRI patterns of brain activity were recorded during stimulated mental imagery of concrete objects (pattern generation). The obtained neural representations were to be replicated and modulated by the participants in subsequent runs of the same session under the guidance of a rt-RSA generated visual feedback (pattern modulation). Performance indicators were derived from the rt-RSA output to assess individual abilities in replicating (and maintaining over time) a target pattern. Simulations were carried out to assess the impact of the geometric distortions implied by the low-dimensional representation of patterns' dissimilarities in the visual feedback. MAIN RESULTS Sixteen subjects successfully completed both semantic real-time fMRI neurofeedback sessions. Considering some performance indicators, a significant improvement between the first and the second runs, and within run increasing modulation performances were observed, whereas no improvements were found between sessions. Simulations confirmed that in a small percentage of cases visual feedback could be affected by metric distortions due to dimensionality reduction implicit to the rt-RSA approach. SIGNIFICANCE Our results proved the feasibility of the semantic real-time fMRI neurofeedback at 3T, showing that subjects can successfully modulate and maintain a target mental state, guided by rt-RSA derived feedback. Further development is needed to encourage future clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Assunta Ciarlo
- University of Salerno - Baronissi Campus, Via S. Allende, Baronissi, Campania, 84081, ITALY
| | | | - Sara Ponticorvo
- University of Salerno - Baronissi Campus, Via S. Allende, Baronissi, Campania, 84081, ITALY
| | - Francesco Di Salle
- Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, Scuola Medica Salernitana, University of Salerno - Baronissi Campus, Via S. Allende, Baronissi, Campania, 84081, ITALY
| | - Michael Lührs
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, Maastricht, Limburg, 6200 MD, NETHERLANDS
| | - Rainer Goebel
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Maastricht, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands, Maastricht, 6200 MD, NETHERLANDS
| | - Fabrizio Esposito
- Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli School of Medicine and Surgery, Piazza L. Miraglia, Napoli, 80138, ITALY
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10
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Kumar M, Anderson MJ, Antony JW, Baldassano C, Brooks PP, Cai MB, Chen PHC, Ellis CT, Henselman-Petrusek G, Huberdeau D, Hutchinson JB, Li YP, Lu Q, Manning JR, Mennen AC, Nastase SA, Richard H, Schapiro AC, Schuck NW, Shvartsman M, Sundaram N, Suo D, Turek JS, Turner D, Vo VA, Wallace G, Wang Y, Williams JA, Zhang H, Zhu X, Capota˘ M, Cohen JD, Hasson U, Li K, Ramadge PJ, Turk-Browne NB, Willke TL, Norman KA. BrainIAK: The Brain Imaging Analysis Kit. APERTURE NEURO 2022; 1. [PMID: 35939268 PMCID: PMC9351935 DOI: 10.52294/31bb5b68-2184-411b-8c00-a1dacb61e1da] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a rich source of data for studying the neural basis of cognition. Here, we describe the Brain Imaging Analysis Kit (BrainIAK), an open-source, free Python package that provides computationally optimized solutions to key problems in advanced fMRI analysis. A variety of techniques are presently included in BrainIAK: intersubject correlation (ISC) and intersubject functional connectivity (ISFC), functional alignment via the shared response model (SRM), full correlation matrix analysis (FCMA), a Bayesian version of representational similarity analysis (BRSA), event segmentation using hidden Markov models, topographic factor analysis (TFA), inverted encoding models (IEMs), an fMRI data simulator that uses noise characteristics from real data (fmrisim), and some emerging methods. These techniques have been optimized to leverage the efficiencies of high-performance compute (HPC) clusters, and the same code can be seamlessly transferred from a laptop to a cluster. For each of the aforementioned techniques, we describe the data analysis problem that the technique is meant to solve and how it solves that problem; we also include an example Jupyter notebook for each technique and an annotated bibliography of papers that have used and/or described that technique. In addition to the sections describing various analysis techniques in BrainIAK, we have included sections describing the future applications of BrainIAK to real-time fMRI, tutorials that we have developed and shared online to facilitate learning the techniques in BrainIAK, computational innovations in BrainIAK, and how to contribute to BrainIAK. We hope that this manuscript helps readers to understand how BrainIAK might be useful in their research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manoj Kumar
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Michael J. Anderson
- Work done while at Parallel Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
| | - James W. Antony
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | | | - Paula P. Brooks
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Ming Bo Cai
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Japan
| | - Po-Hsuan Cameron Chen
- Work done while at Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | | | | | | | | | - Y. Peeta Li
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
| | - Qihong Lu
- Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Jeremy R. Manning
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
| | - Anne C. Mennen
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Samuel A. Nastase
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Hugo Richard
- Parietal Team, Inria, Neurospin, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, France
| | - Anna C. Schapiro
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
| | - Nicolas W. Schuck
- Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Shvartsman
- Work done while at Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Narayanan Sundaram
- Work done while at Parallel Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
| | - Daniel Suo
- epartment of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Javier S. Turek
- Brain-Inspired Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
| | - David Turner
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Vy A. Vo
- Brain-Inspired Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
| | - Grant Wallace
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Yida Wang
- Work done while at Parallel Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA
| | - Jamal A. Williams
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Hejia Zhang
- Work done while at Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Xia Zhu
- Brain-Inspired Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
| | - Mihai Capota˘
- Brain-Inspired Computing Lab, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
| | - Jonathan D. Cohen
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Uri Hasson
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Kai Li
- Department of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | - Peter J. Ramadge
- Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
| | | | | | - Kenneth A. Norman
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
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11
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Koay SA, Charles AS, Thiberge SY, Brody CD, Tank DW. Sequential and efficient neural-population coding of complex task information. Neuron 2021; 110:328-349.e11. [PMID: 34776042 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.10.020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2021] [Revised: 08/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Recent work has highlighted that many types of variables are represented in each neocortical area. How can these many neural representations be organized together without interference and coherently maintained/updated through time? We recorded from excitatory neural populations in posterior cortices as mice performed a complex, dynamic task involving multiple interrelated variables. The neural encoding implied that highly correlated task variables were represented by less-correlated neural population modes, while pairs of neurons exhibited a spectrum of signal correlations. This finding relates to principles of efficient coding, but notably utilizes neural population modes as the encoding unit and suggests partial whitening of task-specific information where different variables are represented with different signal-to-noise levels. Remarkably, this encoding function was multiplexed with sequential neural dynamics yet reliably followed changes in task-variable correlations throughout the trial. We suggest that neural circuits can implement time-dependent encodings in a simple way using random sequential dynamics as a temporal scaffold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sue Ann Koay
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
| | - Adam S Charles
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Stephan Y Thiberge
- Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
| | - Carlos D Brody
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
| | - David W Tank
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Bezos Center for Neural Circuit Dynamics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA; Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
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12
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Ritchie JB, Lee Masson H, Bracci S, Op de Beeck HP. The unreliable influence of multivariate noise normalization on the reliability of neural dissimilarity. Neuroimage 2021; 245:118686. [PMID: 34728244 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118686] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2021] [Revised: 10/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Representational similarity analysis (RSA) is a key element in the multivariate pattern analysis toolkit. The central construct of the method is the representational dissimilarity matrix (RDM), which can be generated for datasets from different modalities (neuroimaging, behavior, and computational models) and directly correlated in order to evaluate their second-order similarity. Given the inherent noisiness of neuroimaging signals it is important to evaluate the reliability of neuroimaging RDMs in order to determine whether these comparisons are meaningful. Recently, multivariate noise normalization (NNM) has been proposed as a widely applicable method for boosting signal estimates for RSA, regardless of choice of dissimilarity metrics, based on evidence that the analysis improves the within-subject reliability of RDMs (Guggenmos et al. 2018; Walther et al. 2016). We revisited this issue with three fMRI datasets and evaluated the impact of NNM on within- and between-subject reliability and RSA effect sizes using multiple dissimilarity metrics. We also assessed its impact across regions of interest from the same dataset, its interaction with spatial smoothing, and compared it to GLMdenoise, which has also been proposed as a method that improves signal estimates for RSA (Charest et al. 2018). We found that across these tests the impact of NNM was highly variable, as also seems to be the case for other analysis choices. Overall, we suggest being conservative before adding steps and complexities to the (pre)processing pipeline for RSA.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Brendan Ritchie
- Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium.
| | - Haemy Lee Masson
- Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
| | - Stefania Bracci
- Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, Italy
| | - Hans P Op de Beeck
- Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Flemish Brabant, Belgium
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13
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Freund MC, Bugg JM, Braver TS. A Representational Similarity Analysis of Cognitive Control during Color-Word Stroop. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7388-7402. [PMID: 34162756 PMCID: PMC8412987 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2956-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2020] [Revised: 05/23/2021] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Progress in understanding the neural bases of cognitive control has been supported by the paradigmatic color-word Stroop task, in which a target response (color name) must be selected over a more automatic, yet potentially incongruent, distractor response (word). For this paradigm, models have postulated complementary coding schemes: dorsomedial frontal cortex (DMFC) is proposed to evaluate the demand for control via incongruency-related coding, whereas dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) is proposed to implement control via goal and target-related coding. Yet, mapping these theorized schemes to measured neural activity within this task has been challenging. Here, we tested for these coding schemes relatively directly, by decomposing an event-related color-word Stroop task via representational similarity analysis. Three neural coding models were fit to the similarity structure of multivoxel patterns of human fMRI activity, acquired from 65 healthy, young-adult males and females. Incongruency coding was predominant in DMFC, whereas both target and incongruency coding were present with indistinguishable strength in DLPFC. In contrast, distractor information was strongly encoded within early visual cortex. Further, these coding schemes were differentially related to behavior: individuals with stronger DLPFC (and lateral posterior parietal cortex) target coding, but weaker DMFC incongruency coding, exhibited less behavioral Stroop interference. These results highlight the utility of the representational similarity analysis framework for investigating neural mechanisms of cognitive control and point to several promising directions to extend the Stroop paradigm.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How the human brain enables cognitive control - the ability to override behavioral habits to pursue internal goals - has been a major focus of neuroscience research. This ability has been frequently investigated by using the Stroop color-word naming task. With the Stroop as a test-bed, many theories have proposed specific neuroanatomical dissociations, in which medial and lateral frontal brain regions underlie cognitive control by encoding distinct types of information. Yet providing a direct confirmation of these claims has been challenging. Here, we demonstrate that representational similarity analysis, which estimates and models the similarity structure of brain activity patterns, can successfully establish the hypothesized functional dissociations within the Stroop task. Representational similarity analysis may provide a useful approach for investigating cognitive control mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael C Freund
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Julie M Bugg
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
| | - Todd S Braver
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
- Department of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
- Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110
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14
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Sawalha J, Yousefnezhad M, Selvitella AM, Cao B, Greenshaw AJ, Greiner R. Predicting pediatric anxiety from the temporal pole using neural responses to emotional faces. Sci Rep 2021; 11:16723. [PMID: 34408203 PMCID: PMC8373898 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95987-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
A prominent cognitive aspect of anxiety is dysregulation of emotional interpretation of facial expressions, associated with neural activity from the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. We report machine learning analysis of fMRI results supporting a key role for a third area, the temporal pole (TP) for childhood anxiety in this context. This finding is based on differential fMRI responses to emotional faces (angry versus fearful faces) in children with one or more of generalized anxiety, separation anxiety, and social phobia (n = 22) compared with matched controls (n = 23). In our machine learning (Adaptive Boosting) model, the right TP distinguished anxious from control children (accuracy = 81%). Involvement of the TP as significant for neurocognitive aspects of pediatric anxiety is a novel finding worthy of further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeffrey Sawalha
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada.,Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada.,Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Alberta, Canada
| | - Muhammad Yousefnezhad
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada.,Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada.,Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Alberta, Canada
| | - Alessandro M Selvitella
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Purdue University, Fort Wayne, United States.,eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Bo Cao
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
| | | | - Russell Greiner
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada. .,Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada. .,Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii), Alberta, Canada.
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15
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Freund MC, Etzel JA, Braver TS. Neural Coding of Cognitive Control: The Representational Similarity Analysis Approach. Trends Cogn Sci 2021; 25:622-638. [PMID: 33895065 PMCID: PMC8279005 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2021.03.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2020] [Revised: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 03/18/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive control relies on distributed and potentially high-dimensional frontoparietal task representations. Yet, the classical cognitive neuroscience approach in this domain has focused on aggregating and contrasting neural measures - either via univariate or multivariate methods - along highly abstracted, 1D factors (e.g., Stroop congruency). Here, we present representational similarity analysis (RSA) as a complementary approach that can powerfully inform representational components of cognitive control theories. We review several exemplary uses of RSA in this regard. We further show that most classical paradigms, given their factorial structure, can be optimized for RSA with minimal modification. Our aim is to illustrate how RSA can be incorporated into cognitive control investigations to shed new light on old questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael C Freund
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Joset A Etzel
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Todd S Braver
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO 63130, USA; Department of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis, School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Washington University in St Louis, School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA.
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16
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Dynamics of fMRI patterns reflect sub-second activation sequences and reveal replay in human visual cortex. Nat Commun 2021; 12:1795. [PMID: 33741933 PMCID: PMC7979874 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21970-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/25/2020] [Accepted: 02/16/2021] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Neural computations are often fast and anatomically localized. Yet, investigating such computations in humans is challenging because non-invasive methods have either high temporal or spatial resolution, but not both. Of particular relevance, fast neural replay is known to occur throughout the brain in a coordinated fashion about which little is known. We develop a multivariate analysis method for functional magnetic resonance imaging that makes it possible to study sequentially activated neural patterns separated by less than 100 ms with precise spatial resolution. Human participants viewed five images individually and sequentially with speeds up to 32 ms between items. Probabilistic pattern classifiers were trained on activation patterns in visual and ventrotemporal cortex during individual image trials. Applied to sequence trials, probabilistic classifier time courses allow the detection of neural representations and their order. Order detection remains possible at speeds up to 32 ms between items (plus 100 ms per item). The frequency spectrum of the sequentiality metric distinguishes between sub- versus supra-second sequences. Importantly, applied to resting-state data our method reveals fast replay of task-related stimuli in visual cortex. This indicates that non-hippocampal replay occurs even after tasks without memory requirements and shows that our method can be used to detect such spontaneously occurring replay.
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17
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Yousefnezhad M, Sawalha J, Selvitella A, Zhang D. Deep Representational Similarity Learning for Analyzing Neural Signatures in Task-based fMRI Dataset. Neuroinformatics 2020; 19:417-431. [PMID: 33057876 DOI: 10.1007/s12021-020-09494-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/21/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Similarity analysis is one of the crucial steps in most fMRI studies. Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) can measure similarities of neural signatures generated by different cognitive states. This paper develops Deep Representational Similarity Learning (DRSL), a deep extension of RSA that is appropriate for analyzing similarities between various cognitive tasks in fMRI datasets with a large number of subjects, and high-dimensionality - such as whole-brain images. Unlike the previous methods, DRSL is not limited by a linear transformation or a restricted fixed nonlinear kernel function - such as Gaussian kernel. DRSL utilizes a multi-layer neural network for mapping neural responses to linear space, where this network can implement a customized nonlinear transformation for each subject separately. Furthermore, utilizing a gradient-based optimization in DRSL can significantly reduce runtime of analysis on large datasets because it uses a batch of samples in each iteration rather than all neural responses to find an optimal solution. Empirical studies on multi-subject fMRI datasets with various tasks - including visual stimuli, decision making, flavor, and working memory - confirm that the proposed method achieves superior performance to other state-of-the-art RSA algorithms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhammad Yousefnezhad
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China.,Department of Computing Science and The Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2R3, AB, Canada
| | - Jeffrey Sawalha
- Department of Computing Science and The Department of Psychiatry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, T6G 2R3, AB, Canada
| | - Alessandro Selvitella
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Purdue University Fort Wayne, 2101 E Coliseum Blvd, Fort Wayne, IN, 46805, USA
| | - Daoqiang Zhang
- College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China.
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18
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Wang WC, Hsieh LT, Swamy G, Bunge SA. Transient Neural Activation of Abstract Relations on an Incidental Analogy Task. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 33:77-88. [PMID: 32812826 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Although a large proportion of the lexicon consists of abstract concepts, little is known about how they are represented by the brain. Here, we investigated how the mind represents relations shared between sets of mental representations that are superficially unrelated, such as car-engine and dog-tongue, but that nonetheless share a more general, abstract relation, such as whole-part. Participants saw a pair of words on each trial and were asked to indicate whether they could think of a relation between them. Importantly, they were not explicitly asked whether different word pairs shared the same relation, as in analogical reasoning tasks. We observed representational similarity for abstract relations in regions in the "conceptual hub" network, even when controlling for semantic relatedness between word pairs. By contrast, we did not observe representational similarity in regions previously implicated in explicit analogical reasoning. A given relation was sometimes repeated across sequential word pairs, allowing us to test for behavioral and neural priming of abstract relations. Indeed, we observed faster RTs and greater representational similarity for primed than unprimed trials, suggesting that mental representations of abstract relations are transiently activated on this incidental analogy task. Finally, we found a significant correlation between behavioral and neural priming across participants. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate relational priming using functional neuroimaging and to show that neural representations are strengthened by relational priming. This research shows how abstract concepts can be brought to mind momentarily, even when not required for task performance.
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19
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Chen G, Taylor PA, Qu X, Molfese PJ, Bandettini PA, Cox RW, Finn ES. Untangling the relatedness among correlations, part III: Inter-subject correlation analysis through Bayesian multilevel modeling for naturalistic scanning. Neuroimage 2020; 216:116474. [PMID: 31884057 PMCID: PMC7299750 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116474] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2019] [Revised: 12/06/2019] [Accepted: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
While inter-subject correlation (ISC) analysis is a powerful tool for naturalistic scanning data, drawing appropriate statistical inferences is difficult due to the daunting task of accounting for the intricate relatedness in data structure as well as handling the multiple testing issue. Although the linear mixed-effects (LME) modeling approach (Chen et al., 2017a) is capable of capturing the relatedness in the data and incorporating explanatory variables, there are a few challenging issues: 1) it is difficult to assign accurate degrees of freedom for each testing statistic, 2) multiple testing correction is potentially over-penalizing due to model inefficiency, and 3) thresholding necessitates arbitrary dichotomous decisions. Here we propose a Bayesian multilevel (BML) framework for ISC data analysis that integrates all regions of interest into one model. By loosely constraining the regions through a weakly informative prior, BML dissolves multiplicity through conservatively pooling the effect of each region toward the center and improves collective fitting and overall model performance. In addition to potentially achieving a higher inference efficiency, BML improves spatial specificity and easily allows the investigator to adopt a philosophy of full results reporting. A dataset of naturalistic scanning is utilized to illustrate the modeling approach with 268 parcels and to showcase the modeling capability, flexibility and advantages in results reporting. The associated program will be available as part of the AFNI suite for general use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang Chen
- Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, USA.
| | - Paul A Taylor
- Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
| | - Xianggui Qu
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Oakland University, USA
| | - Peter J Molfese
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
| | - Peter A Bandettini
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
| | - Robert W Cox
- Scientific and Statistical Computing Core, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
| | - Emily S Finn
- Section on Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, USA
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20
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Cai MB, Shvartsman M, Wu A, Zhang H, Zhu X. Incorporating structured assumptions with probabilistic graphical models in fMRI data analysis. Neuropsychologia 2020; 144:107500. [PMID: 32433952 PMCID: PMC7387580 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2019] [Revised: 05/09/2020] [Accepted: 05/15/2020] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
With the wide adoption of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) by cognitive neuroscience researchers, large volumes of brain imaging data have been accumulated in recent years. Aggregating these data to derive scientific insights often faces the challenge that fMRI data are high-dimensional, heterogeneous across people, and noisy. These challenges demand the development of computational tools that are tailored both for the neuroscience questions and for the properties of the data. We review a few recently developed algorithms in various domains of fMRI research: fMRI in naturalistic tasks, analyzing full-brain functional connectivity, pattern classification, inferring representational similarity and modeling structured residuals. These algorithms all tackle the challenges in fMRI similarly: they start by making clear statements of assumptions about neural data and existing domain knowledge, incorporate those assumptions and domain knowledge into probabilistic graphical models, and use those models to estimate properties of interest or latent structures in the data. Such approaches can avoid erroneous findings, reduce the impact of noise, better utilize known properties of the data, and better aggregate data across groups of subjects. With these successful cases, we advocate wider adoption of explicit model construction in cognitive neuroscience. Although we focus on fMRI, the principle illustrated here is generally applicable to brain data of other modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Bo Cai
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), UTIAS, The University of Tokyo, Japan; Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, United States.
| | | | - Anqi Wu
- Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, United States
| | - Hejia Zhang
- Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, United States
| | - Xia Zhu
- Intel Corporation, United States
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21
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Weaverdyck ME, Lieberman MD, Parkinson C. Tools of the Trade Multivoxel pattern analysis in fMRI: a practical introduction for social and affective neuroscientists. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2020; 15:487-509. [PMID: 32364607 PMCID: PMC7308652 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2019] [Revised: 04/08/2020] [Accepted: 04/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
The family of neuroimaging analytical techniques known as multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) has dramatically increased in popularity over the past decade, particularly in social and affective neuroscience research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). MVPA examines patterns of neural responses, rather than analyzing single voxel- or region-based values, as is customary in conventional univariate analyses. Here, we provide a practical introduction to MVPA and its most popular variants (namely, representational similarity analysis (RSA) and decoding analyses, such as classification using machine learning) for social and affective neuroscientists of all levels, particularly those new to such methods. We discuss how MVPA differs from traditional mass-univariate analyses, the benefits MVPA offers to social neuroscientists, experimental design and analysis considerations, step-by-step instructions for how to implement specific analyses in one's own dataset and issues that are currently facing research using MVPA methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miriam E Weaverdyck
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Matthew D Lieberman
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Carolyn Parkinson
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
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22
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Ramírez FM, Revsine C, Merriam EP. What do across-subject analyses really tell us about neural coding? Neuropsychologia 2020; 143:107489. [PMID: 32437761 PMCID: PMC8596303 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2019] [Revised: 04/27/2020] [Accepted: 05/04/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
A key challenge in human neuroscience is to gain information about patterns of neural activity using indirect measures. Multivariate pattern analysis methods testing for generalization of information across subjects have been used to support inferences regarding neural coding. One critical assumption of an important class of such methods is that anatomical normalization is suited to align spatially-structured neural patterns across individual brains. We asked whether anatomical normalization is suited for this purpose. If not, what sources of information are such across-subject cross-validated analyses likely to reveal? To investigate these questions, we implemented two-layered feedforward randomly-connected networks. A key feature of these simulations was a gain-field with a spatial structure shared across networks. To investigate whether total-signal imbalances across conditions-e.g. differences in overall activity-affect the observed pattern of results, we manipulated the energy-profile of images conforming to a pre-specified correlation structure. To investigate whether the level of granularity of the data also influences results, we manipulated the density of connections between network layers. Simulations showed that anatomical normalization is unsuited to align neural representations. Pattern similarity-relationships were explained by the observed total-signal imbalances across conditions. Further, we observed that deceptively complex representational structures emerge from arbitrary analysis choices, such as whether the data are mean-subtracted during preprocessing. These simulations also led to testable predictions regarding the distribution of low-level features in images used in recent fMRI studies that relied on leave-one-subject-out pattern analyses. Image analyses broadly confirmed these predictions. Finally, hyperalignment emerged as a principled alternative to test across-subject generalization of spatially-structured information. We illustrate cases in which hyperalignment proved successful, as well as cases in which it only partially recovered the latent correlation structure in the pattern of responses. Our results highlight the need for robust, high-resolution measurements from individual subjects. We also offer a way forward for across-subject analyses. We suggest ways to inform hyperalignment results with estimates of the strength of the signal associated with each condition. Such information can usefully constrain ensuing inferences regarding latent representational structures as well as population tuning dimensions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fernando M Ramírez
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Building 10, Rm 4C118, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1366, USA.
| | - Cambria Revsine
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Building 10, Rm 4C118, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1366, USA
| | - Elisha P Merriam
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Building 10, Rm 4C118, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1366, USA
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23
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Jiang J, Wang SF, Guo W, Fernandez C, Wagner AD. Prefrontal reinstatement of contextual task demand is predicted by separable hippocampal patterns. Nat Commun 2020; 11:2053. [PMID: 32345979 PMCID: PMC7188806 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15928-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2019] [Accepted: 04/01/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Goal-directed behavior requires the representation of a task-set that defines the task-relevance of stimuli and guides stimulus-action mappings. Past experience provides one source of knowledge about likely task demands in the present, with learning enabling future predictions about anticipated demands. We examine whether spatial contexts serve to cue retrieval of associated task demands (e.g., context A and B probabilistically cue retrieval of task demands X and Y, respectively), and the role of the hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) in mediating such retrieval. Using 3D virtual environments, we induce context-task demand probabilistic associations and find that learned associations affect goal-directed behavior. Concurrent fMRI data reveal that, upon entering a context, differences between hippocampal representations of contexts (i.e., neural pattern separability) predict proactive retrieval of the probabilistically dominant associated task demand, which is reinstated in dlPFC. These findings reveal how hippocampal-prefrontal interactions support memory-guided cognitive control and adaptive behavior. Spatial contexts are often predictive of the tasks to be performed in them (e.g., a kitchen predicts cooking). Here the authors show that the retrieval of task demand when encountering a spatial context depends on hippocampal-prefrontal interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiefeng Jiang
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
| | - Shao-Fang Wang
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Wanjia Guo
- Psychology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97401, USA
| | - Corey Fernandez
- Neuroscience Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Anthony D Wagner
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.,Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
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24
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Koch C, Li SC, Polk TA, Schuck NW. Effects of aging on encoding of walking direction in the human brain. Neuropsychologia 2020; 141:107379. [PMID: 32088219 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2019] [Revised: 01/20/2020] [Accepted: 02/04/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Human aging is characterized by impaired spatial cognition and reductions in the distinctiveness of category-specific fMRI activation patterns. Yet, little is known about age-related decline in neural distinctiveness of information that humans use when navigating spatial environments. Here, we asked whether neural tuning functions of walking direction are broadened in older versus younger adults. To test this idea, we developed a novel method that allowed us to investigate changes in fMRI-measured pattern similarity while participants navigated in different directions in a virtual spatial navigation task. We expected that directional tuning functions would be broader in older adults, and thus activation patterns that reflect neighboring directions would be less distinct as compared to non-adjacent directions. Because loss of distinctiveness leads to more confusions when information is read out by downstream areas, we analyzed predictions of a decoder trained on directional fMRI patterns and asked (1) whether decoder confusions between two directions increase proportionally to their angular similarity, (2) and how this effect may differ between age groups. Evidence for tuning-function-like signals was found in the retrosplenial complex and early visual cortex, reflecting the primarily visual nature of directional information in our task. Significant age differences in tuning width, however, were only found in early visual cortex, suggesting that less precise visual information could lead to worse directional signals in older adults. At the same time, only directional information encoded in RSC, but not visual cortex, correlated with memory on task. These results shed new light on neural mechanisms underlying age-related spatial navigation impairments and introduce a novel approach to measure tuning specificity using fMRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Koch
- Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany.
| | - Shu-Chen Li
- Faculty of Psychology, Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany; Centre for tactile internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany
| | - Thad A Polk
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Nicolas W Schuck
- Max Planck Research Group NeuroCode, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany; Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Aging Research, Berlin, Germany, and London, United Kingdom
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25
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Ellis CT, Baldassano C, Schapiro AC, Cai MB, Cohen JD. Facilitating open-science with realistic fMRI simulation: validation and application. PeerJ 2020; 8:e8564. [PMID: 32117629 PMCID: PMC7035870 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.8564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2019] [Accepted: 01/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
With advances in methods for collecting and analyzing fMRI data, there is a concurrent need to understand how to reliably evaluate and optimally use these methods. Simulations of fMRI data can aid in both the evaluation of complex designs and the analysis of data. We present fmrisim, a new Python package for standardized, realistic simulation of fMRI data. This package is part of BrainIAK: a recently released open-source Python toolbox for advanced neuroimaging analyses. We describe how to use fmrisim to extract noise properties from real fMRI data and then create a synthetic dataset with matched noise properties and a user-specified signal. We validate the noise generated by fmrisim to show that it can approximate the noise properties of real data. We further show how fmrisim can help researchers find the optimal design in terms of power. The fmrisim package holds promise for improving the design of fMRI experiments, which may facilitate both the pre-registration of such experiments as well as the analysis of fMRI data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron T. Ellis
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States of America
| | | | - Anna C. Schapiro
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Ming Bo Cai
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States of America
| | - Jonathan D. Cohen
- Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States of America
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Sprague TC, Boynton GM, Serences JT. The Importance of Considering Model Choices When Interpreting Results in Computational Neuroimaging. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0196-19.2019. [PMID: 31772033 PMCID: PMC6924997 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0196-19.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Model-based analyses open exciting opportunities for understanding neural information processing. In a commentary published in eNeuro, Gardner and Liu (2019) discuss the role of model specification in interpreting results derived from complex models of neural data. As a case study, they suggest that one such analysis, the inverted encoding model (IEM), should not be used to assay properties of "stimulus representations" because the ability to apply linear transformations at various stages of the analysis procedure renders results "arbitrary." Here, we argue that the specification of all models is arbitrary to the extent that an experimenter makes choices based on current knowledge of the model system. However, the results derived from any given model, such as the reconstructed channel response profiles obtained from an IEM analysis, are uniquely defined and are arbitrary only in the sense that changes in the model can predictably change results. IEM-based channel response profiles should therefore not be considered arbitrary when the model is clearly specified and guided by our best understanding of neural population representations in the brain regions being analyzed. Intuitions derived from this case study are important to consider when interpreting results from all model-based analyses, which are similarly contingent upon the specification of the models used.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas C Sprague
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9660
| | - Geoffrey M Boynton
- Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525
| | - John T Serences
- Department of Psychology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
- Neurosciences Graduate Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109
- Kavli Foundation for the Brain and Mind, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0126
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Friston KJ, Diedrichsen J, Holmes E, Zeidman P. Variational representational similarity analysis. Neuroimage 2019; 201:115986. [PMID: 31255808 PMCID: PMC6892264 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.06.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2018] [Revised: 06/24/2019] [Accepted: 06/27/2019] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
This technical note describes a variational or Bayesian implementation of representational similarity analysis (RSA) and pattern component modelling (PCM). It considers RSA and PCM as Bayesian model comparison procedures that assess the evidence for stimulus or condition-specific patterns of responses distributed over voxels or channels. On this view, one can use standard variational inference procedures to quantify the contributions of particular patterns to the data, by evaluating second-order parameters or hyperparameters. Crucially, this allows one to use parametric empirical Bayes (PEB) to infer which patterns are consistent among subjects. At the between-subject level, one can then assess the evidence for different (combinations of) hypotheses about condition-specific effects using Bayesian model comparison. Alternatively, one can select a single hypothesis that best explains the pattern of responses using Bayesian model selection. This note rehearses the technical aspects of within and between-subject RSA using a worked example, as implemented in the Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software. En route, we highlight the connection between univariate and multivariate analyses of neuroimaging data and the sorts of analyses that are possible using component modelling and representational similarity analysis. We introduce variational RSA, a method for multivariate analysis in neuroimaging. This treats RSA a standard covariance component estimation problem. An efficient estimation scheme, variational Laplace, is used to estimate parameters. Bayesian model comparison is used to optimally test for mixtures of effects. We illustrate the approach using simulated and empirical fMRI data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karl J Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, WC1N 3AR, UK.
| | - Jörn Diedrichsen
- Brain and Mind Institute, Department for Statistical and Actuarial Sciences, Department for Computer Science, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
| | - Emma Holmes
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, WC1N 3AR, UK.
| | - Peter Zeidman
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, WC1N 3AR, UK.
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