ArticleNeuroImage2020
Keep it real: rethinking the primacy of experimental control in cognitive neuroscience.
Article in NeuroImage, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 174 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
174 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The science of story characters: a neuroimaging perspective on antagonists in narrative engagement.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Naturalistic assessments across the lifespan: Systematic review of inhibition measures in ecological settings.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of mobile brain/body imaging studies using the P300 event-related potentials to investigate cognition beyond the laboratory.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Neuroscience meets behavior: A systematic literature review on magnetic resonance imaging of the brain combined with real-world digital phenotyping.Human brain mapping · 2024Pooled it
- Review
- From seeing to showing: towards a neuroscience of emotion production.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2026Review
- Peer-guided movie neurofeedback to facilitate recovery in opioid use disorder.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Preferred visual experiences provide intuitive descriptions of the functional properties of the cortical navigation network.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- From Traditional Tasks to Hyperscanning: Exploratory Evidence for Selective Modulation of Sensorimotor Neurodynamics Using Time-Resolved Generalized Additive Model Analysis.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Stable tendencies in spontaneous working memory usage during flexible behaviour.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Computational Counterfactuals Reveal Non-Additive Audiovisual Semantics in Natural Movie Responses.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A portable solution for simultaneous human movement and mobile EEG acquisition: readiness potential for basketball free-throw shooting.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Frontal cortex organization supporting audiovisual processing during naturalistic viewing.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Gaze and gait dynamics are shaped by terrain type during urban walking.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Brain states recur across diverse narrative contexts during longitudinal viewing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cross-atlas Identification of Narrative Hubs via Multi-embedding Graph Models in fMRI Data.Neuroinformatics · 2026Article
- Divergent neural representations of space and task between physical and virtual navigation in macaques.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Rethinking category-selectivity in human visual cortex.Cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Text embedding models yield detailed conceptual knowledge maps derived from short multiple-choice quizzes.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Pregistered movie-fMRI analyses reveal altered visual feature encoding in autism in pSTS.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
114 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Naturalistic experimental paradigms in neuroimaging arose from a pressure to test the validity of models we derive from highly-controlled experiments in real-world contexts. In many cases, however, such efforts led to the realization that models developed under particular experimental manipulations failed to capture much variance outside the context of that manipulation. The critique of non-naturalistic experiments is not a recent development; it echoes a persistent and subversive thread in the history of modern psychology. The brain has evolved to guide behavior in a multidimensional world with many interacting variables. The assumption that artificially decoupling and manipulating these variables will lead to a satisfactory understanding of the brain may be untenable. We develop an argument for the primacy of naturalistic paradigms, and point to recent developments in machine learning as an example of the transformative power of relinquishing control. Naturalistic paradigms should not be deployed as an afterthought if we hope to build models of brain and behavior that extend beyond the laboratory into the real world.
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Registered trials
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.