Desiderata of evidence for representation in neuroscience
arxiv(2024)
摘要
This paper develops a systematic framework for the evidence neuroscientists
use to establish whether a neural response represents a feature. Researchers
try to establish that the neural response is (1) sensitive and (2) specific to
the feature, (3) invariant to other features, and (4) functional, which means
that it is used downstream in the brain. We formalize these desiderata in
information-theoretic terms. This formalism allows us to precisely state the
desiderata while unifying the different analysis methods used in neuroscience
under one framework. We discuss how common methods such as correlational
analyses, decoding and encoding models, representational similarity analysis,
and tests of statistical dependence are used to evaluate the desiderata. In
doing so, we provide a common terminology to researchers that helps to clarify
disagreements, to compare and integrate results across studies and research
groups, and to identify when evidence might be missing and when evidence for
some representational conclusion is strong. We illustrate the framework with
several canonical examples, including the representation of orientation,
numerosity, faces, and spatial location. We end by discussing how the framework
can be extended to cover models of the neural code, multi-stage models, and
other domains.
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