title: fMRI-based Multivariate Pattern Analyses Reveal Imagery Modality and Imagery Content Specific Representations in Primary Somatosensory, Motor and Auditory Cortices.
abstract: Previous studies have shown that the early visual cortex contains content-specific representations of stimuli during visual imagery, and that these representational patterns of imagery content have a perceptual basis. To date, there is little evidence for the presence of a similar organization in the auditory and tactile domains. Using fMRI-based multivariate pattern analyses we showed that primary somatosensory, auditory, motor, and visual cortices are discriminative for imagery of touch versus sound. In the somatosensory, motor and visual cortices the imagery modality discriminative patterns were similar to perception modality discriminative patterns, suggesting that top-down modulations in these regions rely on similar neural representations as bottom-up perceptual processes. Moreover, we found evidence for content-specific representations of the stimuli during auditory imagery in the primary somatosensory and primary motor cortices. Both the imagined emotions and the imagined identities of the auditory stimuli could be successfully classified in these regions.
authors.affiliation: Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg 6200 MD, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Aline W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: de Borst
authors.affiliation: Brain and Emotion Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg 6200 MD, the Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa.
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Gelder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012938:Social Perception; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D055698:Touch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: MVPA; auditory cortex; decoding; mental imagery; somatosensory cortex