Decoding The Information Patterns In Auditory Imagery And Perception Based On FMRI

Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that mental imagery and perception share similar neural representations;however,there is still a lack of information regarding the underlying neural correlation between these two modalities.In particular,it is unclear whether this correlation differs among individuals according to the vividness of imagery.In the present study,participants were divided into groups based on the Clarity of Auditory Imagery Scale.Univariate analysis was used to assess individual differences in f MRI responses between modalities.Additionally,multi-voxel pattern analysis with a support vector machine classifier was implemented for both groups to decode environmental sounds in auditory imagery from corresponding perceptual data and vice versa.Significant above-chance accuracies revealed similar underlying neural representation between the modalities in all overlapping regions.Both univariate and multivariate analyses suggested distinct performance between high-and low-vividness imagery groups in the right anterior superior temporal gyrus and inferior frontal sulcus as well as the left posterior superior temporal gyrus,precentral cortex and presupplementary motor area.These results confirm the neural similarity between auditory imagery and perception reported by previous studies and further suggest this similarity could be affected by individual differences in the vividness of auditory imagery.On the other hand,the processing of simple sounds in auditory system is different from that of auditory scene.Generally,auditory scene consists of several categories of sounds.However,it remains questions that if there is neural similarity between the complex auditory scene and the simple sound,especially in imagery modality.The MVPA was used to perform the cross decoding between auditory scene data and sound data,identifying the regions where the auditory scene and simple sound probably share the similar neural representation.The present study could contribute to the revelation of the neural mechanism of auditory imagery and perception,and further has signification for the auditory simulation by computerized algorithm.