Computational NeuroscienceResearch articleBayesian reconstruction of multiscale local contrast images from brain activity

- A new contrast decoding method based on ICA and Naive Bayesian methods was proposed.
- The modified method can decode contrast efficiently.
- The reconstruction accuracy of visual stimuli is far above the level of chance.

BackgroundRecent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques make it possible to reconstruct contrast-defined visual images from brain activity. In this manner, the stimulus images are represented as the weighted sum of a set of element images with different scales. The contrast weight of local images were decoded using fMRI activity recorded when the subject was viewing the stimulus images. Multivariate methods, such as the sparse multinomial logistic regression model (SMLR), have been proven effective for learning the mapping between fMRI patterns of primary visual cortex voxels and contrast of stimulus images. However, the SMLR method is highly time-consuming in practical application.New methodThe Naive Bayesian classifier based on independent component analysis (NB-ICA) is proposed to efficiently decode the contrast of multi-scale local images. First, temporal independent components of fMRI data which were treated as new features for NB classifier were acquired by ICA decomposition. Second, the contrast for each local element image was computed based on NB estimation theory.ResultsNB-ICA method can be used to reconstruct novel visual images. The average spatial correlation between the represented and reconstructed images was 0.41 ± 0.13 (p < 0.001).Comparison with existing method(s)At the expense of reconstruction accuracy, NB-ICA is more efficient than SMLR which reduces the computation time from hours to seconds.ConclusionsA new method, termed NB-ICA, is proposed and can efficiently reconstruct contrast-defined visual images from fMRI data. This study provides theoretical support for brain-computer interface research and also provides ideas for the study of real-time fMRI data.