Department of Psychiatry, Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Cereb Cortex. 2019 Feb 1;29(2):863-874. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy290.
In this article, we propose a method to track trial-specific neural dynamics of stimulus processing and decision making with high temporal precision. By applying this novel method to a perceptual template-matching task, we tracked representational brain states associated with the cascade of neural processing, from early sensory areas to higher order areas that are involved in integration and decision making. We address a major limitation of the traditional decoding approach: that it relies on consistent timing of these processes over trials. Using a TUDA approach, we found that the timing of the cognitive processes involved in perceptual judgments can vary considerably over trials. This revealed that the sequence of processing states was consistent for all subjects and trials, even when the timing of these states varied. Furthermore, we found that the specific timing of states on each trial was related to the quality of performance over trials. Altogether, this work not only highlights the serious pitfalls and misleading interpretations that result from assuming stimulus processing to be synchronous across trials but can also open important avenues to investigate learning and quantify plasticity.
在本文中，我们提出了一种方法，可以以高时间精度跟踪试验特异性的神经动力学刺激处理和决策。通过将这种新方法应用于感知模板匹配任务，我们跟踪了与神经处理级联相关的代表性大脑状态，从早期感觉区域到参与整合和决策的更高阶区域。我们解决了传统解码方法的一个主要限制：它依赖于这些过程在试验中的一致时间。使用 TUDA 方法，我们发现感知判断中涉及的认知过程的时间在试验中会有很大的变化。这表明，即使这些状态的时间不同，处理状态的序列对于所有受试者和试验都是一致的。此外，我们发现每个试验中状态的特定时间与试验中的性能质量有关。总之，这项工作不仅强调了假设刺激处理在试验中是同步的会导致严重的陷阱和误导性解释，而且还可以开辟重要途径来研究学习和量化可塑性。
