Spectral Pattern Similarity Analysis: Tutorial and Application in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Verena R. Sommer ◽  
Luzie Mount ◽  
Sarah Weigelt ◽  
Markus Werkle-Bergner ◽  
Myriam C. Sander
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Similarity Analysis ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Developmental Studies ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Spectral Pattern ◽  
Pattern Similarity ◽  
Spectral Frequency ◽  
The Stability

The human brain encodes information in neural activation patterns. While standard approaches to analyzing neural data focus on brain (de-)activation (e.g., regarding the location, timing, or magnitude of neural responses), multivariate neural pattern similarity analyses target the informational content represented by neural activity. In adults, a number of representational properties have been identified that are linked to cognitive performance, in particular the stability, distinctiveness, and specificity of neural patterns. However, although growing cognitive abilities across childhood suggest advancements in representational quality, developmental studies still rarely utilize information-based pattern similarity approaches, especially in electroencephalography (EEG) research. Here, we provide a comprehensive methodological introduction and step-by-step tutorial for pattern similarity analysis of spectral (frequency-resolved) EEG data including a publicly available pipeline and sample dataset with data from children and adults. We discuss computation of single-subject pattern similarities and their statistical comparison at the within-person to the between-group level as well as the illustration and interpretation of the results. This tutorial targets both novice and more experienced EEG researchers and aims to facilitate the usage of spectral pattern similarity analyses, making these methodologies more readily accessible for (developmental) cognitive neuroscientists.

scholarly journals Reliability of single-subject neural activation patterns in speech production tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 104881
Author(s):  
Saul A. Frankford ◽  
Alfonso Nieto-Castañón ◽  
Jason A. Tourville ◽  
Frank H. Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Activation Patterns

scholarly journals Making Cognitive Latent Variables Manifest: Distinct Neural Networks for Fluid Reasoning and Processing Speed

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1249-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Habeck ◽  
Jason Steffener ◽  
Daniel Barulli ◽  
Yunglin Gazes ◽  
Qolamreza Razlighi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Fluid Reasoning

Cognitive psychologists posit several specific cognitive abilities that are measured with sets of cognitive tasks. Tasks that purportedly tap a specific underlying cognitive ability are strongly correlated with one another, whereas performances on tasks that tap different cognitive abilities are less strongly correlated. For these reasons, latent variables are often considered optimal for describing individual differences in cognitive abilities. Although latent variables cannot be directly observed, all cognitive tasks representing a specific latent ability should have a common neural underpinning. Here, we show that cognitive tasks representing one ability (i.e., either perceptual speed or fluid reasoning) had a neural activation pattern distinct from that of tasks in the other ability. One hundred six participants between the ages of 20 and 77 years were imaged in an fMRI scanner while performing six cognitive tasks, three representing each cognitive ability. Consistent with prior research, behavioral performance on these six tasks clustered into the two abilities based on their patterns of individual differences and tasks postulated to represent one ability showed higher similarity across individuals than tasks postulated to represent a different ability. This finding was extended in the current report to the spatial resemblance of the task-related activation patterns: The topographic similarity of the mean activation maps for tasks postulated to reflect the same reference ability was higher than for tasks postulated to reflect a different reference ability. Furthermore, for any task pairing, behavioral and topographic similarities of underlying activation patterns are strongly linked. These findings suggest that differences in the strengths of correlations between various cognitive tasks may be because of the degree of overlap in the neural structures that are active when the tasks are being performed. Thus, the latent variable postulated to account for correlations at a behavioral level may reflect topographic similarities in the neural activation across different brain regions.

scholarly journals Neural Pattern Similarity Unveils the Integration of Social Information and Aversive Learning

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 5410-5419
Author(s):  
Irem Undeger ◽  
Renée M Visser ◽  
Andreas Olsson
Keyword(s):  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Anterior Cingulate ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Aversive Learning ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Pattern Similarity ◽  
Making Choices ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

Abstract Attributing intentions to others’ actions is important for learning to avoid their potentially harmful consequences. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging multivariate pattern analysis to investigate how the brain integrates information about others’ intentions with the aversive outcome of their actions. In an interactive aversive learning task, participants (n = 33) were scanned while watching two alleged coparticipants (confederates)—one making choices intentionally and the other unintentionally—leading to aversive (a mild shock) or safe (no shock) outcomes to the participant. We assessed the trial-by-trial changes in participants’ neural activation patterns related to observing the coparticipants and experiencing the outcome of their choices. Participants reported a higher number of shocks, more discomfort, and more anger to shocks given by the intentional player. Intentionality enhanced responses to aversive actions in the insula, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, and the anterior superior temporal sulcus. Our findings indicate that neural pattern similarities index the integration of social and threat information across the cortex.

scholarly journals Stimulus generalization as a mechanism for learning to trust

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. E1690-E1697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oriel FeldmanHall ◽  
Joseph E. Dunsmoor ◽  
Alexa Tompary ◽  
Lindsay E. Hunter ◽  
Alexander Todorov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Trust Game ◽  
Stimulus Generalization ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Direct Knowledge ◽  
Imaging Experiment ◽  
Pattern Similarity ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

How do humans learn to trust unfamiliar others? Decisions in the absence of direct knowledge rely on our ability to generalize from past experiences and are often shaped by the degree of similarity between prior experience and novel situations. Here, we leverage a stimulus generalization framework to examine how perceptual similarity between known individuals and unfamiliar strangers shapes social learning. In a behavioral study, subjects play an iterative trust game with three partners who exhibit highly trustworthy, somewhat trustworthy, or highly untrustworthy behavior. After learning who can be trusted, subjects select new partners for a second game. Unbeknownst to subjects, each potential new partner was parametrically morphed with one of the three original players. Results reveal that subjects prefer to play with strangers who implicitly resemble the original player they previously learned was trustworthy and avoid playing with strangers resembling the untrustworthy player. These decisions to trust or distrust strangers formed a generalization gradient that converged toward baseline as perceptual similarity to the original player diminished. In a second imaging experiment we replicate these behavioral gradients and leverage multivariate pattern similarity analyses to reveal that a tuning profile of activation patterns in the amygdala selectively captures increasing perceptions of untrustworthiness. We additionally observe that within the caudate adaptive choices to trust rely on neural activation patterns similar to those elicited when learning about unrelated, but perceptually familiar, individuals. Together, these findings suggest an associative learning mechanism efficiently deploys moral information encoded from past experiences to guide future choice.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of human cognitive abilities during sleep

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Fang ◽  
Laura B. Ray ◽  
Adrian M. Owen ◽  
Stuart M. Fogel
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Verbal Abilities ◽  
Reasoning Abilities ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Function Of Sleep

ABSTRACTInter-individual differences in sleep spindles are highly correlated with “Reasoning” abilities (problem solving skills; i.e., the ability to employ logic, identify complex patterns), but not Short Term Memory or Verbal abilities. Simultaneous electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (EEG-fMRI) have revealed brain activations time-locked to spindles (e.g., thalamic, paralimbic, and motor cortical areas)–yet the functional significance of inter-individual differences in spindle-related brain activation remains to be investigated. Using EEG-fMRI during sleep, we identified, for the first time, the neural activation patterns time-locked to spindles that are correlated with cognitive abilities. Similar to previous studies, activations time-locked to spindles were observed in thalamocortical circuitry and basal ganglia regions. Importantly, spindle-related activation in a subset of these regions were specifically related to inter-individual differences in Reasoning, but not STM or Verbal abilities. These results may help elucidate the physiological mechanisms which support the function of sleep for the capacity for reasoning.

scholarly journals Reliability of single-subject neural activation patterns in speech production tasks

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul A. Frankford ◽  
Alfonso Nieto-Castañón ◽  
Jason A. Tourville ◽  
Frank H. Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Speech Production ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Speech Disorders ◽  
Single Subject ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Imaging Data ◽  
Activation Patterns

AbstractSpeech neuroimaging research targeting individual speakers could help elucidate differences that may be crucial to understanding speech disorders. However, this research necessitates reliable brain activation across multiple speech production sessions. In the present study, we evaluated the reliability of speech-related brain activity measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging data from twenty neuro-typical subjects who participated in two experiments involving reading aloud simple speech stimuli. Using traditional methods like the Dice and intraclass correlation coefficients, we found that most individuals displayed moderate to high reliability. We also found that a novel machine-learning subject classifier could identify these individuals by their speech activation patterns with 97% accuracy from among a dataset of seventy-five subjects. These results suggest that single-subject speech research would yield valid results and that investigations into the reliability of speech activation in people with speech disorders are warranted.

scholarly journals Frontoparietal pattern similarity analyses of cognitive control in monozygotic twins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongxiang Tang ◽  
Joset A. Etzel ◽  
Alexander Kizhner ◽  
Todd S. Braver
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Control Function ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Pattern Similarity

AbstractThe ability to flexibly adapt thoughts and actions in a goal-directed manner appears to rely on cognitive control mechanisms that are strongly impacted by individual differences. A powerful research strategy for investigating the nature of individual variation is to study monozygotic (identical) twins. Clear evidence of twin similarity effects have been observed in prior behavioral and neuroimaging studies, yet within the domain of cognitive control, the specificity and neural underpinnings of this similarity remains elusive. Here, we utilize a multi-task, within-subjects event-related neuroimaging design (with fMRI) to investigate twin effects through multivariate pattern similarity analyses. We focus on a set of fronto-parietal brain parcels exhibiting consistently increased activation associated with cognitive control demands across four task domains: selective attention, context processing, multi-tasking, and working memory. In these parcels, healthy young adult male and female monozygotic twin pairs had similar activation patterns, reliably in all tasks, a finding not observed in unrelated pairs. Twin activation pattern similarity effects were clearest under high control demands, were not present in a set of task-unrelated parcels, and were primarily observed during the within-trial timepoints in which the control demands peaked. Together, these results indicate that twin similarity in the neural representation of cognitive control may be domain-general but also functionally and temporally specific in relation to the level of control demand. The findings suggest a genetic and/or environmental basis for individual variation in cognitive control function, and highlight the potential of twin-based neuroimaging designs for exploring heritability questions within this domain.Significance StatementCognitive control is indispensable to human adaptability. A critical goal for basic and translational research is to discover the brain basis of the individual differences that clearly characterize this domain. Neuroimaging studies of twins enable exploration of this issue, by identifying similarity and variation in task-evoked neural activity, and testing whether such effects are domain general, but also functionally specific to cognitive control demands. Here, we provide the first evidence of twin similarity in neural activation patterns within fronto-parietal regions, which is present in multiple cognitive control tasks, and selective to peak periods of control demand. These results confirm the domain-generality of neural representations of cognitive control, and support the genetic and/or environmental basis of this source of individual variation.

Children show adult-like hippocampal pattern separation for familiar but not novel events

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Benear ◽  
Elizabeth A. Horwath ◽  
Emily Cowan ◽  
M. Catalina Camacho ◽  
Chi Ngo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Developmental Change ◽  
Pattern Separation ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Similarity Analysis ◽  
Separation Processes ◽  
Parahippocampal Cortex ◽  
Pattern Similarity

The medial temporal lobe (MTL) undergoes critical developmental change throughout childhood, which aligns with developmental changes in episodic memory. We used representational similarity analysis to compare neural pattern similarity for children and adults in hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex during naturalistic viewing of clips from the same movie or different movies. Some movies were more familiar to participants than others. Neural pattern similarity was generally lower for clips from the same movie, indicating that related content taxes pattern separation-like processes. However, children showed this effect only for movies with which they were familiar, whereas adults showed the effect consistently. These data suggest that children need more exposures to stimuli in order to show mature pattern separation processes.

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