B0866
Title: Individualized spatial topography in functional neuroimaging
Authors: Martin Lindquist - Johns Hopkins University (United States) [presenting]
Abstract: Neuroimaging is poised to take a substantial leap forward in understanding the neurophysiological underpinnings of human behavior, due to a combination of improved analytic techniques and data quality. These advances are allowing researchers to develop population-level multivariate models of the functional brain representations underlying behavior, performance, clinical status and prognosis. These models can identify patterns of brain activity, or signatures, that can predict behavior and decode mental states in new individuals, producing generalizable knowledge and highly reproducible maps. However, their potential is limited by neuroanatomical constraints, in particular individual variation in functional brain anatomy. To circumvent this problem, current models are either applied only to individual participants, severely limiting generalizability or forcing participants' data into anatomical reference spaces that do not respect individual functional boundaries. This shortcoming is overcome by developing new models for inter-subject alignment, which register participants' functional brain maps to one another. This increases effective spatial resolution and allows explicitly analyzing the spatial topography of functional maps making inferences on differences in activation location and shape across persons and psychological states. Several approaches towards functional alignment are discussed and promises and pitfalls are highlighted.
