Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28782682›Full record

ReviewNeuroImage2018

Deconstructing multivariate decoding for the study of brain function.

Martin N Hebart, Chris I Baker

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in NeuroImage, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 145 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
145citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

145 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
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  15. EEG neurosubtyping of infants predicts language trajectories.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025
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  18. Largely Intact But Less Reliable and Distributed Neural Representations of Subjective Value in Human Opioid Addiction.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025
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85 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Martin N HebartSection on Learning and Plasticity, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. Electronic address: martin.hebart@nih.gov.
Chris I BakerSection on Learning and Plasticity, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

Funding

Object, face, body and scene representations in the human brainZIAMH002909 · NIMH · NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH · PI BAKER, CHRIS · 2009 to 2025
$25.5M
Object, face and body representations in the human brainZ01MH002909 · NIMH · NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH · PI BAKER, CHRISTOPHER · 2008 to 2008
$1.1M
Intramural NIH HHS Z01 MH002909Intramural NIH HHS ZIA MH002909
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Multivariate decoding methods were developed originally as tools to enable accurate predictions in real-world applications. The realization that these methods can also be employed to study brain function has led to their widespread adoption in the neurosciences. However, prior to the rise of multivariate decoding, the study of brain function was firmly embedded in a statistical philosophy grounded on univariate methods of data analysis. In this way, multivariate decoding for brain interpretation grew out of two established frameworks: multivariate decoding for predictions in real-world applications, and classical univariate analysis based on the study and interpretation of brain activation. We argue that this led to two confusions, one reflecting a mixture of multivariate decoding for prediction or interpretation, and the other a mixture of the conceptual and statistical philosophies underlying multivariate decoding and classical univariate analysis. Here we attempt to systematically disambiguate multivariate decoding for the study of brain function from the frameworks it grew out of. After elaborating these confusions and their consequences, we describe six, often unappreciated, differences between classical univariate analysis and multivariate decoding. We then focus on how the common interpretation of what is signal and noise changes in multivariate decoding. Finally, we use four examples to illustrate where these confusions may impact the interpretation of neuroimaging data. We conclude with a discussion of potential strategies to help resolve these confusions in interpreting multivariate decoding results, including the potential departure from multivariate decoding methods for the study of brain function.

Indexed as

Multivariate AnalysisBrainBrain MappingHumansImage Processing, Computer-AssistedDecodingEncodingfMRIMultivariate analysisMultivariate decodingMultivariate pattern analysisPrediction

Identifiers

PMID28782682
PMCPMC5797513

What OpenQuestion holds

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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.