Just Above Chance: Is It Harder to Decode Information From Prefrontal Cortex 
Hemodynamic Activity Patterns?

Bhandari, A; Gagne, C; Badre, D

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01291

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Just Above Chance: Is It Harder to Decode Information From Prefrontal Cortex Hemodynamic Activity Patterns?

MPS-Authors

There are no MPG-Authors in the publication available

External Resource

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/jocn_a_01291
(Publisher version)

Fulltext (restricted access)

There are currently no full texts shared for your IP range.

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PuRe

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Bhandari, A., Gagne, C., & Badre, D. (2018). Just Above Chance: Is It Harder to Decode Information From Prefrontal Cortex Hemodynamic Activity Patterns? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30(10), 1473-1498. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01291.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0006-83EE-A

Abstract

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is central to flexible, goal-directed cognition, and understanding its representational code is an important problem in cognitive neuroscience. In humans, multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) of fMRI blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) measurements has emerged as an important approach for studying neural representations. Many previous studies have implicitly assumed that MVPA of fMRI BOLD is just as effective in decoding information encoded in PFC neural activity as it is in visual cortex. However, MVPA studies of PFC have had mixed success. Here we estimate the base rate of decoding information from PFC BOLD activity patterns from a meta-analysis of published MVPA studies. We show that PFC has a significantly lower base rate (55.4%) than visual areas in occipital (66.6%) and temporal (71.0%) cortices and one that is close to chance levels. Our results have implications for the design and interpretation of MVPA studies of PFC and raise important questions about its functional organization.