Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders, The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 310015, Zhejiang, China; Institutes of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, Zhejiang, China; Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, Hangzhou 311121, Zhejiang, China.
Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA; Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Neuroscience. 2022 Jun 15;493:109-118. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.02.016. Epub 2022 May 12.
Characterizing the functional involvement of specific brain regions has long been a central challenge in cognitive neuroscience. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques have offered solutions for mapping functional neural networks. The complex nature of structure-function correspondence makes an elaborate task design difficult to fully capture higher-order cognitive function. Other research practices, such as brain-behavior association or between-group comparisons, are thus widely used to explore cognitive correlations with specific brain regions. However, interpreting the results derived from a specific brain region with their underlying cognitive functions has been too general in publications. Here, we use two examples, i.e., a brain-intelligence correlation study and a depression-control comparison meta-study, to demonstrate use of two neuroimaging online databases, BrainMap and Neurosynth. One key utility of the two databases is collecting results from massive cognitive task-based fMRI (tb-fMRI) studies, i.e., coordinates in standard brain space. Just like looking up a "coordinate-based cognition dictionary", researchers can receive a plethora of related tb-fMRI activation information characterized by cognitive domains, specific cognitive functions, cognitive task paradigms, and related publications. Surprisingly, we found that only less than 1% of brain-behavior association or between-group comparison studies have utilized this dictionary approach. We encourage the community to further engage with the existing databases for specific and comprehensive interpretation of neuroimaging as well as guidance of future experimental tb-fMRI design.
长期以来，描述特定脑区的功能作用一直是认知神经科学的核心挑战。功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 技术为绘制功能神经网络提供了解决方案。结构-功能对应关系的复杂性使得精细的任务设计难以充分捕捉高阶认知功能。因此，其他研究方法，如脑-行为关联或组间比较，被广泛用于探索与特定脑区相关的认知相关性。然而，在出版物中，从特定脑区解释其潜在认知功能的结果过于笼统。在这里，我们使用两个例子，即脑-智力相关性研究和抑郁控制比较元研究，来演示两个神经影像学在线数据库，即 BrainMap 和 Neurosynth 的使用。这两个数据库的一个关键用途是收集来自大规模认知任务 fMRI (tb-fMRI) 研究的结果，即标准脑空间中的坐标。就像查阅“基于坐标的认知词典”一样，研究人员可以收到大量相关的 tb-fMRI 激活信息，这些信息由认知领域、特定认知功能、认知任务范式和相关出版物来描述。令人惊讶的是，我们发现只有不到 1%的脑-行为关联或组间比较研究使用了这种词典方法。我们鼓励研究人员进一步利用现有的数据库，以对神经影像学进行具体和全面的解释，并为未来的实验性 tb-fMRI 设计提供指导。
