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How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition? Simultaneously Predicting Brain and Behavior With a Dynamic Model of Visual Working Memory Aaron T. Buss University of Tennessee, Knoxville Vincent A. Magnotta University of Iowa Will Penny University of East Anglia Gregor Schöner Ruhr University Theodore J. Huppert University of Pittsburgh John P. Spencer University of East Anglia There is consensus that activation within distributed functional brain networks underlies human thought. The impact of this consensus is limited, however, by a gap that exists between data-driven correlational analyses that specify where functional brain activity is localized using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and neural process accounts that specify how neural activity unfolds through time to give rise to behavior. Here, we show how an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach may bridge this gap. In an exemplary study of visual working memory, we use multilevel Bayesian statistics to demonstrate that a neural dynamic model simultaneously explains behavioral data and predicts localized patterns of brain activity, outperforming standard analytic approaches to fMRI. The model explains performance on both correct trials and incorrect trials where errors in change detection emerge from neural fluctuations amplified by neural interaction. Critically, predictions of the model run counter to cognitive theories of the origin of errors in change detection. Results reveal neural patterns predicted by the model within regions of the dorsal attention network that have been the focus of much debate. The model-based analysis suggests that key areas in the dorsal attention network such as the intraparietal sulcus play a central role in change detection rather than working memory maintenance, counter to previous interpretations of fMRI studies. More generally, the integrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here establishes a framework for directly testing theories of cognitive and brain function using the combined power of behavioral and fMRI data. Keywords: visual working memory, change detection, fMRI, dynamic field theory Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000264.supp Although great strides have been made in understanding the brain using data-driven methods (Smith et al., 2009), to understand the brain’s complexity, psychological and brain sciences will need sophisticated theories (Gerstner, Sprekeler, & Deco, 2012). But what would a good theory of brain function look like? (This question was posed in a July 11, 2014 New York Times Opinion X Aaron T. Buss, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Vincent A. Magnotta, Department of Radiology, University of Iowa; X Will Penny, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia; Gregor Schöner, Institute for Neurocomputing, Ruhr University; Theodore J. Huppert, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh; John P. Spencer, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia. This work was supported by National Science Foundation BCS-1029082 awarded to John P. Spencer. John P. Spencer and Aaron T. Buss designed the experiment. Gregor Schöner and John P. Spencer provided input on hemodynamic and behavioral simulations. Theodore J. Huppert provided input on the statistical methods to compare GLMs. Will Penny developed the statistical methods for comparing GLMs. Aaron T. Buss ran the simulations and analyzed the behavioral data. Aaron T. Buss and Vincent A. Magnotta analyzed the fMRI data. Aaron T. Buss prepared the figures. Aaron T. Buss and John P. Spencer wrote the paper. John P. Spencer supervised all aspects of the work. We thank Rodica Curtu, Eliot Hazeltine, and Larissa Samuelson for helpful comments on this work. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Aaron T. Buss, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, 301C Austin Peay, Knoxville, TN 37917 or John P. Spencer, School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, 0.09 Lawrence Sten- house Building, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Psychological Review © 2020 American Psychological Association 2020, Vol. 2, No. 999, 000 ISSN: 0033-295X http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000264 1 AQ: au AQ: 1 AQ: 2 AQ: 3 tapraid5/z2q-psycho/z2q-psycho/z2q99920/z2q2654d20z xppws S1 9/24/20 11:41 Art: 2017-0719 APA NLM
Transcript
Page 1: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition SimultaneouslyPredicting Brain and Behavior With a Dynamic Model of Visual

Working Memory

Aaron T BussUniversity of Tennessee Knoxville

Vincent A MagnottaUniversity of Iowa

Will PennyUniversity of East Anglia

Gregor SchoumlnerRuhr University

Theodore J HuppertUniversity of Pittsburgh

John P SpencerUniversity of East Anglia

There is consensus that activation within distributed functional brain networks underlies human thoughtThe impact of this consensus is limited however by a gap that exists between data-driven correlationalanalyses that specify where functional brain activity is localized using functional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI) and neural process accounts that specify how neural activity unfolds through time togive rise to behavior Here we show how an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach may bridge thisgap In an exemplary study of visual working memory we use multilevel Bayesian statistics todemonstrate that a neural dynamic model simultaneously explains behavioral data and predicts localizedpatterns of brain activity outperforming standard analytic approaches to fMRI The model explainsperformance on both correct trials and incorrect trials where errors in change detection emerge fromneural fluctuations amplified by neural interaction Critically predictions of the model run counter tocognitive theories of the origin of errors in change detection Results reveal neural patterns predicted bythe model within regions of the dorsal attention network that have been the focus of much debate Themodel-based analysis suggests that key areas in the dorsal attention network such as the intraparietalsulcus play a central role in change detection rather than working memory maintenance counter toprevious interpretations of fMRI studies More generally the integrative cognitive neuroscience approachused here establishes a framework for directly testing theories of cognitive and brain function using thecombined power of behavioral and fMRI data

Keywords visual working memory change detection fMRI dynamic field theory

Supplemental materials httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000264supp

Although great strides have been made in understanding thebrain using data-driven methods (Smith et al 2009) to understandthe brainrsquos complexity psychological and brain sciences will need

sophisticated theories (Gerstner Sprekeler amp Deco 2012) Butwhat would a good theory of brain function look like (Thisquestion was posed in a July 11 2014 New York Times Opinion

X Aaron T Buss Department of Psychology University of TennesseeKnoxville Vincent A Magnotta Department of Radiology University ofIowa X Will Penny School of Psychology University of East AngliaGregor Schoumlner Institute for Neurocomputing Ruhr University TheodoreJ Huppert Department of Radiology University of Pittsburgh John PSpencer School of Psychology University of East Anglia

This work was supported by National Science Foundation BCS-1029082awarded to John P Spencer John P Spencer and Aaron T Buss designedthe experiment Gregor Schoumlner and John P Spencer provided input onhemodynamic and behavioral simulations Theodore J Huppert providedinput on the statistical methods to compare GLMs Will Penny developed

the statistical methods for comparing GLMs Aaron T Buss ran thesimulations and analyzed the behavioral data Aaron T Buss and VincentA Magnotta analyzed the fMRI data Aaron T Buss prepared the figuresAaron T Buss and John P Spencer wrote the paper John P Spencersupervised all aspects of the work We thank Rodica Curtu Eliot Hazeltineand Larissa Samuelson for helpful comments on this work

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Aaron TBuss Department of Psychology University of Tennessee-KnoxvilleKnoxville 301C Austin Peay Knoxville TN 37917 or John P SpencerSchool of Psychology University of East Anglia 009 Lawrence Sten-house Building Norwich NR4 7TJ United Kingdom E-mailabussutkedu or jspencerueaacuk

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Psychological Reviewcopy 2020 American Psychological Association 2020 Vol 2 No 999 000ISSN 0033-295X httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000264

1

AQ auAQ 1

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Page by Gary Marcus httpwwwnytimescom20140712opinionthe-trouble-with-brain-sciencehtml) Addressing this question re-quires theories that bridge the disparate scientific languages ofneuroscience and psychology we must create psychological ex-planations for behavior using neural process accounts and neuro-scientific theories of brain function that make sense of behavior Inshort bridge theories must explain what the brain is doing inreal-time to generate specific patterns of neural and behavioraldata (for related ideas see OrsquoReilly 2006)

Bridging brain and behavior may seem like a central goal in thepsychological and brain sciences however this goal has rarelybeen directly realized Many theories in psychology focus oncognitive processes with a primary goal of explaining behavioraldata (Anderson et al 2004 Bays Catalao amp Husain 2009 Bradyamp Tenenbaum 2013) Other theories focus on neural processeswith a primary goal of explaining neural data (Brunel amp Wang2001 Deco Rolls amp Horwitz 2004 Domijan 2011 Edin Ma-coveanu Olesen Tegneacuter amp Klingberg 2007 Raffone amp Wolters2001) Rarely is the same model used to generate both behavioraland neural data that is simultaneously integrating both cognitiveand neural processes (Wijeakumar Ambrose Spencer amp Curtu2016) This level of explanation is arguably the most criticalhowever because it can explain how neural processes give rise tocognition and behavior (see Palmeri Turner amp Love 2017 for aspecial issue devoted to this topic)

To illustrate consider the current state of theory within thedomain of visual working memory (VWM) VWM is centralcognitive system used to remember visual information duringshort-term delays and compare visual items that cannot be simul-taneously foveated (for a review see Luck amp Vogel 2013) Forinstance VWM is often probed in the change detection task(Cowan 2001 Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988) In this taskparticipants are shown a memory array consisting of one to eightobjects (eg colored squares) After a brief delay (eg 1 s)participants are shown a test array and asked to determine whetherall the items are the same or different Results from this task haverevealed that VWM has a highly limited capacity Although esti-mates vary across studies it is generally accepted that people canstore only two to four items in VWM at one time (Cowan 2001Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988 Rouder Morey Morey ampCowan 2011)

According to one prominent view these capacity limits reflectthe functioning of a memory system that stores a limited numberof fixed-resolution representations in independent memory ldquoslotsrdquo(Cowan 2001 Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988 Zhang ampLuck 2008) An alternative view holds that VWM is better con-ceived of as a shared resource that can be flexibly distributedamong the items making up a scene with no fixed upper limit onthe number of items that can be stored (Bays et al 2009 Bays ampHusain 2008 Wilken amp Ma 2004) There have been a host ofrecent modeling efforts designed to contrast these two perspectivesusing Bayesian approaches (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin Nosofsky Gold amp Shiffrin 2013 Kary Taylor ampDonkin 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill 2012)and efforts to expand these views using drift diffusion models(Sewell Lilburn amp Smith 2016) In all cases these studies usemathematical models to instantiate conceptual claims about VWMand test these claims at the level of behavior typically usingproportion correct although some recent papers have also exam-

ined RTs (Donkin et al 2013 Sewell et al 2016) VWM confi-dence (van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) feature chunking (Bradyamp Tenenbaum 2013) and psychometric functions for differencedetection (Sims et al 2012) or feature estimation with models thatdo not have strict limits on slots or resources (Oberauer amp Lin2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) None of these models have beenused to explain patterns of neural data nor were they designed todo so

Other theories of VWM have focused on the neural bases of thiscognitive system Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)research shows that a distributed network of frontal and posteriorcortical regions underlies change detection performance VWMrepresentations are thought to be actively maintained in the intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)the ventral-occipital (VO) cortex for color stimuli and the lateral-occipital complex (LOC) for shape stimuli (Todd amp Marois 20042005) In addition there is suppression of the temporo-parietaljunction (TPJ) during the delay interval and activation of the ACCduring the comparison phase (Mitchell amp Cusack 2008 ToddFougnie amp Marois 2005) Moreover there is greater activation ofthis network on change versus no change trials and the hemody-namic response on error trials tends to be less robust (PessoaGutierrez Bandettini amp Ungerleider 2002 Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

Efforts to understand the theoretical bases of VWM at the neurallevel have focused on the biophysical properties that give rise tosustained activationmdashthe putative neural basis of VWM represen-tations (Constantinidis amp Steinmetz 1996 Fuster amp Alexander1971 Miller Erickson amp Desimone 1996 Moody Wise diPellegrino amp Zipser 1998) There have been quite detailed bio-physical accounts of how networks of neurons give rise to sus-tained activation These models have been used to explain bothneurophysiological data (Brunel amp Wang 2001 Compte BrunelGoldman-Rakic amp Wang 2000) and in some cases aspects offMRI signals (Deco et al 2004 Domijan 2011 Edin et al 2007)Other models have explored the possibility that VWM represen-tations are encoded in terms of neural synchrony across neuronalassemblies (Raffone amp Wolters 2001) while recent work has alsoraised the possibility that working memory performance reflectsthe reactivation of representations from ldquomemory-silentrdquo neuralcodes (Rose et al 2016 Sprague Ester amp Serences 2016 cfSchneegans amp Bays 2017) Although these models explain howneural processes can encode and maintain visual information theyhave not been used to capture any behavioral data from VWMparadigms This is not surprising Biophysical models are compu-tationally complex thus simulating behavioral performanceacross many iterations of the model is often not a realistic goal

There are some models that have the potential to bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior These models use variants of neuronaldynamics For instance Swan and Wyble (2014) proposed a modelof VWM with some neural dynamics however these dynamicswere discrete and activation levels were updated in one-shot stepsat encoding and retrieval making a direct link to real-time neuralmeasures not possible Similarly Oberauer and Lin (2017) pro-posed a model inspired by a connectionist network using theconcept of neural activation however there was no attempt tosimulate real-time neural dynamics directly In both of these arti-cles the focus was solely on simulating behavioral data

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2 BUSS ET AL

AQ 13

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AQ 5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

In summary then although understanding how the brain givesrise to behavior is clearly an important goal this goal has beenrarely addressed within the domain of visual working memory Wecontend that research on VWM is not unique in this regardCreating theories that bridge between these levels of analysis isfundamentally challenging as highlighted in a recent special issueon model-based fMRI (Turner Forstmann Love Palmeri amp VanMaanen 2017) Model-based fMRI is a promising approach tounderstanding human cognitive neuroscience that uses computa-tional models of cognitive processes to link brain and behaviorTurner and colleagues reviewed the current state of the literaturehighlighting many exciting approaches but they also revealed afundamental challenge very few approaches create a direct map-ping between brain and behavior This is what they call integrativecognitive neuroscience (ICN) The goal of ICN is to develop amodel where one can tune parameters to achieve good fits to bothbrain and behavior and reversely that brain and behavioral mea-sures can feed back to inform the quality of the model or theory

We pursue an ICN approach here within the domain of VWMWe begin with a Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) of VWM that hasshown promise by generating novel a priori behavioral predictionsthat run counter to other cognitive models of visual workingmemory (Johnson Ambrose van Lamsweerde Dineva amp Spen-cer nd Johnson Spencer Luck amp Schoumlner 2009) Criticallythis theory also simulates neural population activation on a milli-second timescale and explains how neural activation in the brain isturned into a behavioral decision on each trial This is not doneusing an algorithmic mapping of activation to behavioral mea-sures rather the model actively generates a decision on each trialvia the activation of a neural decision system engaged during thecomparison process Thus in DFT there is not brain at one leveland behavior at another Rather brain measures and behavioraloutcomes both arise from neural population dynamics The resultis an ICN model that directly simulates both neural activation andbehavior

The goal of the article is to test the DF model of VWM withfMRI We do this first by simulating previous fMRI findings fromthe literature simultaneously fitting the model to both behavioraland fMRI data This yields an initial set of model parameters wecan use to generate novel neural predictions It also leads to adiscovery what was thought to be a neural signature of workingmemorymdashan asymptote at high memory loadsmdashmay actually be aneural signature of brain regions coupled to working memoryrather than a signature of working memory per se Our model alsoexplains why this asymptote does not occur in paradigms using alonger memory delay

Next we test a set of novel neural predictions generated by theDF model One of the unique features of the model is that itspecifies the neural processes that underlie both correct and incor-rect trials in the change detection task (Johnson Simmering ampBuss 2014) Consequently an optimal way to test the model is ina change detection task that has high numbers of correct andincorrect trials Thus we created a novel experiment that opti-mized participantsrsquo performance so they generated many errorsbut maintained performance at above-chance levels We then usedthis paradigm in a task-based fMRI study conducted using a 3TMRI scanner

But how do we know if the DF model provides a good accountof these data Ideally we would test the model against a compet-

ing theory of VWM however as our review above indicates noother theory of VWM simultaneously predicts both neural andbehavioral data Thus we tested the model against a standardstatistical model The idea here was simple typically fMRI dataare analyzed using a general linear modeling (GLM) approachwith regressors for each factor in the experiment For the DFmodel to be useful it shouldmdashat the very leastmdashcapture morevariance than the standard statistical model To evaluate this weused Bayesian linear multivariate modeling to evaluate the DFmodelrsquos ability to capture data from 23 regions of interest (ROIs)relative to different variants of a task-based GLM A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to esti-mate the model evidence that takes into account model fit but alsopenalizes models for their complexity (Bishop 2006) Finding thebest model over a group of subjects was then implemented usingRandom Effects Bayesian Model Selection (Rigoux Stephan Fris-ton amp Daunizeau 2014 Stephan Penny Daunizeau Moran ampFriston 2009) Results show that the DF model outperforms thestandard statistical model Further the mapping of model compo-nents to ROIs provides a novel functional picture of how the brainimplements VWM across a distributed network Critically thisanalysis reveals not only where VWM lives in the brain but whichbrain areas implement which functions

The article is organized as follows We first describe the theorywe test including background on the larger theoretical frameworkthis theory is embedded within Dynamic Field Theory Next wederive a mapping from neural activity in the model to hemody-namic responses measured with fMRI and contrast this with otherapproaches to model-based fMRI Our objective here is to high-light how the dynamic field approach is an example of integrativecognitive neuroscience (Turner et al 2017) We then ask if thisapproach yields useful information by simulatingmdashfor the firsttimemdasha key finding from the literature using a neural processmodel We then generate a set of novel predictions and test themin an fMRI experiment using a GLM-based approach to modeltesting We conclude with an evaluation of our integrative cogni-tive neuroscience approachmdashhave we achieved a model that ef-fectively bridges between brain and behavior We address thisquestion by placing our approach within the context of the theo-retical literature on VWM and contrasting our model with otherpsychological and neuroscience models in the field

A Dynamic Field Theory of Visual Working Memory

The model we evaluate was developed within the framework ofDFT (Schoner amp Spencer 2015) Thus we begin with a briefreview of the concepts of DFT This theoretical framework has along history in psychology and neuroscience dating back almost 30years (Buss amp Spencer 2014 2018 Buss Wifall Hazeltine ampSpencer 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002 Kopecz amp Schoumlner1995 Perone Molitor Buss Spencer amp Samuelson 2015 Per-one Simmering amp Spencer 2011 Schoumlner amp Thelen 2006Schutte amp Spencer 2009 Schutte Spencer amp Schoner 2003Simmering 2016 Simmering amp Spencer 2008 Thelen SchoumlnerScheier amp Smith 2001) Readers are referred to our recent bookfor a more complete introduction (Schoner amp Spencer 2015)

Activity within populations of cortical neurons is hypothesizedto be the best neural correlate of behavioral performance (Cohen ampNewsome 2008) Thus we anchor our approach at this level In

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3MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

particular the theory we evaluatemdasha DFT of VWM (JohnsonSpencer Luck et al 2009 Johnson Spencer amp Schoumlner 2009)mdashsimulates the activity of neural populations from millisecond-to-millisecond as the neural dynamic network engages in a particularworking memory task

A central issue in neural population dynamics is stabilitymdashhowdoes a neural population stabilize a particular pattern through time(Amari 1977 Grossberg 1982 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) This canbe formalized using the language of dynamical system theorySpecifically one can think about how the activity of a neuralpopulation u changes through time u as a function of its currentstate and other inputs to the population These dynamics can beformalized as follows

u u h (1)

where u is the rate of change in activation through time u is thecurrent state of activation and h is a collection of inputs to the fieldthat when summed modulate the resting level of the population

If we plot the phase portrait of this system that is a plot of thesystem in the space u by u we see that the system is a linear

dynamical system (see red line in Figure 1A) There is a specialplace in this linear plot where u 0 If activation u is set to thisvalue then the rate of change is 0 and the system will stay putmdashitwill not change through time This special place in the phaseportrait is called an attractor In Equation 1 h is the attractorstatemdashwhen activation reaches this value the rate of change inactivation is zero (if u h then u 0)

If we plot the behavior of this neural dynamic system throughtime we can see that it stays near this attractor position This isreadily apparent when we add some neural noise to the equation(t) For instance in Figure 1B we start the neural population at arandom value near h and simulate the dynamics through timeadding a random value to the system at each time point (seex-axis) For the first 250 time steps we keep h at the value 4 (seegreen line) and the system randomly wanders up and down butalways stays near h After 250 time steps we then boost h to thevalue 2 (see the magenta line in Figure 1A) This is like boostingthe overall excitability of the neural population (a common form ofneural interaction in the brain see Bastian Riehle Erlhagen amp

Figure 1 Illustration of activation dynamics (A and B) The phase-space and activation over time of a neuronwith linear dynamics The purple line in panel A corresponds to the period of time in panel B during whichactivation is boosted by an input the red line in panel A corresponds to the other time points (C and D) Thephase-space and activation over time of a neuron with nonlinear dynamics created through the addition ofself-excitation (note the curves in phase-space around the activation value of 0) When the neuron is boosted byan input in panel D self-excitation creates a nonlinearity that pulls activation fluctuations push activation backbelow 0 and self-excitation is disengaged (E and F) Corresponding activation profiles for these two differentsystems in a field of interactive neurons Note the correspondence in profiles between BndashE and DndashF See theonline article for the color version of this figure

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4 BUSS ET AL

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O CN OL LI ON RE

F1

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Schoumlner 1998) The system jumps up to the activation value 2(see Figure 1B) quickly finding the new attractor state Afteranother 500 time steps we return h to the value 4 Again theactivation quickly moves to the new attractor state and staysaround this value

Although this captures some features of neural population dy-namics this simple dynamical system fails to capture that neuralpopulations are inherently nonlinear For instance neural popula-tions often require a robust input to ldquoturn onrdquo and once they areldquoonrdquo they are often ldquostickyrdquomdashthey stay on even when there isrelatively little input (eg see Hock Kelso amp Schoumlner 1993)This type of nonlinearity can be captured by adding a sigmoidalfunction to the equation

u u h c g(u) (t) (2)

where

g(u) 1 frasl (1 exp((u))) (3)

The sigmoidal function g(u) has ldquooutputrdquo that varies between 0and 1 defines the steepness of the transition from 0 to 1 and thisfunction is typically centered around a threshold value of 0 acti-vation Thus as activation u increases from a negative ldquorestingrdquolevel toward 0 the sigmoidal function starts producing positiveoutput At an activation value of 0 the sigmoidal function outputsa value of 05 And at higher positive activation values thesigmoidal function saturates at an output of 10 Note that theoutput of the sigmoidal function is multiplied by a connectionstrength c in Equation 2

To understand the consequence of this sigmoidal function con-sider the phase portrait of this new system in Figure 1C whenh 4 (red line) Notice the S-shaped bend in the system as itapproaches the value u 0 (the threshold value) We can see thatat negative values of u (when g(u) 0) the system follows theequation u u h while at large positive values of u (wheng(u) 1) the system follows the equation u u h cHowever there is still only a single attractor state at h 4 (seeblack square) Consequently this system will always stay near thisattractor state This is shown in Figure 1D Note how the systembehaves just like the linear system for the first 250 time steps

Critically when we boost h from 4 to 2 as before thenonlinear system goes through a bifurcation that is the attractorlayout changes (see magenta line in Figure 1C) Now the systemhas two attractor statesmdashone near 2 (the new ldquorestingrdquo leveldefined by h) and one at 3 (the value h c where c 5 in thisexample) Moreover in between these two attractors is a repellerindicated by the diamond Figure 1D shows that this changes howthe neural population behaves through time When the excitabilityof the neural population is boosted by raising h to 2 the systemquickly moves to this new attractor state However after another250 time steps (around time point 500) the system jumps to thevalue h c and remains stably activated in this on state throughtime The behavior of this system inspires an analogymdashthe neuralpopulation has detected the presence of a weak input and thesystem has kicked itself into an on state Note that this state isstable but not permanent For instance once we decrease h backto the initial resting value at time Step 750 (see green line in Figure1D) the activation eventually settles back to the original attractorstate This is reflected in Figure 1Cmdashrecall that at a low h valuethere is only one stable attractor state

This nonlinear dynamical system captures several key propertiesof neural population dynamics (eg bistability see TegneacuterCompte amp Wang 2002) however the system can only representthat something is present or absent (ie that activation is high orlow) To enrich the system we need to think about how torepresent the dimensions within which the neural system is em-bedded In DFT this is done by thinking about the tuning curvesof neurons in a population Neurons in cortex are sensitive toparticular types of information typically in a graded way Forinstance some neurons are ldquotunedrdquo to spatial dimensions (Con-stantinidis amp Steinmetz 2001)mdashthey prefer stimuli say to the leftside of the retina Other neurons are tuned to color dimensions(Matsumora Koida amp Komatsu 2008 Xiao Wang amp Felleman2003)mdashthey like blue hues These tuning functions are typicallyquite broad (Wachtler Sejnowski amp Albright 2003) this means acolor neuron will respond really vigorously to blue hues but alsoquite a bit to cyan and maybe even a bit to pink as well

How do we incorporate these tuning functions into the neuronaldynamics picture We can integrate these concepts using dynamicfields (DFs) where each neuron contributes its tuning curveweighted by its current firing rate to an activation field (Erlhagenet al 1999) This tuning of neural units creates a direct linkbetween activation fields in DFT and task dimensions varied inexperiments that has predicted a wide range of behavioral data(Buss amp Spencer 2014 Buss et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Lucket al 2009) To make this concrete start with 100 neural sitesinstead of just one Each site will have the same neural dynamicsas before however now that we have 100 neural sites we have tothink about how they are connected to one another across thecortical field We will wire them up using a canonical lateralconnectivity pattern with local excitation and surround inhibition(Amari 1977 Compte et al 2000 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) andthe ldquoorderingrdquo of sites along the represented dimension will bebased on their tuning curves This means that neurons that ldquolikerdquosimilar spatial locations or similar colors will pass strong recip-rocal excitation to one another because they are close together inthe field while neural sites that like very different locations orcolors will share reciprocal inhibition because they are far apart inthe field Mathematically this can be summarized as follows(Amari 1977 Wilson amp Cowan 1972)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) ce(x x)g(u(x t))dx

ci(x x)g(u(x t))dx (x t) (4)

Note the similarities to the neuronal dynamics in Equation 2however now activation is distributed over the behavioral dimen-sion x (eg color) Similarly inputs s(x t) are distributed over xthus a red input (x 25) is different from a blue input (x 60)The laterally excitatory connections are defined by ce (an excit-atory Gaussian connection matrix) while the inhibitory connec-tions are defined by ci (an inhibitory Gaussian connection matrix)As before these are convolved with the sigmoidal function g(u)This means that only above-threshold sites in the field contributeto neural interactions that is to local excitation and surroundinhibition Neural interactions for each location x are evaluatedrelative to every other position in the field x Lastly e specifiesthe timescale over which excitation evolves in the field

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5MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

F2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 12

O CN OL LI ON RE

F3

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

F4

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

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Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

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and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

F8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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AQ 16

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

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ent

isco

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ghte

dby

the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

ticle

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lely

for

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pers

onal

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

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Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

Thi

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ent

isco

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ocia

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ishe

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for

the

pers

onal

use

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isno

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 2: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

Page by Gary Marcus httpwwwnytimescom20140712opinionthe-trouble-with-brain-sciencehtml) Addressing this question re-quires theories that bridge the disparate scientific languages ofneuroscience and psychology we must create psychological ex-planations for behavior using neural process accounts and neuro-scientific theories of brain function that make sense of behavior Inshort bridge theories must explain what the brain is doing inreal-time to generate specific patterns of neural and behavioraldata (for related ideas see OrsquoReilly 2006)

Bridging brain and behavior may seem like a central goal in thepsychological and brain sciences however this goal has rarelybeen directly realized Many theories in psychology focus oncognitive processes with a primary goal of explaining behavioraldata (Anderson et al 2004 Bays Catalao amp Husain 2009 Bradyamp Tenenbaum 2013) Other theories focus on neural processeswith a primary goal of explaining neural data (Brunel amp Wang2001 Deco Rolls amp Horwitz 2004 Domijan 2011 Edin Ma-coveanu Olesen Tegneacuter amp Klingberg 2007 Raffone amp Wolters2001) Rarely is the same model used to generate both behavioraland neural data that is simultaneously integrating both cognitiveand neural processes (Wijeakumar Ambrose Spencer amp Curtu2016) This level of explanation is arguably the most criticalhowever because it can explain how neural processes give rise tocognition and behavior (see Palmeri Turner amp Love 2017 for aspecial issue devoted to this topic)

To illustrate consider the current state of theory within thedomain of visual working memory (VWM) VWM is centralcognitive system used to remember visual information duringshort-term delays and compare visual items that cannot be simul-taneously foveated (for a review see Luck amp Vogel 2013) Forinstance VWM is often probed in the change detection task(Cowan 2001 Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988) In this taskparticipants are shown a memory array consisting of one to eightobjects (eg colored squares) After a brief delay (eg 1 s)participants are shown a test array and asked to determine whetherall the items are the same or different Results from this task haverevealed that VWM has a highly limited capacity Although esti-mates vary across studies it is generally accepted that people canstore only two to four items in VWM at one time (Cowan 2001Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988 Rouder Morey Morey ampCowan 2011)

According to one prominent view these capacity limits reflectthe functioning of a memory system that stores a limited numberof fixed-resolution representations in independent memory ldquoslotsrdquo(Cowan 2001 Luck amp Vogel 1997 Pashler 1988 Zhang ampLuck 2008) An alternative view holds that VWM is better con-ceived of as a shared resource that can be flexibly distributedamong the items making up a scene with no fixed upper limit onthe number of items that can be stored (Bays et al 2009 Bays ampHusain 2008 Wilken amp Ma 2004) There have been a host ofrecent modeling efforts designed to contrast these two perspectivesusing Bayesian approaches (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin Nosofsky Gold amp Shiffrin 2013 Kary Taylor ampDonkin 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill 2012)and efforts to expand these views using drift diffusion models(Sewell Lilburn amp Smith 2016) In all cases these studies usemathematical models to instantiate conceptual claims about VWMand test these claims at the level of behavior typically usingproportion correct although some recent papers have also exam-

ined RTs (Donkin et al 2013 Sewell et al 2016) VWM confi-dence (van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) feature chunking (Bradyamp Tenenbaum 2013) and psychometric functions for differencedetection (Sims et al 2012) or feature estimation with models thatdo not have strict limits on slots or resources (Oberauer amp Lin2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) None of these models have beenused to explain patterns of neural data nor were they designed todo so

Other theories of VWM have focused on the neural bases of thiscognitive system Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)research shows that a distributed network of frontal and posteriorcortical regions underlies change detection performance VWMrepresentations are thought to be actively maintained in the intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)the ventral-occipital (VO) cortex for color stimuli and the lateral-occipital complex (LOC) for shape stimuli (Todd amp Marois 20042005) In addition there is suppression of the temporo-parietaljunction (TPJ) during the delay interval and activation of the ACCduring the comparison phase (Mitchell amp Cusack 2008 ToddFougnie amp Marois 2005) Moreover there is greater activation ofthis network on change versus no change trials and the hemody-namic response on error trials tends to be less robust (PessoaGutierrez Bandettini amp Ungerleider 2002 Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

Efforts to understand the theoretical bases of VWM at the neurallevel have focused on the biophysical properties that give rise tosustained activationmdashthe putative neural basis of VWM represen-tations (Constantinidis amp Steinmetz 1996 Fuster amp Alexander1971 Miller Erickson amp Desimone 1996 Moody Wise diPellegrino amp Zipser 1998) There have been quite detailed bio-physical accounts of how networks of neurons give rise to sus-tained activation These models have been used to explain bothneurophysiological data (Brunel amp Wang 2001 Compte BrunelGoldman-Rakic amp Wang 2000) and in some cases aspects offMRI signals (Deco et al 2004 Domijan 2011 Edin et al 2007)Other models have explored the possibility that VWM represen-tations are encoded in terms of neural synchrony across neuronalassemblies (Raffone amp Wolters 2001) while recent work has alsoraised the possibility that working memory performance reflectsthe reactivation of representations from ldquomemory-silentrdquo neuralcodes (Rose et al 2016 Sprague Ester amp Serences 2016 cfSchneegans amp Bays 2017) Although these models explain howneural processes can encode and maintain visual information theyhave not been used to capture any behavioral data from VWMparadigms This is not surprising Biophysical models are compu-tationally complex thus simulating behavioral performanceacross many iterations of the model is often not a realistic goal

There are some models that have the potential to bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior These models use variants of neuronaldynamics For instance Swan and Wyble (2014) proposed a modelof VWM with some neural dynamics however these dynamicswere discrete and activation levels were updated in one-shot stepsat encoding and retrieval making a direct link to real-time neuralmeasures not possible Similarly Oberauer and Lin (2017) pro-posed a model inspired by a connectionist network using theconcept of neural activation however there was no attempt tosimulate real-time neural dynamics directly In both of these arti-cles the focus was solely on simulating behavioral data

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2 BUSS ET AL

AQ 13

AQ 4

AQ 5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

In summary then although understanding how the brain givesrise to behavior is clearly an important goal this goal has beenrarely addressed within the domain of visual working memory Wecontend that research on VWM is not unique in this regardCreating theories that bridge between these levels of analysis isfundamentally challenging as highlighted in a recent special issueon model-based fMRI (Turner Forstmann Love Palmeri amp VanMaanen 2017) Model-based fMRI is a promising approach tounderstanding human cognitive neuroscience that uses computa-tional models of cognitive processes to link brain and behaviorTurner and colleagues reviewed the current state of the literaturehighlighting many exciting approaches but they also revealed afundamental challenge very few approaches create a direct map-ping between brain and behavior This is what they call integrativecognitive neuroscience (ICN) The goal of ICN is to develop amodel where one can tune parameters to achieve good fits to bothbrain and behavior and reversely that brain and behavioral mea-sures can feed back to inform the quality of the model or theory

We pursue an ICN approach here within the domain of VWMWe begin with a Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) of VWM that hasshown promise by generating novel a priori behavioral predictionsthat run counter to other cognitive models of visual workingmemory (Johnson Ambrose van Lamsweerde Dineva amp Spen-cer nd Johnson Spencer Luck amp Schoumlner 2009) Criticallythis theory also simulates neural population activation on a milli-second timescale and explains how neural activation in the brain isturned into a behavioral decision on each trial This is not doneusing an algorithmic mapping of activation to behavioral mea-sures rather the model actively generates a decision on each trialvia the activation of a neural decision system engaged during thecomparison process Thus in DFT there is not brain at one leveland behavior at another Rather brain measures and behavioraloutcomes both arise from neural population dynamics The resultis an ICN model that directly simulates both neural activation andbehavior

The goal of the article is to test the DF model of VWM withfMRI We do this first by simulating previous fMRI findings fromthe literature simultaneously fitting the model to both behavioraland fMRI data This yields an initial set of model parameters wecan use to generate novel neural predictions It also leads to adiscovery what was thought to be a neural signature of workingmemorymdashan asymptote at high memory loadsmdashmay actually be aneural signature of brain regions coupled to working memoryrather than a signature of working memory per se Our model alsoexplains why this asymptote does not occur in paradigms using alonger memory delay

Next we test a set of novel neural predictions generated by theDF model One of the unique features of the model is that itspecifies the neural processes that underlie both correct and incor-rect trials in the change detection task (Johnson Simmering ampBuss 2014) Consequently an optimal way to test the model is ina change detection task that has high numbers of correct andincorrect trials Thus we created a novel experiment that opti-mized participantsrsquo performance so they generated many errorsbut maintained performance at above-chance levels We then usedthis paradigm in a task-based fMRI study conducted using a 3TMRI scanner

But how do we know if the DF model provides a good accountof these data Ideally we would test the model against a compet-

ing theory of VWM however as our review above indicates noother theory of VWM simultaneously predicts both neural andbehavioral data Thus we tested the model against a standardstatistical model The idea here was simple typically fMRI dataare analyzed using a general linear modeling (GLM) approachwith regressors for each factor in the experiment For the DFmodel to be useful it shouldmdashat the very leastmdashcapture morevariance than the standard statistical model To evaluate this weused Bayesian linear multivariate modeling to evaluate the DFmodelrsquos ability to capture data from 23 regions of interest (ROIs)relative to different variants of a task-based GLM A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to esti-mate the model evidence that takes into account model fit but alsopenalizes models for their complexity (Bishop 2006) Finding thebest model over a group of subjects was then implemented usingRandom Effects Bayesian Model Selection (Rigoux Stephan Fris-ton amp Daunizeau 2014 Stephan Penny Daunizeau Moran ampFriston 2009) Results show that the DF model outperforms thestandard statistical model Further the mapping of model compo-nents to ROIs provides a novel functional picture of how the brainimplements VWM across a distributed network Critically thisanalysis reveals not only where VWM lives in the brain but whichbrain areas implement which functions

The article is organized as follows We first describe the theorywe test including background on the larger theoretical frameworkthis theory is embedded within Dynamic Field Theory Next wederive a mapping from neural activity in the model to hemody-namic responses measured with fMRI and contrast this with otherapproaches to model-based fMRI Our objective here is to high-light how the dynamic field approach is an example of integrativecognitive neuroscience (Turner et al 2017) We then ask if thisapproach yields useful information by simulatingmdashfor the firsttimemdasha key finding from the literature using a neural processmodel We then generate a set of novel predictions and test themin an fMRI experiment using a GLM-based approach to modeltesting We conclude with an evaluation of our integrative cogni-tive neuroscience approachmdashhave we achieved a model that ef-fectively bridges between brain and behavior We address thisquestion by placing our approach within the context of the theo-retical literature on VWM and contrasting our model with otherpsychological and neuroscience models in the field

A Dynamic Field Theory of Visual Working Memory

The model we evaluate was developed within the framework ofDFT (Schoner amp Spencer 2015) Thus we begin with a briefreview of the concepts of DFT This theoretical framework has along history in psychology and neuroscience dating back almost 30years (Buss amp Spencer 2014 2018 Buss Wifall Hazeltine ampSpencer 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002 Kopecz amp Schoumlner1995 Perone Molitor Buss Spencer amp Samuelson 2015 Per-one Simmering amp Spencer 2011 Schoumlner amp Thelen 2006Schutte amp Spencer 2009 Schutte Spencer amp Schoner 2003Simmering 2016 Simmering amp Spencer 2008 Thelen SchoumlnerScheier amp Smith 2001) Readers are referred to our recent bookfor a more complete introduction (Schoner amp Spencer 2015)

Activity within populations of cortical neurons is hypothesizedto be the best neural correlate of behavioral performance (Cohen ampNewsome 2008) Thus we anchor our approach at this level In

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3MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

particular the theory we evaluatemdasha DFT of VWM (JohnsonSpencer Luck et al 2009 Johnson Spencer amp Schoumlner 2009)mdashsimulates the activity of neural populations from millisecond-to-millisecond as the neural dynamic network engages in a particularworking memory task

A central issue in neural population dynamics is stabilitymdashhowdoes a neural population stabilize a particular pattern through time(Amari 1977 Grossberg 1982 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) This canbe formalized using the language of dynamical system theorySpecifically one can think about how the activity of a neuralpopulation u changes through time u as a function of its currentstate and other inputs to the population These dynamics can beformalized as follows

u u h (1)

where u is the rate of change in activation through time u is thecurrent state of activation and h is a collection of inputs to the fieldthat when summed modulate the resting level of the population

If we plot the phase portrait of this system that is a plot of thesystem in the space u by u we see that the system is a linear

dynamical system (see red line in Figure 1A) There is a specialplace in this linear plot where u 0 If activation u is set to thisvalue then the rate of change is 0 and the system will stay putmdashitwill not change through time This special place in the phaseportrait is called an attractor In Equation 1 h is the attractorstatemdashwhen activation reaches this value the rate of change inactivation is zero (if u h then u 0)

If we plot the behavior of this neural dynamic system throughtime we can see that it stays near this attractor position This isreadily apparent when we add some neural noise to the equation(t) For instance in Figure 1B we start the neural population at arandom value near h and simulate the dynamics through timeadding a random value to the system at each time point (seex-axis) For the first 250 time steps we keep h at the value 4 (seegreen line) and the system randomly wanders up and down butalways stays near h After 250 time steps we then boost h to thevalue 2 (see the magenta line in Figure 1A) This is like boostingthe overall excitability of the neural population (a common form ofneural interaction in the brain see Bastian Riehle Erlhagen amp

Figure 1 Illustration of activation dynamics (A and B) The phase-space and activation over time of a neuronwith linear dynamics The purple line in panel A corresponds to the period of time in panel B during whichactivation is boosted by an input the red line in panel A corresponds to the other time points (C and D) Thephase-space and activation over time of a neuron with nonlinear dynamics created through the addition ofself-excitation (note the curves in phase-space around the activation value of 0) When the neuron is boosted byan input in panel D self-excitation creates a nonlinearity that pulls activation fluctuations push activation backbelow 0 and self-excitation is disengaged (E and F) Corresponding activation profiles for these two differentsystems in a field of interactive neurons Note the correspondence in profiles between BndashE and DndashF See theonline article for the color version of this figure

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4 BUSS ET AL

AQ 11

O CN OL LI ON RE

F1

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Schoumlner 1998) The system jumps up to the activation value 2(see Figure 1B) quickly finding the new attractor state Afteranother 500 time steps we return h to the value 4 Again theactivation quickly moves to the new attractor state and staysaround this value

Although this captures some features of neural population dy-namics this simple dynamical system fails to capture that neuralpopulations are inherently nonlinear For instance neural popula-tions often require a robust input to ldquoturn onrdquo and once they areldquoonrdquo they are often ldquostickyrdquomdashthey stay on even when there isrelatively little input (eg see Hock Kelso amp Schoumlner 1993)This type of nonlinearity can be captured by adding a sigmoidalfunction to the equation

u u h c g(u) (t) (2)

where

g(u) 1 frasl (1 exp((u))) (3)

The sigmoidal function g(u) has ldquooutputrdquo that varies between 0and 1 defines the steepness of the transition from 0 to 1 and thisfunction is typically centered around a threshold value of 0 acti-vation Thus as activation u increases from a negative ldquorestingrdquolevel toward 0 the sigmoidal function starts producing positiveoutput At an activation value of 0 the sigmoidal function outputsa value of 05 And at higher positive activation values thesigmoidal function saturates at an output of 10 Note that theoutput of the sigmoidal function is multiplied by a connectionstrength c in Equation 2

To understand the consequence of this sigmoidal function con-sider the phase portrait of this new system in Figure 1C whenh 4 (red line) Notice the S-shaped bend in the system as itapproaches the value u 0 (the threshold value) We can see thatat negative values of u (when g(u) 0) the system follows theequation u u h while at large positive values of u (wheng(u) 1) the system follows the equation u u h cHowever there is still only a single attractor state at h 4 (seeblack square) Consequently this system will always stay near thisattractor state This is shown in Figure 1D Note how the systembehaves just like the linear system for the first 250 time steps

Critically when we boost h from 4 to 2 as before thenonlinear system goes through a bifurcation that is the attractorlayout changes (see magenta line in Figure 1C) Now the systemhas two attractor statesmdashone near 2 (the new ldquorestingrdquo leveldefined by h) and one at 3 (the value h c where c 5 in thisexample) Moreover in between these two attractors is a repellerindicated by the diamond Figure 1D shows that this changes howthe neural population behaves through time When the excitabilityof the neural population is boosted by raising h to 2 the systemquickly moves to this new attractor state However after another250 time steps (around time point 500) the system jumps to thevalue h c and remains stably activated in this on state throughtime The behavior of this system inspires an analogymdashthe neuralpopulation has detected the presence of a weak input and thesystem has kicked itself into an on state Note that this state isstable but not permanent For instance once we decrease h backto the initial resting value at time Step 750 (see green line in Figure1D) the activation eventually settles back to the original attractorstate This is reflected in Figure 1Cmdashrecall that at a low h valuethere is only one stable attractor state

This nonlinear dynamical system captures several key propertiesof neural population dynamics (eg bistability see TegneacuterCompte amp Wang 2002) however the system can only representthat something is present or absent (ie that activation is high orlow) To enrich the system we need to think about how torepresent the dimensions within which the neural system is em-bedded In DFT this is done by thinking about the tuning curvesof neurons in a population Neurons in cortex are sensitive toparticular types of information typically in a graded way Forinstance some neurons are ldquotunedrdquo to spatial dimensions (Con-stantinidis amp Steinmetz 2001)mdashthey prefer stimuli say to the leftside of the retina Other neurons are tuned to color dimensions(Matsumora Koida amp Komatsu 2008 Xiao Wang amp Felleman2003)mdashthey like blue hues These tuning functions are typicallyquite broad (Wachtler Sejnowski amp Albright 2003) this means acolor neuron will respond really vigorously to blue hues but alsoquite a bit to cyan and maybe even a bit to pink as well

How do we incorporate these tuning functions into the neuronaldynamics picture We can integrate these concepts using dynamicfields (DFs) where each neuron contributes its tuning curveweighted by its current firing rate to an activation field (Erlhagenet al 1999) This tuning of neural units creates a direct linkbetween activation fields in DFT and task dimensions varied inexperiments that has predicted a wide range of behavioral data(Buss amp Spencer 2014 Buss et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Lucket al 2009) To make this concrete start with 100 neural sitesinstead of just one Each site will have the same neural dynamicsas before however now that we have 100 neural sites we have tothink about how they are connected to one another across thecortical field We will wire them up using a canonical lateralconnectivity pattern with local excitation and surround inhibition(Amari 1977 Compte et al 2000 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) andthe ldquoorderingrdquo of sites along the represented dimension will bebased on their tuning curves This means that neurons that ldquolikerdquosimilar spatial locations or similar colors will pass strong recip-rocal excitation to one another because they are close together inthe field while neural sites that like very different locations orcolors will share reciprocal inhibition because they are far apart inthe field Mathematically this can be summarized as follows(Amari 1977 Wilson amp Cowan 1972)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) ce(x x)g(u(x t))dx

ci(x x)g(u(x t))dx (x t) (4)

Note the similarities to the neuronal dynamics in Equation 2however now activation is distributed over the behavioral dimen-sion x (eg color) Similarly inputs s(x t) are distributed over xthus a red input (x 25) is different from a blue input (x 60)The laterally excitatory connections are defined by ce (an excit-atory Gaussian connection matrix) while the inhibitory connec-tions are defined by ci (an inhibitory Gaussian connection matrix)As before these are convolved with the sigmoidal function g(u)This means that only above-threshold sites in the field contributeto neural interactions that is to local excitation and surroundinhibition Neural interactions for each location x are evaluatedrelative to every other position in the field x Lastly e specifiesthe timescale over which excitation evolves in the field

Thi

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5MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

F2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 12

O CN OL LI ON RE

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

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when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

F8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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y

19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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ocia

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ent

isco

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cal

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ocia

tion

oron

eof

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lied

publ

ishe

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onal

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30 BUSS ET AL

AQ 16

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

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ent

isco

pyri

ghte

dby

the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

ticle

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edso

lely

for

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pers

onal

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isno

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

Thi

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ent

isco

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the

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onal

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isno

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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onal

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 3: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

In summary then although understanding how the brain givesrise to behavior is clearly an important goal this goal has beenrarely addressed within the domain of visual working memory Wecontend that research on VWM is not unique in this regardCreating theories that bridge between these levels of analysis isfundamentally challenging as highlighted in a recent special issueon model-based fMRI (Turner Forstmann Love Palmeri amp VanMaanen 2017) Model-based fMRI is a promising approach tounderstanding human cognitive neuroscience that uses computa-tional models of cognitive processes to link brain and behaviorTurner and colleagues reviewed the current state of the literaturehighlighting many exciting approaches but they also revealed afundamental challenge very few approaches create a direct map-ping between brain and behavior This is what they call integrativecognitive neuroscience (ICN) The goal of ICN is to develop amodel where one can tune parameters to achieve good fits to bothbrain and behavior and reversely that brain and behavioral mea-sures can feed back to inform the quality of the model or theory

We pursue an ICN approach here within the domain of VWMWe begin with a Dynamic Field Theory (DFT) of VWM that hasshown promise by generating novel a priori behavioral predictionsthat run counter to other cognitive models of visual workingmemory (Johnson Ambrose van Lamsweerde Dineva amp Spen-cer nd Johnson Spencer Luck amp Schoumlner 2009) Criticallythis theory also simulates neural population activation on a milli-second timescale and explains how neural activation in the brain isturned into a behavioral decision on each trial This is not doneusing an algorithmic mapping of activation to behavioral mea-sures rather the model actively generates a decision on each trialvia the activation of a neural decision system engaged during thecomparison process Thus in DFT there is not brain at one leveland behavior at another Rather brain measures and behavioraloutcomes both arise from neural population dynamics The resultis an ICN model that directly simulates both neural activation andbehavior

The goal of the article is to test the DF model of VWM withfMRI We do this first by simulating previous fMRI findings fromthe literature simultaneously fitting the model to both behavioraland fMRI data This yields an initial set of model parameters wecan use to generate novel neural predictions It also leads to adiscovery what was thought to be a neural signature of workingmemorymdashan asymptote at high memory loadsmdashmay actually be aneural signature of brain regions coupled to working memoryrather than a signature of working memory per se Our model alsoexplains why this asymptote does not occur in paradigms using alonger memory delay

Next we test a set of novel neural predictions generated by theDF model One of the unique features of the model is that itspecifies the neural processes that underlie both correct and incor-rect trials in the change detection task (Johnson Simmering ampBuss 2014) Consequently an optimal way to test the model is ina change detection task that has high numbers of correct andincorrect trials Thus we created a novel experiment that opti-mized participantsrsquo performance so they generated many errorsbut maintained performance at above-chance levels We then usedthis paradigm in a task-based fMRI study conducted using a 3TMRI scanner

But how do we know if the DF model provides a good accountof these data Ideally we would test the model against a compet-

ing theory of VWM however as our review above indicates noother theory of VWM simultaneously predicts both neural andbehavioral data Thus we tested the model against a standardstatistical model The idea here was simple typically fMRI dataare analyzed using a general linear modeling (GLM) approachwith regressors for each factor in the experiment For the DFmodel to be useful it shouldmdashat the very leastmdashcapture morevariance than the standard statistical model To evaluate this weused Bayesian linear multivariate modeling to evaluate the DFmodelrsquos ability to capture data from 23 regions of interest (ROIs)relative to different variants of a task-based GLM A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to esti-mate the model evidence that takes into account model fit but alsopenalizes models for their complexity (Bishop 2006) Finding thebest model over a group of subjects was then implemented usingRandom Effects Bayesian Model Selection (Rigoux Stephan Fris-ton amp Daunizeau 2014 Stephan Penny Daunizeau Moran ampFriston 2009) Results show that the DF model outperforms thestandard statistical model Further the mapping of model compo-nents to ROIs provides a novel functional picture of how the brainimplements VWM across a distributed network Critically thisanalysis reveals not only where VWM lives in the brain but whichbrain areas implement which functions

The article is organized as follows We first describe the theorywe test including background on the larger theoretical frameworkthis theory is embedded within Dynamic Field Theory Next wederive a mapping from neural activity in the model to hemody-namic responses measured with fMRI and contrast this with otherapproaches to model-based fMRI Our objective here is to high-light how the dynamic field approach is an example of integrativecognitive neuroscience (Turner et al 2017) We then ask if thisapproach yields useful information by simulatingmdashfor the firsttimemdasha key finding from the literature using a neural processmodel We then generate a set of novel predictions and test themin an fMRI experiment using a GLM-based approach to modeltesting We conclude with an evaluation of our integrative cogni-tive neuroscience approachmdashhave we achieved a model that ef-fectively bridges between brain and behavior We address thisquestion by placing our approach within the context of the theo-retical literature on VWM and contrasting our model with otherpsychological and neuroscience models in the field

A Dynamic Field Theory of Visual Working Memory

The model we evaluate was developed within the framework ofDFT (Schoner amp Spencer 2015) Thus we begin with a briefreview of the concepts of DFT This theoretical framework has along history in psychology and neuroscience dating back almost 30years (Buss amp Spencer 2014 2018 Buss Wifall Hazeltine ampSpencer 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002 Kopecz amp Schoumlner1995 Perone Molitor Buss Spencer amp Samuelson 2015 Per-one Simmering amp Spencer 2011 Schoumlner amp Thelen 2006Schutte amp Spencer 2009 Schutte Spencer amp Schoner 2003Simmering 2016 Simmering amp Spencer 2008 Thelen SchoumlnerScheier amp Smith 2001) Readers are referred to our recent bookfor a more complete introduction (Schoner amp Spencer 2015)

Activity within populations of cortical neurons is hypothesizedto be the best neural correlate of behavioral performance (Cohen ampNewsome 2008) Thus we anchor our approach at this level In

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3MODEL-BASED FMRI

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particular the theory we evaluatemdasha DFT of VWM (JohnsonSpencer Luck et al 2009 Johnson Spencer amp Schoumlner 2009)mdashsimulates the activity of neural populations from millisecond-to-millisecond as the neural dynamic network engages in a particularworking memory task

A central issue in neural population dynamics is stabilitymdashhowdoes a neural population stabilize a particular pattern through time(Amari 1977 Grossberg 1982 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) This canbe formalized using the language of dynamical system theorySpecifically one can think about how the activity of a neuralpopulation u changes through time u as a function of its currentstate and other inputs to the population These dynamics can beformalized as follows

u u h (1)

where u is the rate of change in activation through time u is thecurrent state of activation and h is a collection of inputs to the fieldthat when summed modulate the resting level of the population

If we plot the phase portrait of this system that is a plot of thesystem in the space u by u we see that the system is a linear

dynamical system (see red line in Figure 1A) There is a specialplace in this linear plot where u 0 If activation u is set to thisvalue then the rate of change is 0 and the system will stay putmdashitwill not change through time This special place in the phaseportrait is called an attractor In Equation 1 h is the attractorstatemdashwhen activation reaches this value the rate of change inactivation is zero (if u h then u 0)

If we plot the behavior of this neural dynamic system throughtime we can see that it stays near this attractor position This isreadily apparent when we add some neural noise to the equation(t) For instance in Figure 1B we start the neural population at arandom value near h and simulate the dynamics through timeadding a random value to the system at each time point (seex-axis) For the first 250 time steps we keep h at the value 4 (seegreen line) and the system randomly wanders up and down butalways stays near h After 250 time steps we then boost h to thevalue 2 (see the magenta line in Figure 1A) This is like boostingthe overall excitability of the neural population (a common form ofneural interaction in the brain see Bastian Riehle Erlhagen amp

Figure 1 Illustration of activation dynamics (A and B) The phase-space and activation over time of a neuronwith linear dynamics The purple line in panel A corresponds to the period of time in panel B during whichactivation is boosted by an input the red line in panel A corresponds to the other time points (C and D) Thephase-space and activation over time of a neuron with nonlinear dynamics created through the addition ofself-excitation (note the curves in phase-space around the activation value of 0) When the neuron is boosted byan input in panel D self-excitation creates a nonlinearity that pulls activation fluctuations push activation backbelow 0 and self-excitation is disengaged (E and F) Corresponding activation profiles for these two differentsystems in a field of interactive neurons Note the correspondence in profiles between BndashE and DndashF See theonline article for the color version of this figure

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4 BUSS ET AL

AQ 11

O CN OL LI ON RE

F1

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Schoumlner 1998) The system jumps up to the activation value 2(see Figure 1B) quickly finding the new attractor state Afteranother 500 time steps we return h to the value 4 Again theactivation quickly moves to the new attractor state and staysaround this value

Although this captures some features of neural population dy-namics this simple dynamical system fails to capture that neuralpopulations are inherently nonlinear For instance neural popula-tions often require a robust input to ldquoturn onrdquo and once they areldquoonrdquo they are often ldquostickyrdquomdashthey stay on even when there isrelatively little input (eg see Hock Kelso amp Schoumlner 1993)This type of nonlinearity can be captured by adding a sigmoidalfunction to the equation

u u h c g(u) (t) (2)

where

g(u) 1 frasl (1 exp((u))) (3)

The sigmoidal function g(u) has ldquooutputrdquo that varies between 0and 1 defines the steepness of the transition from 0 to 1 and thisfunction is typically centered around a threshold value of 0 acti-vation Thus as activation u increases from a negative ldquorestingrdquolevel toward 0 the sigmoidal function starts producing positiveoutput At an activation value of 0 the sigmoidal function outputsa value of 05 And at higher positive activation values thesigmoidal function saturates at an output of 10 Note that theoutput of the sigmoidal function is multiplied by a connectionstrength c in Equation 2

To understand the consequence of this sigmoidal function con-sider the phase portrait of this new system in Figure 1C whenh 4 (red line) Notice the S-shaped bend in the system as itapproaches the value u 0 (the threshold value) We can see thatat negative values of u (when g(u) 0) the system follows theequation u u h while at large positive values of u (wheng(u) 1) the system follows the equation u u h cHowever there is still only a single attractor state at h 4 (seeblack square) Consequently this system will always stay near thisattractor state This is shown in Figure 1D Note how the systembehaves just like the linear system for the first 250 time steps

Critically when we boost h from 4 to 2 as before thenonlinear system goes through a bifurcation that is the attractorlayout changes (see magenta line in Figure 1C) Now the systemhas two attractor statesmdashone near 2 (the new ldquorestingrdquo leveldefined by h) and one at 3 (the value h c where c 5 in thisexample) Moreover in between these two attractors is a repellerindicated by the diamond Figure 1D shows that this changes howthe neural population behaves through time When the excitabilityof the neural population is boosted by raising h to 2 the systemquickly moves to this new attractor state However after another250 time steps (around time point 500) the system jumps to thevalue h c and remains stably activated in this on state throughtime The behavior of this system inspires an analogymdashthe neuralpopulation has detected the presence of a weak input and thesystem has kicked itself into an on state Note that this state isstable but not permanent For instance once we decrease h backto the initial resting value at time Step 750 (see green line in Figure1D) the activation eventually settles back to the original attractorstate This is reflected in Figure 1Cmdashrecall that at a low h valuethere is only one stable attractor state

This nonlinear dynamical system captures several key propertiesof neural population dynamics (eg bistability see TegneacuterCompte amp Wang 2002) however the system can only representthat something is present or absent (ie that activation is high orlow) To enrich the system we need to think about how torepresent the dimensions within which the neural system is em-bedded In DFT this is done by thinking about the tuning curvesof neurons in a population Neurons in cortex are sensitive toparticular types of information typically in a graded way Forinstance some neurons are ldquotunedrdquo to spatial dimensions (Con-stantinidis amp Steinmetz 2001)mdashthey prefer stimuli say to the leftside of the retina Other neurons are tuned to color dimensions(Matsumora Koida amp Komatsu 2008 Xiao Wang amp Felleman2003)mdashthey like blue hues These tuning functions are typicallyquite broad (Wachtler Sejnowski amp Albright 2003) this means acolor neuron will respond really vigorously to blue hues but alsoquite a bit to cyan and maybe even a bit to pink as well

How do we incorporate these tuning functions into the neuronaldynamics picture We can integrate these concepts using dynamicfields (DFs) where each neuron contributes its tuning curveweighted by its current firing rate to an activation field (Erlhagenet al 1999) This tuning of neural units creates a direct linkbetween activation fields in DFT and task dimensions varied inexperiments that has predicted a wide range of behavioral data(Buss amp Spencer 2014 Buss et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Lucket al 2009) To make this concrete start with 100 neural sitesinstead of just one Each site will have the same neural dynamicsas before however now that we have 100 neural sites we have tothink about how they are connected to one another across thecortical field We will wire them up using a canonical lateralconnectivity pattern with local excitation and surround inhibition(Amari 1977 Compte et al 2000 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) andthe ldquoorderingrdquo of sites along the represented dimension will bebased on their tuning curves This means that neurons that ldquolikerdquosimilar spatial locations or similar colors will pass strong recip-rocal excitation to one another because they are close together inthe field while neural sites that like very different locations orcolors will share reciprocal inhibition because they are far apart inthe field Mathematically this can be summarized as follows(Amari 1977 Wilson amp Cowan 1972)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) ce(x x)g(u(x t))dx

ci(x x)g(u(x t))dx (x t) (4)

Note the similarities to the neuronal dynamics in Equation 2however now activation is distributed over the behavioral dimen-sion x (eg color) Similarly inputs s(x t) are distributed over xthus a red input (x 25) is different from a blue input (x 60)The laterally excitatory connections are defined by ce (an excit-atory Gaussian connection matrix) while the inhibitory connec-tions are defined by ci (an inhibitory Gaussian connection matrix)As before these are convolved with the sigmoidal function g(u)This means that only above-threshold sites in the field contributeto neural interactions that is to local excitation and surroundinhibition Neural interactions for each location x are evaluatedrelative to every other position in the field x Lastly e specifiesthe timescale over which excitation evolves in the field

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5MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

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strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

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Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

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Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

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Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

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both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

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T1 AQ6

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

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created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

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Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ent

isco

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Am

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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onal

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isno

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oadl

y

30 BUSS ET AL

AQ 16

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

sdo

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ent

isco

pyri

ghte

dby

the

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eric

anPs

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logi

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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ticle

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tend

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lely

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onal

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oadl

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

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Page 4: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

particular the theory we evaluatemdasha DFT of VWM (JohnsonSpencer Luck et al 2009 Johnson Spencer amp Schoumlner 2009)mdashsimulates the activity of neural populations from millisecond-to-millisecond as the neural dynamic network engages in a particularworking memory task

A central issue in neural population dynamics is stabilitymdashhowdoes a neural population stabilize a particular pattern through time(Amari 1977 Grossberg 1982 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) This canbe formalized using the language of dynamical system theorySpecifically one can think about how the activity of a neuralpopulation u changes through time u as a function of its currentstate and other inputs to the population These dynamics can beformalized as follows

u u h (1)

where u is the rate of change in activation through time u is thecurrent state of activation and h is a collection of inputs to the fieldthat when summed modulate the resting level of the population

If we plot the phase portrait of this system that is a plot of thesystem in the space u by u we see that the system is a linear

dynamical system (see red line in Figure 1A) There is a specialplace in this linear plot where u 0 If activation u is set to thisvalue then the rate of change is 0 and the system will stay putmdashitwill not change through time This special place in the phaseportrait is called an attractor In Equation 1 h is the attractorstatemdashwhen activation reaches this value the rate of change inactivation is zero (if u h then u 0)

If we plot the behavior of this neural dynamic system throughtime we can see that it stays near this attractor position This isreadily apparent when we add some neural noise to the equation(t) For instance in Figure 1B we start the neural population at arandom value near h and simulate the dynamics through timeadding a random value to the system at each time point (seex-axis) For the first 250 time steps we keep h at the value 4 (seegreen line) and the system randomly wanders up and down butalways stays near h After 250 time steps we then boost h to thevalue 2 (see the magenta line in Figure 1A) This is like boostingthe overall excitability of the neural population (a common form ofneural interaction in the brain see Bastian Riehle Erlhagen amp

Figure 1 Illustration of activation dynamics (A and B) The phase-space and activation over time of a neuronwith linear dynamics The purple line in panel A corresponds to the period of time in panel B during whichactivation is boosted by an input the red line in panel A corresponds to the other time points (C and D) Thephase-space and activation over time of a neuron with nonlinear dynamics created through the addition ofself-excitation (note the curves in phase-space around the activation value of 0) When the neuron is boosted byan input in panel D self-excitation creates a nonlinearity that pulls activation fluctuations push activation backbelow 0 and self-excitation is disengaged (E and F) Corresponding activation profiles for these two differentsystems in a field of interactive neurons Note the correspondence in profiles between BndashE and DndashF See theonline article for the color version of this figure

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4 BUSS ET AL

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Schoumlner 1998) The system jumps up to the activation value 2(see Figure 1B) quickly finding the new attractor state Afteranother 500 time steps we return h to the value 4 Again theactivation quickly moves to the new attractor state and staysaround this value

Although this captures some features of neural population dy-namics this simple dynamical system fails to capture that neuralpopulations are inherently nonlinear For instance neural popula-tions often require a robust input to ldquoturn onrdquo and once they areldquoonrdquo they are often ldquostickyrdquomdashthey stay on even when there isrelatively little input (eg see Hock Kelso amp Schoumlner 1993)This type of nonlinearity can be captured by adding a sigmoidalfunction to the equation

u u h c g(u) (t) (2)

where

g(u) 1 frasl (1 exp((u))) (3)

The sigmoidal function g(u) has ldquooutputrdquo that varies between 0and 1 defines the steepness of the transition from 0 to 1 and thisfunction is typically centered around a threshold value of 0 acti-vation Thus as activation u increases from a negative ldquorestingrdquolevel toward 0 the sigmoidal function starts producing positiveoutput At an activation value of 0 the sigmoidal function outputsa value of 05 And at higher positive activation values thesigmoidal function saturates at an output of 10 Note that theoutput of the sigmoidal function is multiplied by a connectionstrength c in Equation 2

To understand the consequence of this sigmoidal function con-sider the phase portrait of this new system in Figure 1C whenh 4 (red line) Notice the S-shaped bend in the system as itapproaches the value u 0 (the threshold value) We can see thatat negative values of u (when g(u) 0) the system follows theequation u u h while at large positive values of u (wheng(u) 1) the system follows the equation u u h cHowever there is still only a single attractor state at h 4 (seeblack square) Consequently this system will always stay near thisattractor state This is shown in Figure 1D Note how the systembehaves just like the linear system for the first 250 time steps

Critically when we boost h from 4 to 2 as before thenonlinear system goes through a bifurcation that is the attractorlayout changes (see magenta line in Figure 1C) Now the systemhas two attractor statesmdashone near 2 (the new ldquorestingrdquo leveldefined by h) and one at 3 (the value h c where c 5 in thisexample) Moreover in between these two attractors is a repellerindicated by the diamond Figure 1D shows that this changes howthe neural population behaves through time When the excitabilityof the neural population is boosted by raising h to 2 the systemquickly moves to this new attractor state However after another250 time steps (around time point 500) the system jumps to thevalue h c and remains stably activated in this on state throughtime The behavior of this system inspires an analogymdashthe neuralpopulation has detected the presence of a weak input and thesystem has kicked itself into an on state Note that this state isstable but not permanent For instance once we decrease h backto the initial resting value at time Step 750 (see green line in Figure1D) the activation eventually settles back to the original attractorstate This is reflected in Figure 1Cmdashrecall that at a low h valuethere is only one stable attractor state

This nonlinear dynamical system captures several key propertiesof neural population dynamics (eg bistability see TegneacuterCompte amp Wang 2002) however the system can only representthat something is present or absent (ie that activation is high orlow) To enrich the system we need to think about how torepresent the dimensions within which the neural system is em-bedded In DFT this is done by thinking about the tuning curvesof neurons in a population Neurons in cortex are sensitive toparticular types of information typically in a graded way Forinstance some neurons are ldquotunedrdquo to spatial dimensions (Con-stantinidis amp Steinmetz 2001)mdashthey prefer stimuli say to the leftside of the retina Other neurons are tuned to color dimensions(Matsumora Koida amp Komatsu 2008 Xiao Wang amp Felleman2003)mdashthey like blue hues These tuning functions are typicallyquite broad (Wachtler Sejnowski amp Albright 2003) this means acolor neuron will respond really vigorously to blue hues but alsoquite a bit to cyan and maybe even a bit to pink as well

How do we incorporate these tuning functions into the neuronaldynamics picture We can integrate these concepts using dynamicfields (DFs) where each neuron contributes its tuning curveweighted by its current firing rate to an activation field (Erlhagenet al 1999) This tuning of neural units creates a direct linkbetween activation fields in DFT and task dimensions varied inexperiments that has predicted a wide range of behavioral data(Buss amp Spencer 2014 Buss et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Lucket al 2009) To make this concrete start with 100 neural sitesinstead of just one Each site will have the same neural dynamicsas before however now that we have 100 neural sites we have tothink about how they are connected to one another across thecortical field We will wire them up using a canonical lateralconnectivity pattern with local excitation and surround inhibition(Amari 1977 Compte et al 2000 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) andthe ldquoorderingrdquo of sites along the represented dimension will bebased on their tuning curves This means that neurons that ldquolikerdquosimilar spatial locations or similar colors will pass strong recip-rocal excitation to one another because they are close together inthe field while neural sites that like very different locations orcolors will share reciprocal inhibition because they are far apart inthe field Mathematically this can be summarized as follows(Amari 1977 Wilson amp Cowan 1972)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) ce(x x)g(u(x t))dx

ci(x x)g(u(x t))dx (x t) (4)

Note the similarities to the neuronal dynamics in Equation 2however now activation is distributed over the behavioral dimen-sion x (eg color) Similarly inputs s(x t) are distributed over xthus a red input (x 25) is different from a blue input (x 60)The laterally excitatory connections are defined by ce (an excit-atory Gaussian connection matrix) while the inhibitory connec-tions are defined by ci (an inhibitory Gaussian connection matrix)As before these are convolved with the sigmoidal function g(u)This means that only above-threshold sites in the field contributeto neural interactions that is to local excitation and surroundinhibition Neural interactions for each location x are evaluatedrelative to every other position in the field x Lastly e specifiesthe timescale over which excitation evolves in the field

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5MODEL-BASED FMRI

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To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

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strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

F4

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

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both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

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response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

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created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

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participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F11

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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ocia

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onal

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

F13

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

sdo

cum

ent

isco

pyri

ghte

dby

the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

ticle

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edso

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for

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pers

onal

use

ofth

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dual

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isno

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oadl

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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ent

isco

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ocia

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onal

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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onal

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 5: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

Schoumlner 1998) The system jumps up to the activation value 2(see Figure 1B) quickly finding the new attractor state Afteranother 500 time steps we return h to the value 4 Again theactivation quickly moves to the new attractor state and staysaround this value

Although this captures some features of neural population dy-namics this simple dynamical system fails to capture that neuralpopulations are inherently nonlinear For instance neural popula-tions often require a robust input to ldquoturn onrdquo and once they areldquoonrdquo they are often ldquostickyrdquomdashthey stay on even when there isrelatively little input (eg see Hock Kelso amp Schoumlner 1993)This type of nonlinearity can be captured by adding a sigmoidalfunction to the equation

u u h c g(u) (t) (2)

where

g(u) 1 frasl (1 exp((u))) (3)

The sigmoidal function g(u) has ldquooutputrdquo that varies between 0and 1 defines the steepness of the transition from 0 to 1 and thisfunction is typically centered around a threshold value of 0 acti-vation Thus as activation u increases from a negative ldquorestingrdquolevel toward 0 the sigmoidal function starts producing positiveoutput At an activation value of 0 the sigmoidal function outputsa value of 05 And at higher positive activation values thesigmoidal function saturates at an output of 10 Note that theoutput of the sigmoidal function is multiplied by a connectionstrength c in Equation 2

To understand the consequence of this sigmoidal function con-sider the phase portrait of this new system in Figure 1C whenh 4 (red line) Notice the S-shaped bend in the system as itapproaches the value u 0 (the threshold value) We can see thatat negative values of u (when g(u) 0) the system follows theequation u u h while at large positive values of u (wheng(u) 1) the system follows the equation u u h cHowever there is still only a single attractor state at h 4 (seeblack square) Consequently this system will always stay near thisattractor state This is shown in Figure 1D Note how the systembehaves just like the linear system for the first 250 time steps

Critically when we boost h from 4 to 2 as before thenonlinear system goes through a bifurcation that is the attractorlayout changes (see magenta line in Figure 1C) Now the systemhas two attractor statesmdashone near 2 (the new ldquorestingrdquo leveldefined by h) and one at 3 (the value h c where c 5 in thisexample) Moreover in between these two attractors is a repellerindicated by the diamond Figure 1D shows that this changes howthe neural population behaves through time When the excitabilityof the neural population is boosted by raising h to 2 the systemquickly moves to this new attractor state However after another250 time steps (around time point 500) the system jumps to thevalue h c and remains stably activated in this on state throughtime The behavior of this system inspires an analogymdashthe neuralpopulation has detected the presence of a weak input and thesystem has kicked itself into an on state Note that this state isstable but not permanent For instance once we decrease h backto the initial resting value at time Step 750 (see green line in Figure1D) the activation eventually settles back to the original attractorstate This is reflected in Figure 1Cmdashrecall that at a low h valuethere is only one stable attractor state

This nonlinear dynamical system captures several key propertiesof neural population dynamics (eg bistability see TegneacuterCompte amp Wang 2002) however the system can only representthat something is present or absent (ie that activation is high orlow) To enrich the system we need to think about how torepresent the dimensions within which the neural system is em-bedded In DFT this is done by thinking about the tuning curvesof neurons in a population Neurons in cortex are sensitive toparticular types of information typically in a graded way Forinstance some neurons are ldquotunedrdquo to spatial dimensions (Con-stantinidis amp Steinmetz 2001)mdashthey prefer stimuli say to the leftside of the retina Other neurons are tuned to color dimensions(Matsumora Koida amp Komatsu 2008 Xiao Wang amp Felleman2003)mdashthey like blue hues These tuning functions are typicallyquite broad (Wachtler Sejnowski amp Albright 2003) this means acolor neuron will respond really vigorously to blue hues but alsoquite a bit to cyan and maybe even a bit to pink as well

How do we incorporate these tuning functions into the neuronaldynamics picture We can integrate these concepts using dynamicfields (DFs) where each neuron contributes its tuning curveweighted by its current firing rate to an activation field (Erlhagenet al 1999) This tuning of neural units creates a direct linkbetween activation fields in DFT and task dimensions varied inexperiments that has predicted a wide range of behavioral data(Buss amp Spencer 2014 Buss et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Lucket al 2009) To make this concrete start with 100 neural sitesinstead of just one Each site will have the same neural dynamicsas before however now that we have 100 neural sites we have tothink about how they are connected to one another across thecortical field We will wire them up using a canonical lateralconnectivity pattern with local excitation and surround inhibition(Amari 1977 Compte et al 2000 Wilson amp Cowan 1972) andthe ldquoorderingrdquo of sites along the represented dimension will bebased on their tuning curves This means that neurons that ldquolikerdquosimilar spatial locations or similar colors will pass strong recip-rocal excitation to one another because they are close together inthe field while neural sites that like very different locations orcolors will share reciprocal inhibition because they are far apart inthe field Mathematically this can be summarized as follows(Amari 1977 Wilson amp Cowan 1972)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) ce(x x)g(u(x t))dx

ci(x x)g(u(x t))dx (x t) (4)

Note the similarities to the neuronal dynamics in Equation 2however now activation is distributed over the behavioral dimen-sion x (eg color) Similarly inputs s(x t) are distributed over xthus a red input (x 25) is different from a blue input (x 60)The laterally excitatory connections are defined by ce (an excit-atory Gaussian connection matrix) while the inhibitory connec-tions are defined by ci (an inhibitory Gaussian connection matrix)As before these are convolved with the sigmoidal function g(u)This means that only above-threshold sites in the field contributeto neural interactions that is to local excitation and surroundinhibition Neural interactions for each location x are evaluatedrelative to every other position in the field x Lastly e specifiesthe timescale over which excitation evolves in the field

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ocia

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ishe

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edso

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pers

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ein

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5MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

F2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 12

O CN OL LI ON RE

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

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when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

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Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

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created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

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Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ent

isco

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Am

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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onal

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isno

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oadl

y

30 BUSS ET AL

AQ 16

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

sdo

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ent

isco

pyri

ghte

dby

the

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eric

anPs

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logi

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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ticle

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tend

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lely

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onal

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oadl

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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ssem

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

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Page 6: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

To understand the consequences of the lateral connectivity in adynamic fieldmdashhow neural sites talk to one another based on theirneural tuningmdashit is useful to first plot activation with connectivityand the sigmoidal function turned off Figure 1E shows the sametype of simulation as in Figure 1A and 1B where we start with lowexcitability then boost excitation locally and then return to alower resting level Now however we do the boosting by givinga color input to the field centered at value 25 (see gray ldquoshadowrdquoalong the feature axis) Specifically the input is off for 250 timesteps then on for 500 time steps and then weaker for the last 250time steps As can be seen in Figure 1E the activation in thedynamic field just mimics the input through time (see light grayshadow projected along the back wall of the image) Thus withoutany lateral connectivity or sigmoidal modulation the activation isfeed-forward or input-driven

Figure 1F shows the same input sequence but now with lateralconnectivity and sigmoidal modulation switched on (akin to thesimulation in Figure 1C and 1D) Initially the cortical field isstably at rest that is at the value defined by h At Time 250 thecolor is presented and sites that are tuned to red are activatedAround time Step 500 noise fluctuations boost several sitesaround color value 25 into the on statemdashthey go above-thresholdas defined by the sigmoidal function Consequently these neuralsites start passing activation to their ldquoneighborsrdquo The result is thelarge peak of activation centered over color value 25 The shadowalong the feature axis shows the structure of this peakmdashone cansee strong local excitation with inhibitory ldquotroughsrdquo on either sideof the peak

Peaks in dynamic fields are the basic unit of representationaccounting for detection selection and working memory cognitivestates Peaks are a stable attractor state of the neural populationNote how the peak in Figure 1F retains its shape through timeeven amid the neural noise evident in this simulation This attractorstate is not permanent however once the strength of input isreduced the peak reduces in strength eventually relaxing back tothe original resting level Of interest to the authorsmdashas we showbelowmdashwe can increase the strength of neural interactions in thefield by increasing the strength of local excitation and surroundinhibition and activation peaks show a form of working memorypeaks of activation can be stably maintained through time evenwhen the input is removed (Fuster amp Alexander 1971)

Recent work has offered more biophysically detailed models ofthese base functions (Deco et al 2004 Durstewitz Seamans ampSejnowski 2000 Wei Wang amp Wang 2012) showing howspiking networks together with synaptic dynamics can reproducefor instance a sustained activation peak (often called a ldquobumprdquoattractor) Although these newer models are computationally moredetailed we can ask is all of this detail necessary for linking brainand behavior Critically there are drawbacks to this level of detailthe link of biophysical models to behavioral data is much weakerthan for DFT and the number of parameters and range of dynam-ical states are much larger Thus we do not anchor our account atthis level Nevertheless there are links between DFT and biophys-ical models under simplified assumptions the population-levelneural dynamics of DFT may be obtained from the Mean Fieldapproximation (Faugeras Touboul amp Cessac 2009) We leveragethis understanding here to derive a relationship between DFT andfMRI adapting biophysical accounts for how neural activity gives

rise to the BOLD signal (Deco et al 2004 Logothetis PaulsAugath Trinath amp Oeltermann 2001)

The link between DFT and the Mean Field approximationestablishes that there is a theoretical connection between neuralpopulation dynamics in DFT and theories of spiking networkactivity We can also ask if this connection extends beyond theoryto practicemdashcan we directly measure properties of neural popu-lation dynamics captured by DFT in real brains This issue wasinitially explored using multiunit neurophysiology in the 1990s Inseveral studies of neural activity in premotor cortex resultsshowed that predictions of DF models of motor planning wereevident in multiunit recordings from premotor cortical neurons(Bastian et al 1998 Bastian Schoner amp Riehle 2003 Erlhagenet al 1999 Jancke et al 1999) More recently this connectionhas been explored using voltage-sensitive dye imaging in visualcortex (Markounikau Igel Grinvald amp Jancke 2010) Againproperties of neural population dynamics in DF models such asslowing of neural responses because laterally inhibitory interac-tions were evident in cortical recordings From these examples weconclude that DFT offers a good approximation of the dynamics ofpopulations of neurons in cortex This sets the stage to expand thisline of work to human cognitive neuroscience techniques such asfMRI

We have now reviewed the basic concepts of neural populationdynamics in cortical fields that underlie DFT The next step is tocouple multiple DFs together to create a neural architecture thatimplements specific cognitive processes in a neural way In thenext section we describe a neural architecture designed to capturehow people encode and consolidate features in VWM how theyremember these features during a delay and how they comparethese remembered features with the features in a test array togenerate ldquosamerdquo and ldquodifferentrdquo decisions

A Dynamic Field Model of VWM

We situate the DF model within the canonical task used to studyVWMmdashthe change detection task (Luck amp Vogel 1997) Partic-ipants are shown a sample array with multiple objects After adelay a test array is displayed and participants decide whether thesample and test arrays are the same or different Previous work hasfocused on encoding and maintenance in this task resulting indebates about whether VWM consists of fixed-resolution ldquoslotsrdquo(Luck amp Vogel 1997) or a distributed resource (Bays amp Husain2008) Other work has investigated the biophysical properties ofneural networks that give rise to sustained activation in VWM(Wei et al 2012) Critically detecting change requires that en-coding and maintenance be integrated with comparison The DFmodel provides the only formal account that specifies how thisintegration occurs in a neural system to generate same and differ-ent responses (Johnson et al 2014 Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009)

Figure 2 shows the architecture of the DF model (see onlinesupplemental materials for model equations and parameters) Themodel consists of four components that are interconnected yetserve particular functional roles (see online Supplemental Materi-als Tables S1 and S2) The contrast field (CF) and WM layers havepopulations of color-sensitive neurons that build peaks of activa-tion through local-excitatory connections reflecting the presentedcolors (see also Engel amp Wang 2011) Inputs are presented

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6 BUSS ET AL

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strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 12

O CN OL LI ON RE

F3

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presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

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tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

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participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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ocia

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ishe

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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sdo

cum

ent

isco

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ghte

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anPs

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cal

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ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

rs

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pers

onal

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bedi

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inat

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oadl

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30 BUSS ET AL

AQ 16

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

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ent

isco

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ghte

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the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

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onal

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isno

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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onal

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 7: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

strongly to the CF layer that leads to the formation of peaks ofactivation within this field during stimulus presentation Thesepeaks then send activation to the WM field that also builds peaksof activation at the location of the inputs (see peaks in WM layerin Figure 2) Both fields pass inhibition to one another through ashared inhibitory layer (not visualized in Figure 2 for simplicity)Through this pattern of coupling the model dynamics operate suchthat CF becomes suppressed (see inhibitory profile in CF layer inFigure 2) once items are consolidated within the WM field and theinputs are removed When items are represented at test inputs thatmatch peaks in WM will be suppressed in CF while nonmatchinginputs will build peaks in CF During this phase of the trial themodel engages in a winner-take-all comparison process by boost-ing the same and different nodes close to threshold (via activationof a ldquogaterdquo node see Figure 2) The different node receives inputfrom CF the same node receives input from WM Consequentlyif the model detects nonmatching inputs at test different will winthe competition if however no or few nonmatching inputs aredetected same will win the competition because of strong inputfrom WM It is important to point out that the input to the samenode is effectively normalized by input from the inhibitory layer toenable equitable comparisons with the different node as the set-size (SS) increases (see Equation 7 in the online supplementalmaterials) That is as the SS increases more items will be acti-vated in WM generating more input to the same node This wouldcreate a large asymmetry between activation in the same anddifferent systems making it hard to detect differences at high SSTo help compensate for this asymmetry the Inhib layer also sendsinhibitory output to the same node effectively balancing the in-crease in excitation from WM at high SS with an increase ininhibition from Inhib (that also increases at high SS)

Before describing the dynamics of the model in detail it isuseful to first consider the following dynamic field equation that

defines the neural population dynamics of the CF layer to connectto the concepts introduced in the previous section

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(5)

Activation u in CF evolves over the timescale determined bythe parameter (see online supplemental materials) The first threeterms term in Equation 5 are the same as in Equation 4 Next islocal excitation cuux xgux tdx which is defined as theconvolution of a Gaussian local excitation function cuu(x x=)with the sigmoided output g(u(x= t)) from the CF layer CFreceives inhibition from an inhibitory layer v Lateral inhibitorycontributions are specified by cuvx xgvx tdx which isdefined as the convolution of a Gaussian surround inhibitionfunction and the sigmoided output from an inhibitory layer (v)There is also a global inhibitory contribution specified by auv_globalgvx tdx which is applied homogenously acrossthe field These two inhibitory terms give rise to inhibitory troughsthat surround local excitatory peaks in the contrast layer The nextterm specifies spatially correlated noise crx xx tdxwhich is defined as the convolution of a Gaussian kernel and avector of white noise This simulates a set of noisy inputs to CFreflecting neural noise impinging upon this local neural popula-tion The last two terms specify inputs from the decision nodes (seeFigure 2) Both of these inputs are modulated by the sigmoidalfunction (g) The different node (d) globally excites CF audg(d(t))while the same or ldquomatchrdquo node (m) globally inhibitsCF aumg(m(t)) These excitatory and inhibitory inputs help main-tain peaks in CF if a difference is detected and help suppressactivation in CF if ldquosamenessrdquo is detected (see ldquocrossingrdquo inhibi-tory connections between the decision nodes and CFWM inFigure 2) Note that there is no direct input from WM to CF

Figure 3 shows an exemplary simulation of a single changedetection trail to show how activation changes through time as themodel encodes items into memory maintains memory representa-tions during a delay and then detects a difference in a subse-quently presented stimulus array Figure 3A shows activationacross the feature space in CF and WM through time Figure 3Bshows the node activations through time The remaining panelsshow time slices through CF and WM at particular points duringthe simulation indicated by the boxes in Figure 3A (see alsodownward arrows marking the same time points in Figure 3B)

At 100 ms into the simulation three colored stimuli (threeGaussian inputs) are presented to the model Initially this isassociated with large increases in activation in CF a bit laterpeaks build in the WM layer (see Figure 3A) As activationbuilds in WM activation in CF becomes suppressed After 600ms into the simulation the stimulus array is turned off Nowactivation within CF is strongly suppressed (see troughs inFigure 3C) However activation in WM is sustained in theabsence of the input throughout the delay period (see Figure3D) because of strong recurrent interactions within this layerAt 1800 ms into the simulation a second array of stimuli is

Figure 2 Model architecture Excitatory connections are indicated bylines with pointed end and inhibitory connections are illustrated with lineswith balled end Connections with parallel lines (ie between ldquoDifferentrdquoand contrast field [CF] and between ldquoSamerdquo and working memory [WM])are engaged when the Gate node is activated Connections with perpen-dicular lines (ie from CF to WM) are turned off when the Gate node isactivated See the online article for the color version of this figure

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7MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 12

O CN OL LI ON RE

F3

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

F4

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

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response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

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namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

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AQ 14

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created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

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participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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ocia

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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sdo

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ent

isco

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ghte

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anPs

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cal

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ocia

tion

oron

eof

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lied

publ

ishe

rs

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pers

onal

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30 BUSS ET AL

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

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ent

isco

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ghte

dby

the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

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onal

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isno

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

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Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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onal

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isno

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 8: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

presented to the model At presentation of the test array thegate node is activated (Figure 3B) this boosts the activation ofthe same and different nodes At the same time the presentationof the novel color (C4) leads to the formation of a new peak inCF (Figure 3E) This peak increases the activation of thedifferent node and this node goes above threshold (Figure 3B)leading to a different decision on this trial

A key innovation of the DF model is that the model captureswhat happens on both correct and incorrect trials Figure 4shows exemplary simulations of instances in which the modelperforms correctly or incorrectly on each trial type in thechange detection task Figure 4A shows a correct rejectiontrialmdash correctly responding same on a same trial Note that weare using terminology from the literature on visual changedetection here (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) A sample array offour colors is presented at the start of the simulation generatingpeaks in CF Peaks in CF drive the consolidation of the peaksin the WM field after which activation within CF becomessuppressed This is shown in the lower left panels of Figure 4Aat the offset of the memory array 4 peaks are being activelymaintained in WM while there is a profile of inhibitory troughsin CF During the memory delay activation is maintainedwithin WM via recurrent interactions When the same fourcolors are presented at test no peaks are built in CF (seeasterisks above CF input locations in Figure 4A) The decisionnodes are plotted at the top At the end of the trial the samedecision is above threshold indicating the that the model hascorrectly generated a same response

Figure 4B shows a simulation of a hit trialmdash correctly de-tecting a change on a different trial The dynamics during thepresentation of the memory array are comparable In particularat the offset of the memory array four peaks are being activelymaintained in WM with a profile of inhibitory troughs in CFDuring the test array a new item is presented (C5) along with

three of the original inputs (C2ndashC4) the new input generates apeak in CF at this color value because there is not enoughinhibition at this site to prevent the peak from emerging (seeasterisk above CF in Figure 4B) The peak in CF passes stronginput to the different node such that by the end of the trial thedifferent node is above threshold indicating that the model hascorrectly generated a different response

The bottom two panels in Figure 4 show the modelrsquos perfor-mance on error trials Figure 4C shows a false alarm trialmdashincorrectly generating a different response on a no change trialFalse alarms are likely to arise in the model when a peak failsto consolidate in WM This is shown in the lower left panels ofFigure 4C after presentation of the memory array one peakfails to consolidate (fails to go above threshold see asterisk)and activation at this site returns to baseline levels during thedelay Consequently when the same colors are presented at testthe model falsely detects a change (see asterisk above CF in theright column of Figure 4C) In contrast to other models (Cowan2001 Pashler 1988) therefore false alarms reflect a failure ofconsolidation or maintenance rather than a guess

A ldquomissrdquo trial is shown in Figure 4Dmdashincorrectly generatinga same response on a change trial This simulation shows atypical state of the neural dynamics after presentation of thememory array with four peaks being maintained in WM and aninhibitory profile in CF Note however the strong inhibitorysuppression on the left side of the feature space as there arethree WM peaks relatively close together Consequently whena different color is presented in that region of feature space aweak activation bump is generated in CF (see asterisk above CFin Figure 4D) This bump is too weak to drive a differentresponse and the same node wins the decision-making compe-tition (see top panel in Figure 4D) Thus in contrast to assump-tions of other models (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) compari-son is not a perfect process in the DF model misses occur even

Figure 3 Model dynamics (A) Activation of the model architecture on a set-Size 3 trial (B) Activation of thedecision nodes over the course the trial (C and D) Time-slices from contrast field (CF) and working memory(WM) at the offset of the memory array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) (E and F) Time-slices fromCF and WM during the presentation of the test array (note the corresponding boxes in panel A) In this trial adifferent color value is presented during the test array (note the above-threshold activation in panel E) and themodel responds ldquodifferentrdquo (note the activation profile of the decision nodes in panel B) See the online articlefor the color version of this figure

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8 BUSS ET AL

F4

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

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Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

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Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

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and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

F8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ocia

tion

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ishe

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AQ 16

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

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ent

isco

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ghte

dby

the

Am

eric

anPs

ycho

logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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sar

ticle

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lely

for

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pers

onal

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

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Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

Thi

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ent

isco

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ocia

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ishe

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for

the

pers

onal

use

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isno

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 9: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

when all items are remembered This aspect of the DF model isconsistent with more recent work illustrating how comparisonerrors can impact performance on WM tasks (Alvarez amp Ca-vanagh 2004 Awh Barton amp Vogel 2007)

Note that errors in the DF model are impacted by stochasticnoise in the equationsmdasha realistic source of neural noise that isevident in actual neural systems These fluctuations are ampli-fied by local excitatoryinhibitory neural interactions and caninfluence the macroscopic patternsmdashpeaks in the modelmdashthatimpact different behavioral outcomes such as same and differ-ent decisions Notice for instance that the inputs across all fourpanels in Figure 4 are identical the parameters of the model areidentical as well Thus the only thing that differs is how theactivation dynamics unfold through time in the context ofneural noise Of course noise is not the only factor that influ-

ences whether the model makes an error The number of inputsplays a large role as does the metric similarity of the itemsWith more peaks to maintain there is more competition amongpeaks as well as more global inhibition Consequently thelikelihood of a false alarm increases because neighboring peaksmight fail to consolidate in WM At the same time with morepeaks in WM there is also a greater overall suppression of CFand stronger input to the same node Consequently the likeli-hood of a miss increases as well

Are there unique neural signatures of the processes illustrated inFigure 4 If so that would provide a way to test our account of theorigin of errors in change detection To examine this question herewe used an integrative cognitive neuroscience approach initiallydeveloped in Buss et al (2014) and Wijeakumar et al (2016) Wedescribe this approach next

Figure 4 Model performing different trial types (A) The model correctly performing a ldquosamerdquo trial At theoffset of the memory array the working memory (WM) field has built peaks corresponding to the four items inthe memory array During test when the same item are presented activation in contrast field (CF) stays belowthreshold (note the asterisks above CF) Here the model responds ldquosamerdquo (note the activation of the decisionnodes) (B) The model correctly performing a ldquodifferentrdquo trial Now during the test array a new item ispresented that goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF) (C) The model performing a same trialbut generating an incorrect response At the offset of the memory array the WM field has failed to consolidateone of the items into memory (note the asterisk above WM) Subsequently during the presentation of the sameitems during the test array the corresponding stimulus goes above threshold in CF (note the asterisk above CF)and the model generates a different response (D) The model performing a different trial but generating anincorrect response In this example the model has overly robust activation with the WM field which leads tostronger inhibition within CF and a failure of the new item to go above threshold in CF (note the asterisk aboveCF) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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9MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

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both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

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namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

F8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

F10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ent

isco

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anPs

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cal

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ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

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ishe

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pers

onal

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tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

sdo

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ent

isco

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ghte

dby

the

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anPs

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ocia

tion

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onal

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isno

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oadl

y

31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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onal

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 10: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

Turning Neural Population Activation in DFT IntoHemodynamic Predictions

In this section we describe a linking hypothesis derived from themodel-based fMRI literature that directly links neural dynamics inDFT to hemodynamics that can be measured with fMRI This requiresconsideration of multiple factors including what is measured by fMRIboth in terms of hemodynamics and spatially in patterns of bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) within voxels through time Herewe make several simplifying assumptions that we discuss The endproduct is a direct linkmdashmillisecond-by-millisecondmdashbetween neu-ral activation in the DF model and fMRI measures through time aswell as to behavioral decisions on each trial Although the timescaleof fMRI does not allow for millisecond precision the model isspecified at that fine-grained timescale and therefore could bemapped to other technologies such as ERP in future work (we returnto this issue in the General Discussion) Critically this approachextends beyond previous model-based approaches (Ashby amp Wald-schmidt 2008 OrsquoDoherty Dayan Friston Critchley amp Dolan2003) Specifically this approach specifies mechanisms that directlygive rise to behavioral and neural responses consequently any mod-ifications to these mechanisms directly impact the resultant behavioraland neural responses predicted by the model To illustrate we contrastour approach with model-based fMRI examples using the adaptivecontrol of thought-rational (ACT-R) framework We conclude that theDF-based approach is an example of an integrative cognitive neuro-science approach to fMRI (Turner et al 2017)

Our approach builds from the biophysiological literature examiningthe basis of the neural blood flow response Logothetis and colleagues(2001) demonstrated that the local-field potential (LFP) a measure ofdendritic activity within a population of neurons is temporally cor-related with the BOLD signal Furthermore the BOLD response canbe reconstructed by convolving the LFP with an impulse responsefunction that specifies the time course of the blood flow response tothe underlying neural activity Deco and colleagues followed up onthis work using an integrate-and-fire neural network to demonstratedthat an LFP can be simulated by summing the absolute value of allof the forces that contribute to the rate of change in activation of theneural units (Deco et al 2004) Attempts to simulate fMRI data usingthis approach were equivocalmdashsome hemodynamic patterns pro-duced by the network did qualitatively mimic fMRI data measured inexperiment however no efforts were made to quantitatively evaluatethe fit of the spiking network model to either the behavioral or fMRIdata

Here we adapt this approach to construct an LFP signal for eachcomponent of the DF model To describe how we transform thereal-time neural activation in the model into a neural prediction thatcan be measured with fMRI reconsider the equation that defines theneural population dynamics of the CF layer (reproduced here forconvenience)

eu(x t) u(x t) h s(x t) cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx

cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx auvglobal g(v(x t))dx

cr(x x)(x t)dx audg(d(t)) aumg(m(t))

(6)

To simulate hemodynamics we transformed this equation intoan LFP equation that we could track in real time (millisecond-by-millisecond) for each component of the model (see Equations9ndash14 in online supplemental materials) This time-course was thenconvolved with an impulse response function to give rise tohemodynamic predictions that could be compared with BOLDdata To illustrate Equation 7 specifies the LFP for the contrastfield we summed the absolute value of all terms contributing tothe rate of change in activation within the field excluding thestability term u(xt) and the neuronal resting level h We alsoexcluded the stimulus input s(x t) because we applied inputsdirectly to the model rather than implementing these in a moreneurally realistic manner (eg by using simulated input fields as inLipinski Schneegans Sandamirskaya Spencer amp Schoumlner 2012)The resulting LFP equation was as follows

uLFP(t) | cuu(x x)g(u(x t))dx dx |

| cuv(x x)g(v(x t))dx dx) |

| auvglobal g(v(x t))dx |

| cr(x x)(x t)dx dx |

| audg(d(t)) |

| aumg(m(t)) | (7)

It is important to note several simplifying assumptions hereFirst neural activity in the CF field was aggregated into a singleLFP (representing a single neural region) We consider this astarting point for explorations of this model-based fMRI approachAn alternative would be to use several basis functions to sampledifferent parts of the field and then explore the mapping of theselocalized LFPs to voxel-based patterns in the brain Later in thearticle we quantitatively map hemodynamic predictions from theDF model to BOLD signals measured from 1 cm3 spheres centeredat regions of interest from a meta-analysis of the fMRI VWMliterature (Wijeakumar Spencer Bohache Boas amp Magnotta2015) At this resolution (1 cm3) slight variations in hemodynam-ics because of which part of the field we are sampling fromprobably make little difference By contrast if we were studyingpopulation dynamics in visual cortex with a 7T scanner in differentlaminar layers the use of basis functions to sample the field wouldbe an interesting alternative to explore

Similarly in Equation 7 we normalized each contribution to theLFP by dividing by the number of units in that contribution eitherby 1 (eg for the ldquosamerdquo node) or by the field size This waycontributions to the CF LFP from say the different node were ofcomparable magnitude to contributions from local excitatory in-teractions Again this is a simplifying assumption that can beexplored in future work For instance there is an emerging liter-ature examining how excitatory versus inhibitory neural interac-tions differentially contribute to the BOLD signal (Lee et al2010) It would be possible to differentially weight these types ofcontributions to the LFP in future work as clarity emerges on thisfront In the simulations reported below we down-weighted allinhibitory LFP components by a factor of 02

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10 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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15MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F6

T1 AQ6

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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16 BUSS ET AL

AQ 15

O CN OL LI ON RE

F7

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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17MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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19MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

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participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

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Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

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large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

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the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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rs

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sar

ticle

isin

tend

edso

lely

for

the

pers

onal

use

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ein

divi

dual

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isno

tto

bedi

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oadl

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28 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 8

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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ent

isco

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ocia

tion

oron

eof

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lied

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ishe

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onal

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30 BUSS ET AL

AQ 16

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

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ent

isco

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ghte

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Am

eric

anPs

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logi

cal

Ass

ocia

tion

oron

eof

itsal

lied

publ

ishe

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onal

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31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

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Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

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onal

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Page 11: How Do Neural Processes Give Rise to Cognition ...

Once an LFP has been calculated from each component of theDF modelmdashone LFP for CF one for WM one for different andone for samemdasha hemodynamic response can then be calculated byconvolving uLFP with an impulse response function that specifiesthe time-course of the slow blood-flow response to neural activa-tion (see Equation 15 in the online supplemental materials) Thesimulated hemodynamic time course for each component wascomputed as a percent signal change relative to the maximumintensity across the run Average responses for each trial-typewithin each component were then computed within the relevanttime window (14 s for the simulations of the Todd and Marois dataand 20 s for the Magen et al data) as the amount of change relativeto the onset of the trial (see online supplemental materials for fulldetails) A group average for each trial type was then computedacross the group of runs

Figure 5 shows an exemplary simulation of the model for aseries of eight trials with a memory loadmdashor SSmdashof two items forthe first two trials and four items for the subsequent six trialsPanels AndashC show neural activation of the decision nodes andassociated LFPshemodynamic predictions through time In par-ticular panel C shows the activation of the decision and gatenodes highlighting the evolution of decisions that reflect the overtbehavior of the model Going from left to right the model makeseight decisions in sequence (see labels at the bottom of the figure)(1) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) (2) ldquosamerdquo (correct) (3) ldquodifferentrdquo (cor-rect) (4) ldquodifferentrdquo (incorrect) (5) ldquosamerdquo (incorrect) (6) ldquosamerdquo(correct) (7) ldquodifferentrdquo (correct) and (8) ldquosamerdquo (correct) Notethat the long delays in-between trials accurately reflects the typicaldelays between trials in a neuroimaging experiment We havefixed this time interval here to make it easier to see the hemody-namic response associated with each trial (that is delayed byseveral seconds reflecting the slow hemodynamic response) crit-ically however we can match these intertrial intervals precisely toreflect the actual timings used in experiment

Panels A and B in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicresponses for the same and different nodes respectively In gen-eral the decision node hemodynamics are strongly influenced bythe inhibition at test evident in the winner-take-all competition Forinstance the first trial is a different (correct) trial Here thedifferent node wins the competition but notice that the same(Figure 5A) hemodynamic response is stronger than the differenthemodynamic response (Figure 5B) even though different winsthe competition with strong excitatory activation the same hemo-dynamic response is stronger because of to the inhibitory input tothis node This is counterintuitivemdashthe node with the strongerhemodynamic response is actually the one that loses the competi-tion We test this prediction using fMRI later in the article

Note that it is possible we could reverse the counterintuitivedecision-node prediction in the model in two ways First themagnitude of the inhibitory contribution to the decision nodedynamics could be reduced via parameter tuning This would betricky to achieve however because the decision system dynamicshave to balance ldquojust rightrdquo such that the full pattern of behavioraldata are correctly modeled If for instance inhibition is too weakthe model might respond same at high memory loads simplybecause there are so many peaks in WM and therefore stronginput to the same node at test Thus there are strong constraints inmodel parametersmdashif we try to tune the neural or hemodynamic

predictions so they make more intuitive sense the model might nolonger accurately fit the behavioral data

That said there is a second way we could modify the hemody-namic predictions of the decision nodes more directly makingthem less dominated by inhibition we could down-weight theinhibitory contributions within the LFP equation itself Doing sowould be more akin to a ldquotwo-stagerdquo approach as outlined byTurner et al (2017) in which separate parameters are used togenerate behavioral responses and neural responses However bydoing so we could implement the hypothesis that inhibitory con-tributions to LFPs are weaker than excitatory contributions ahypothesis that could be explored using optogenetics (eg Lee etal 2010) To do this we could add a new inhibitory weightingparameter to Equation 7 to reduce the strength of the inhibitorycontributions (ie the second third and sixth terms in the equa-tion) Note that this would have to be applied to all inhibitory termsin the full model consequently inhibition would have less of aneffect on the decision-node hemodynamics but it would also haveless of an effect on the CF and WM hemodynamics as well Weexplore this sense of parameter tuning in the first simulationexperiment

Panels E and G in Figure 5 show the activation of CF and WMrespectively Note that all of the activation dynamics highlighted inthe field activities in Figure 3A still occur here however thesedynamics are compressed in time as we are showing a sequence ofeight trials with relatively long intertrial intervals That said oneach trial the sequence of stimulus presentations is evident in CFat the start and end of each trial (see peaks at the onset and offsetof each inhibitory period in Figure 5E) while the active mainte-nance of peaks in WM is also readily apparent (Figure 5G)

Panels D and F in Figure 5 show the LFP and hemodynamicpredictions for CF and WM CF is influenced by whether the trialis same or different with a slightly stronger response in CF ondifferent trials (see for instance the large first and third hemody-namic peaks we show this more clearly later in the article whenwe aggregate LFPs across many simulation trials vs the individualsimulations as shown here) WM is most strongly influenced byhow many items are maintained during the delay thus this layershows relatively weaker responses on the first two trials when thememory load is two items compared with the subsequent trialswhen the memory load is four items

In summary Figure 5 illustrates over a series of trials how themodel generates a complex pattern of predictions associated withthe neural processes that underlie encoding and consolidation ofitems in WM the maintenance of those items during the memorydelay and decision-making and comparison processes at testLFPs and hemodyanmic responses are extracted from the samepatterns of neural activation that drive neural function and behav-ioral responses on each trial In this way distinct neural dynamicsare engaged across components of the model as different types ofdecisions unfold in the context of the change detection task andthese directly lead to hemodynamic predictions The distinctivenature of these simulated neural responses is important for beingable to use the model to shed light on the functional role ofdifferent brain regions in VWM For instance if we find a goodcorrespondence between model hemodynamics and hemodynam-ics measured with fMRI this uniqueness gives us confidence thatwe can infer different functions are being carried out by thosebrain regions

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11MODEL-BASED FMRI

F5

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Comparisons With Other Model-BasedfMRI Approaches

Beyond the literature on VWM other model-based approachesto fMRI analysis have been implemented that bridge the gapbetween brain and behavior (see Turner et al 2017 for an excel-

lent summary and classification of different approaches) In ourprevious article exploring a model-based fMRI approach usingDFT (Buss et al 2014) we compared the DFT approach to themodel-based fMRI approach using ACT-R Comparing these ap-proaches is a useful starting point as there are similarities in thebroader goals of DFT and ACT-R

Figure 5 Illustration model activation dynamics and hemodynamics (A B D and F) Stimulated local fieldpotential (solid lines) and corresponding hemodynamic responses (dashed lines) from the ldquosamerdquo node (A)ldquodifferentrdquo node (B) contrast field (CF D) and working memory (WM F) (C E and G) Activation of modelcomponents over a series of eight trials (note the labels at the bottom that categorize each trial type) for thedecision nodes (C) CF (E) and WM (G) See the online article for the color version of this figure

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12 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Anderson and colleagues have developed a technique for sim-ulating fMRI data with the ACT-R framework (Anderson Albertamp Fincham 2005 Anderson et al 2008 Anderson Qin SohnStenger amp Carter 2003 Borst amp Anderson 2013 Borst NijboerTaatgen van Rijn amp Anderson 2015 Qin et al 2003) ACT-R isa production system model that explains behavioral data based onthe duration of engagement of processing modules and differentialengagement of these modules across conditions SpecificallyACT-R models posit a cognitive architecture consisting of separatemodules that are recruited sequentially in a task This generates aldquodemandrdquo function for each module through timemdasha time courseof 0 s and 1 s with 1s being generated when a module is active Thedemand function can then be convolved with an HRF for eachmodule to generate a predicted BOLD signal for each componentof the architecture The predicted hemodynamic pattern can thenbe compared against brain activity measured with fMRI in specificbrain regions to determine the correspondence between modules inthe model and brain regions

This approach is similar to the DFT-based approach used hereBoth ACT-R and DFT build architectures to realize particularcognitive functions Both measure activation through time for eachpart of the larger architecture These activation signals are thenconvolved with an impulse response function to generate predictedBOLD signals for each component By comparing these predictedsignals to fMRI data the components can be mapped to brainregions and function can be inferred from this mapping This canbe done by qualitatively comparing properties of the predictedbrain response through time to measured HRFs (eg Buss et al2014 Fincham Carter van Veen Stenger amp Anderson 2002)We adopt this approach in the first simulation experiment hereModel-predicted data can also be quantitatively compared withmeasured fMRI data using a general linear modeling approach(eg Anderson Qin Jung amp Carter 2007) We adopt this ap-proach in the subsequent simulation experiment

In the review of model-based fMRI approaches by Turner andcolleagues (Turner et al 2017) they used the ACT-R approach asan example of ICN Recall that the goal of ICN is to develop asingle model capable of predicting both neural and behavioralmeasures Formally ICN approaches use a single model with asingle set of parameters that jointly explain both neural andbehavioral data Consequently such models must make a moment-by-moment prediction of neural data and a trial-by-trial predictionof the behavioral data One can see why ACT-R might be a goodexample of ICN the model specifies the activation of each modulein real time and this activation affects the modelrsquos neural predic-tions because it changes the demand function (the vector of 0 s and1 s through time) Differences in activation also affect behaviorfor instance modulating RTs

Given the similarities between ACT-R and DFT we can ask ifDFT rises to the level of ICN as well Like with ACT-R DFTproposes a specific integration of brain and behavior In particularthere are not separate neural versus behavioral parameters ratherthere is one set of parameters in the neural model and changes inthese parameters have direct consequences for both neural activi-tymdashthe LFPs generated for each componentmdashand for the behav-ioral decisions of the modelmdashwhether the same or different nodeenter the on state and when in time this decision is made (yieldinga RT for the model)

These examples highlight that in DFT brain and behavior do notlive at different levels Instead there is one levelmdashthe level ofneural population dynamics This level generates neural patternsthrough time on a millisecond timescale This level also generatesmacroscopic decisions on every trial via the neural populationactivity of the same and different nodes When one of these nodesenters the on attractor state at the end of each trial a behavioraldecision is made In this sense we contend that DFTmdashlike ACT-Rmdashis an example of an ICN approach

Given the many similarities in these two approaches to model-based fMRI we can ask the next question are there key differ-ences The most substantive difference is in how the two frame-works conceptualize ldquoactivationrdquo and relatedly how theyimplement processes through time As demonstrated in Figures3ndash5 the activation patterns measured in each neural population inthe DF model are more than just an index of the engagement of thepopulation rather activation has meaningmdashit represents the colorspresented in the task This was emphasized in our introduction toDFT Although activation and in particular the neural dynamicsthat govern activation are key concepts in DFT we moved beyondthe level of activation to think about what activation represents bymodeling activation in a neural field distributed over a featuredimension

Critically by grounding activation in a specific feature space wealso had to specify the neural processes through time that do thejob of consolidating features in WM maintaining those featuresthrough time and then comparing the features in WM with thefeatures in the test array Thus our model not only specifies whatactivation means it also specifies the neural processes that un-derlie behavior that is the neural processes that give rise to themacroscopic neural patterns that underlie same or different deci-sions on each trial The details of this neural implementation haveconsequences for the activation patterns produced by the model Ifwe for instance changed how encoding and consolidation weredone by adding new layers to the model to separate visual encod-ing from shifts of attention to each item (Schneegans Spencer ampSchoumlner 2016) the model would generate different activationpatterns through time and consequently different hemodynamicpredictions

By contrast activation in ACT-R is abstract Each module takesa specific amount of time which creates differences in the demandor activation function but the modules in ACT-R typically do notactually implement anything rather they instantiate how long theprocess would take if it were to implement a particular functionSometimes modules are actually implemented (Jilk LebiereOrsquoReilly amp Anderson 2008) but this has not been done with anyfMRI examples

Is this difference in how activation is conceptualized importantTo evaluate this question consider a recent model of VWM usingACT-R (Veksler et al 2017) At face value this model sets up anideal contrastmdashin theory we could contrast the model-based fMRIprediction of our DF model with model-based fMRI predictionsderived from the Veksler et al ACT-R model To explain why wecannot do this it is useful to first describe the Veksler et al model

The Veksler et al model uses the ACT-R memory equation toimplement a variant of VWM Each item in the display is associ-ated with an activation level in the memory module that is afunction of whether it was fixated or encoded how recently it wasfixated or encoded a decay rate a base-level offset for activation

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13MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

and logistically distributed noise with a mean of 0 and a specificstandard deviation To place this model in the context of changedetection we must first make some decisions about how encodingworks For instance in many change detection experiments fixa-tion is held constant so we could assume that a specific number ofitems start off at a baseline activation level We could also hy-pothesize that each item takes a certain amount of time to encodeand then let the model encode as many items as it can in the timeallowed

After encoding the next key issue is which items are stillremembered after the delay when memory is tested Concretelythe memory module specifies an activation value of each itemthrough time If that activation value is above a threshold whenmemory is tested that item is remembered If the activation isbelow threshold at test that item is forgotten

The challenging question is what to do in this model at testEach item is only represented by an activation levelmdashthere is nocontent Consequently itrsquos not clear how to do comparison Oneidea is to assume that comparison is a perfect process This issimilar to assumptions in the original models of VWM by Pashler(1988) and Cowan (2001) Thus if an item is remembered wealways get a correct response If an item is forgotten then wecould just have the model randomly guess Sometimes the modelwill generate a lucky guess Other times the model will guessincorrectly generating a false alarm or a miss

Although this approach sounds reasonable it does not actuallydo a good job modeling behavior because performance varies as afunction of whether the test array is the same or different Inparticular adults are typically more accurate on same trials thandifferent trials (Luck amp Vogel 1997) children and aging adultsshow this effect more dramatically (Costello amp Buss 2018 Sim-mering 2016 Wijeakumar Magnotta amp Spencer 2017) If themodel has a perfect comparison process it is not clear how toaccount for such differences unless one simply builds in a bias inthe guessing rate with more same guesses than different guessesThis approach to comparison does not generate any predictionsabout the activation level on ldquoguessrdquo trials when an item is for-gotten because the underlying demand function would be the sameon all guess trials This doesnrsquot match empirical data because weknow that fMRI data vary on ldquocorrectrdquo versus ldquoincorrectrdquo trials aswell as on false alarms versus misses (Pessoa amp Ungerleider2004)

In summary when we try to implement change detection in theACT-R VWM model we run into a host of questions with no clearsolutions Critically many of these questions are centered on themain contrast with DFT that in ACT-R there is activation but nodetails about what activation represents This example also high-lights how important the comparison process is to predictingneural activation On this front we reemphasize that to our knowl-edge DFT is the only model of VWM that specifies a mechanismfor how comparison is done This observation will have conse-quences belowmdashalthough there are many models of VWM be-cause none of them specify how comparison is done this meansthat no other models make hemodynamic predictions that we cancontrast with DFT where comparison is part of the unfoldinghemodynamic response Instead we opt for a different model-testing strategy by contrasting DFT with a standard statisticalmodel

Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) and MagenEmmanouil McMains Kastner and Treisman (2009)

The goal of this article is to examine whether DFT is a usefulbridge theory simultaneously capturing both neural and behav-ioral data to directly address the neural mechanisms that underliecognitive processes (Buss amp Spencer 2018 Buss et al 2014Wijeakumar et al 2016) Here we ask whether the model cansimulate two findings from the fMRI literature that describe dif-ferent relationships between intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and VWMperformance One set of data show that neural activation as mea-sured by BOLD asymptotes as people reach the putative limit ofworking memory capacity In particular Todd and Marois (2004)reported that the BOLD signal in the IPS increases as more itemsmust be remembered with an asymptote near the capacity ofVWM This suggests that the IPS plays a direct role in VWM Thisbasic effect has been reported in multiple other studies as well(Todd amp Marois 2004 Xu amp Chun 2006 for related ideas usingEEG see Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) In contrast a second set ofresults shows that the BOLD response in the IPS does not asymp-tote when the memory delay is increased in duration (Magen et al2009) From this observation Magen and colleagues proposed thatthe posterior parietal cortex is more involved with the rehearsal orattentional processes that mediate VWM rather than being the siteof VWM directly Here we ask if the DF model can shed light onthese differing brain-behavior relationships explaining the seem-ingly contradictory set of results

These initial simulations serve two functions First they providean initial exploration of whether the LFP-based linking hypothesisgenerates hemodynamics from the DF model that are qualitativelysimilar to measured BOLD responses This is a nontrivial stepbecause simulating both brain and behavior requires integratingthe neural processes that underlie encoding consolidation main-tenance and comparison The present experiment exploreswhether we get this integration approximately right Second thisexperiment serves to fix parameters of the DF model Specificallywe allowed for some parameter modification here as we attemptedto fit behavioral data from Todd and Marois (2004) We then fixedthe model parameters when simulating data from Magen et al(2009) as well as in a subsequent experiment where we generatednovel a priori neural predictions that could be tested with fMRI

Method

Simulations were conducted in Matlab 750 (Mathworks Inc)on a PC with an Intel i7 333 GHz quad-core processor (the Matlabcode is available at wwwdynamicfieldtheoryorg) For the pur-poses of mapping model dynamics to real-time one time-step inthe model was equal to 2 ms For instance to mimic the experi-mental paradigm of Todd and Marois (2004) the model was givena set of Gaussian inputs (eg 3 colors 3 Gaussian inputscentered over different hue values) corresponding to the samplearray for a duration of 75 time-steps (150 ms) This was followedby a delay of 600 time-steps (1200 ms) during which no inputswere presented Finally the test item was presented for 900 time-steps (1800 ms) For the simulation of the Magen et al (2009) task(Experiment 3) the sample array was presented for 250 time-steps(500 ms) followed by a delay of 3000 time-steps (6000 ms) anda test array that was presented for 1200 time-steps (2400 ms) For

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14 BUSS ET AL

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both simulations the response of the model was determined basedon which decision node became stably activated during the testarray (see Figures 3ndash5) Recall that the local-excitation or lateral-inhibition operating on the decision nodes gives rise to a winner-take-all dynamics that generates a single active (ie above 0)decision node at the end of every trial

The central question here was whether the neural patterns gen-erated by the model mimic the differing BOLD signatures reportedby Todd and Marois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) To examinethis question we first used the model to simulate the behavioraldata from Todd and Marois (2004) We initialized the model usingthe parameters from Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) thenmodified parameters iteratively until the model provided a goodquantitative fit to the behavioral patterns from Todd and Marois(2004) For example the resting level of the CF component had tobe increased to accommodate for the shorter duration of thememory array in the Todd and Marois study To compensate forthe increased excitability of this component we also had to reducethe strength of its self-excitation (see Appendix for full set ofparameters and differences from the Johnson Spence Luck et al2009 model) We implemented the model to match the number ofparticipants from the target studies to facilitate statistical compar-ison of the data sets Specifically we simulated the Model 17 timesin the Todd and Marois (2004) task to match the 17 participants inthis study and 12 times in the Magen et al (2009) task to matchthe 12 participants in their study We administered 60 same and 60different trials at each set size for each simulation run Group datawere then computed to compare with group data from thesestudies Once the model provided a good fit to the Todd and

Marois (2004) behavioral data we then assessed whether compo-nents of the model produced the asymptote in the IPS hemody-namic response observed in the original report This was indeedthe case These model parameters were then used to simulate datafrom Magen at al (2009) as well as in the subsequent fMRIexperiment to test novel predictions of the model

Results

As shown in Figure 6A the model captured the behavioral datafrom Todd and Marois (2004) well overall with root mean squareerror (RMSE) 0063 It is important to note that the model wasable to reproduce these data even though there were many differ-ences in the behavioral task between this study and the study byJohnson Spencer Luck et al (2009) that was used to generate themodel The duration of the memory array was shorter in the Toddand Marois task (100 ms compared with 500 ms in Johnson et al)and the memory delay was longer (1200 ms compared with 1000ms in Johnson et al) To highlight these differences Table 1summarizes the different versions of the change detection task thathave been previously modeled using DFT

Critically the model showed a pattern of differences betweenactivation over SS that reproduced the asymptote effect in CF(shown in panel B of Figure 6 along with fMRI data from IPS fromTodd amp Marois 2004) Thus the CF component replicated thepattern of activation reported by Todd and Marois from IPSComparing SS1ndash4 with each other there was a significant increasein the average time course of the hemodynamic response for thecontrast layer as SS increased (all p 01) As reported by Todd

Figure 6 Simulations of Todd and Marois (2004) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B)Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from intraparietal sulcus (IPS) across memory loads of 1 2 34 6 and 8 items (left) and simulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulatedhemodynamic response from the other three components of the model See the online article for the color versionof this figure

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and Marois (2004) there was not a significant difference in thehemodynamic time course between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 01187p 907 or SS4 and SS8 t(16) 05188 p 611 These datashow a good correspondence between the neural dynamics fromCF and the measured hemodynamic responses of IPS

To examine whether the asymptotic effect was unique to CF weexamined the hemodynamic patterns produced by the other modelcomponents (Figure 6C) The same node also produced evidenceof an asymptote in the simulated hemodynamic response (compar-ing SS1 through SS4 p 001 SS4 vs SS6 t(16) 02589 p 799) However a decrease in activation was observed betweenSS4 and SS8 t(16) 7927 p 001 The WM field and thedifferent node did not produce a statistical asymptote in activationThe WM field showed a systematic increase in the HDR over setsizes (all t(16) 161290 p 001) The different node showeda decrease in activation from SS1 to SS4 (t(16) 38783 p 002) a trending difference between SS4 and SS6 t(16) 2024p 06 and an increase in activation between SS6 and SS8t(16) 73788 p 001 These results illustrate that different

components of the model can yield distinct patterns of hemody-namics based on how these components are activated over thecourse of a task

We next examined whether the same model with the sameparameters could also simulate behavioral and IPS data fromExperiment 3 in Magen et al (2009) Simulation results this taskare shown in Figure 7 As can be seen the model approximated thebehavioral data well (now presented as capacity Cowanrsquos Kinstead of percent correct) with an overall RMSE 0477 (Figure7A) The hemodynamic data from the model did not show adouble-humped pattern however none of the model componentsshowed an asymptote in this long-delay paradigm consistent withthe steady increase in activation evident in data from posteriorparietal cortex from Magen et al (2009) In particular activationincreased across set sizes for the CF WM and same node com-ponents (all t(11) 3031 p 02) The hemodynamic responseproduced by the different node decreased in amplitude betweenSS1 and SS3 t(11) 10817 p 001 and from SS3 to SS5t(11) 56792 p 001 The amplitude of the hemodynamic

Table 1Summary of Variations in the CD Task That Have Been Simulated by the DF Model

N subjects SSsArray 1duration

Delayduration

Test arraytype

Johnson Spencer Luck et al (2009)Experiment 1a 10 3 500 ms 1000 ms Single-item

Todd and Marois (2004) Experiment 1 17 1ndash4 6 8 100 ms 1200 ms Single-itemMagen Emmanouil McMains Kastner and

Treisman (2009) Experiment 3 12 1 3 5 7 500 ms 6000 ms Single-itemCostello and Buss (2017) Experiment 1 26 1 3 5 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-arrayCurrent report 16 2 4 6 500 ms 1200 ms Whole-array

Note SS set size DF Dynamic Field CD bull bull bull

Figure 7 Simulations of Magen et al (2009) (A) Behavioral performance and model simulations (B) Bloodoxygen level dependent (BOLD) response from PPC across memory loads of 1 3 5 and 7 items (left) andsimulated hemodynamic response from contrast field (CF) layer (right) (C) Simulated hemodynamic responsefrom the other three components of the model See the online article for the color version of this figure

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response did not differ between SS5 and SS7 t(11) 0006 p 995

Discussion

These results represent an important step in model-based ap-proaches to fMRI To our knowledge this is the first demonstra-tion of a fit to both behavioral and fMRI data from a neural processmodel in a working memory task Simultaneously integratingbehavioral and neural data within a neurocomputational model isan important achievement (Turner et al 2017) This points to theutility of DFT as a bridge theory in psychology and neuroscience

The DF model is also the first neural process model to quanti-tatively reproduce the asymptotic pattern from IPS reported byTodd and Marois (2004) The asymptote in the HDR was observedmost robustly in the CF component The asymptote in CF wasbecause of the dynamics that give rise to the inhibitory filter withinthis field As more items are added to the WM field each itemcarries weaker activation because of the buildup of lateral inhibi-tion Consequently less inhibition is passed from the Inhib layer toCF as the set size increases An asymptote was also partiallyobserved in the same node In this case the asymptote was becauseof the effect of inhibition weakening the average synaptic outputper peak within the WM field

The hemodynamics within the WM field grew at each increasein set-size because of the combined influence of inhibitory andexcitatory synaptic activity Strictly speaking the model does havea carrying capacity in terms of the number of peaks that can besimultaneously maintained (Spencer Perone amp Johnson 2009)The model is capacity-limited for two reasons First there arecrowding effects each new color peak that is added to the field hasan inhibitory surround that can suppress the activation of metri-cally similar color values (see Franconeri Jonathan amp Scimeca2010) Second each peak increases the amount of global inhibitionacross the field consequently it becomes harder to build newpeaks at high set sizes (for detailed discussion see Spencer et al2009) However there is not a direct correspondence in the modelbetween the number of peaks that it can maintain and the capacityestimated by its performance that is the maximum number ofpeaks in WM is not the same as capacity estimated by K (seeJohnson et al 2014) In this sense the continued increase inWM-related activation across set sizes evident in Figure 6 simplyreflects that the model has not yet hit its neural capacity limit

This set of results challenges prior interpretations of neuralactivation in VWM That is a hypothesized signature of workingmemorymdashthe asymptote in the BOLD signal at high workingmemory loadsmdashis not directly reflected in cortical fields that servea working memory function rather this effect is reflected incortical fields directly coupled to working memory (CF and thesame node in the case of the DF model) via the shared inhibitorylayer More concretely the primary synaptic output impingingupon CF is the inhibitory projection from Inhib As peaks areadded to WM activation saturates in this field as does the amountof activation within the inhibitory layer Thus the asymptoticeffect is a signature of neural populations coupled to WM systemsrather than the site of WM itself

Multiple empirical papers have reported evidence of an asymp-tote in IPS in VWM tasks some using fMRI (Ambrose Wijeaku-mar Buss amp Spencer 2016 Magen et al 2009 Todd amp Marois

2004 2005 Xu 2007 Xu amp Chun 2006) and some using elec-troencephalogram (EEG Sheremata Bettencourt amp Somers2010 Vogel amp Machizawa 2004) Although the asymptote effectis consistent there is variability in the details of the asymptoteeffect across studies and associated neural indices Several papershave reported that the asymptote effect varies systematically withindividual differences in behavioral estimates of capacity (seeTodd et al 2005) For instance Vogel and Machizawa (2004)showed that increases in the contralateral delay amplitude inparietal cortex from a memory load of two to four items correlateswith individual differences in capacity measured with Cowanrsquos KOther studies however have not replicated this link to individualdifferences Xu and Chun (2006) found correlations between K andincreases in brain activity in IPS for simple features but nosignificant correlation for complex features Magen et al (2009)reported a divergence between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity in IPS Similarly Ambrose et al (2016) foundno robust correlations between behavioral estimates of capacityand brain activity across manipulations of colors and shapes

Other studies have used the asymptote effect to investigate thetype of information stored in IPS Xu (2007) reported that IPSactivation varies with the total amount of featural informationpeople must remember Xu and Chun (2006) modified this con-clusion suggesting that superior IPS activity varies with featuralcomplexity while inferior IPS activity varies with the number ofobjects that must be remembered Variation with featural complex-ity was also reported by Ambrose et al (2016) but this effectextended to multiple areas including ventral occipital cortex andoccipital cortex More recently data from Sheremata et al (2010)suggest that left IPS remembers contralateral items but right IPScontains two populations one for spatial indexing of the contralat-eral visual field and another involved in nonspatial memory pro-cessing

Critically all of these studies adopt the same perspectivemdashthatthe asymptote effect points toward a role for IPS in memorymaintenance We found one exception to this view Magen et al(2009) suggest that IPS activity may reflect the attentional de-mands of rehearsal rather than capacity limitations per se asactivation increases above capacity in some conditions The per-spective offered by the DF model may be most in line with Magenet al (2009) in that our findings suggest IPS does not play a centralrole in maintenance but rather comparison

Additionally we showed that the same model could reproducethe pattern of hemodynamic responses reported by both Todd andMarois (2004) and Magen et al (2009) In particular the modelshowed an asymptote in the Todd and Marois short-delay para-digm as well as the absence of a asymptote in the Magen et allong-delay paradigm Why are there these differences In largepart this comes down to the relative coarseness of the hemody-namic response In the short-delay paradigm activation differ-ences in CF at high set sizes are relatively short-lived and there-fore fail to have a big impact on the slow hemodynamic responseIn the long delay condition by contrast activation differences inCF at high set sizes extend across the entire delay consequentlythese differences are reflected even in the slow hemodynamicresponse

Although the DF model did a good job capturing the magnitudeof the hemodynamic response in IPS simulations of data fromMagen et al (2009) failed to capture the shape of the hemody-

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namic responsemdashthe double-humped hemodynamic response thathas been observed across multiple studies (Todd Han Harrison ampMarois 2011 Xu amp Chun 2006) We examined this issue in aseries of exploratory simulations and found that the details of theHDR played a role in the nonoptimal fit In particular if we rerunour simulations with a narrower HDR that starts later and lasts forless time (see blue line in online Supplemental Materials Figure1A) we still effectively simulate IPS data from both studies andsee more of a double-humped hemodynamic response for simula-tions of data from Magen et al (with ldquohumpsrdquo at the right pointsin time) That said we were not able to show the dramatic dip inCF hemodynamics around 12 s that is evident in the data Wesuspect that this could be achieved by down-weighting the inhib-itory contributions to the LFP more strongly This highlights a keydirection for future work that adopts a two-stage approach tooptimizing DF modelsmdasha first stage of getting the fits to neuraldata approximately right and a second stage where parameters ofthe HDR and the LFPiexclHDR mapping are iteratively optimized tofit neural data

More generally the present simulations show how neural pro-cess models can usefully contribute to a deeper understanding ofwhat particular fMRI signatures like the asymptote effect actuallyindicate To our knowledge the asymptote effect has only beensimulated using abstract mathematical models (see Bays 2018 fora recent comparison of plateau vs saturation models) Althoughthis can be useful it can be difficult to adjudicate between com-peting theories at this level as the myriad papers contrasting slotand resource models can attest (eg Brady amp Tenenbaum 2013Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouder et al 2008 Sims etal 2012) Our results show that neural process models can shednew light on these debates clarifying why particular neural andbehavioral patterns are evident in some experiments and not oth-ers

In the next section we seek more direct evidence of the neuralprocesses implemented in the DF model The model not onlysimulates the asymptote in activation observed in IPS but makesquantitative predictions regarding neural dynamics on both correctand incorrect trials Thus we describe an fMRI study optimized totest hemodynamic predictions of the DF model We then use ourintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach combined with gen-eral linear modeling to create a mapping from the neural dynamicsin the DF model to neural dynamics in the brain

Testing Novel Predictions of the DF ModelAn fMRI Study of VWM

Having fixed the model parameters via simulations of data fromTodd and Marois (2004) we examined our central questionmdashwhether the DF model predicts the localized neural dynamicsmeasured with fMRI as people engage in the change detection taskon both correct and incorrect trials Because the model generatesspecific neural patterns on every type of trial (see Figure 4) anoptimal way to test the model is in a task where each trial typeoccurs with high frequency Thus we developed a change detec-tion task that would yield many correct and incorrect trials foranalysis but above-chance responding (ensuring that participantswere not guessing) Below we describe the task and details of thefMRI data collection We then present behavioral data from apreliminary behavioral study and the fMRI study along with be-

havioral simulation results from the DF model This sets the stagefor a detailed examination of whether the hemodynamic patternspredicted by the model are evident in the fMRI data and whethersuch patterns are localized to specific brain regions that can be saidto implement the particular neural processes instantiated by modelcomponents

Materials and Method

Participants Nineteen participants completed the fMRIstudy data from three of these participants were not included inthe final analyses because of equipment malfunction and unread-able fMR images (distribution of the final sample 7 males Mage 257 years SD age 42 years) Nine additional participantscompleted a preliminary behavioral study (3 males M age 234years SD age 22 years) Informed consent was obtained fromall participants and all research methods were approved by theInstitutional Review Board at the University of Iowa All partici-pants were right-handed had normal or corrected to normal visionand did not have any medical condition that would interfere withthe MR machine

Behavioral task Each trial began with a verbal load (twoaurally presented letters lasting for 1000 ms see Todd amp Marois2004) Then an array of colored squares (24 24 pixels 2deg visualangle) was presented for 500 ms (randomly sampled from CIE-Lab color-space at least 60deg apart in color space) Squares wererandomly spaced at least 30deg apart along an imaginary circle witha radius of 7deg visual angle Next was a delay (1200 ms) followedby the test array (1800 ms) Trials were separated by a jitter ofeither 15 3 or 5 s selected in a pseudorandom order in a ratio of211 ratio respectively On same trials (50) items were repre-sented in their original locations On different trials items wereagain represented in the original locations but the color of arandomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (see Figure8A) Participants responded with a button press On 25 of trialsthe verbal load was probed (adding 500 ms to the trial see Toddamp Marois 2004 M correct 75 SD 13) This ensured thatparticipants could not use verbal working memory to complete thetask (because verbal working memory was occupied with the lettertask) Participants completed five blocks of 120 trials (three blocksat SS4 one block each of SS2 SS6) in one of two orders(24644 64244) Each block was administered in an individualscan that lasted for 1040 s A robust number of error trials wereobtained at SS4 (FA M 287 SD 104 Miss M 658 SD 153) and SS6 (FA M 129 SD 45 Miss M 311 SD 64)

fMRI acquisition The fMRI study used a 3T Siemens TIMTrio system using a 12-channel head coil Anatomical T1 weightedvolumes were collected using an MP-RAGE sequence FunctionalBOLD imaging was acquired using an axial two dimensional (2D)echo-planar gradient echo sequence with the following parametersTE 30 ms TR 2000 ms flip angle 70deg FOV 240 240mm matrix 64 64 slice thicknessgap 4010 mm andbandwidth 1920 Hzpixel

fMRI preprocessing Standard preprocessing was performedusing AFNI (Version 18212) that included slice timing correc-tion outlier removal motion correction and spatial smoothing(Gaussian FWHM 5 mm) The time series data were trans-formed into MNI space using an affine transform to warp the data

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18 BUSS ET AL

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to the common coordinate system The T1-weighted images wereused to define the transformation to the common coordinate sys-tem T1 images were registered to the MNI_avg152T1 tlrctemplate The coordinates for the regions of interest described byWijeakumar et al (2015) were used to define the centers of 1 cm3

spheres Because the time series data was mapped to a commoncoordinate system the average time course for each participantwas then estimated using the defined sphere

Simulation method Simulations were conducted as de-scribed above with the inputs modified to reflect the timing andstimuli properties (eg color separation) in the task given toparticipants Initial observations indicated that the small metricchanges in the task made detecting changes difficult in the modelThus to obtain better fits to the behavior data we changed onemodel parameters governing the resting level of the different nodeFor the previous simulations this value was 9 but for our versionof the task with small metric changes we increased this valueto 5 to be closer to threshold

Behavioral Results and Discussion

Figure 8 shows the behavioral data from the preliminary behav-ioral study (Figure 8B) from the fMRI study (Figure 8C) andfrom the model (Figure 8D) Note that error bars were generatedby running multiple iterations of the model and calculating stan-dard deviation across runs A two-way analysis of variance(ANOVA SS Change trial) on the behavioral data from the

fMRI study revealed main effects of SS F(2 15) 15306 p 001 and Change trial F(1 16) 8890 p 001 and aninteraction between SS and Change trial F(2 15) 1098 p 001 Follow up t tests showed that participants performed signif-icantly better on SS2 compared with both SS4 t(16) 1629 p 001 and SS6 t(16) 1400 p 001 and better on SS4compared with SS6 t(16) 731 p 001 Participants per-formed better on Same trials compared with Different trials at SS2t(16) 3843 p 001 SS4 t(16) 847 p 001 and SS6t(16) 813 p 001 All participants performed better thanchance suggesting that they were not simply guessing (all t val-ues 45 p 001)

The DF model that simulated data from Todd and Marois (2004)and Magen et al (2009) also captured the data from the fMRIstudy and the preliminary behavioral study well (RMSE 011across both data sets) demonstrating that the model generalizes tobehavioral differences across tasks (see Table 1) In summarybehavioral data from the present study show that participantsgenerated many correct and incorrect responses yet remainedabove-chance in all conditions This provides an optimal data settherefore to test the neural predictions of the DF model regardingthe origin of errors in change detection The model did a good jobreproducing these behavioral data with a single modification to aparameter across simulations (changing the resting level of thedifferent node for our metric version of the task) This sets thestage to test the neural predictions of the DF model to determinewhether the model can simultaneously capture both brain andbehavior

Testing Predictions of the DF Model With GLM

To test the hemodynamic predictions of the model we adapteda general linear model (GLM) approach As noted previously itwould be ideal to test the DF model against a competitor modelbut no such competitor exists that predicts both brain and behaviorInstead we asked whether the DF model out-performs the standardstatistical modeling approach to fMRI data using GLM

In conventional fMRI analysis a model of brain activity thathas been parameterized for each stimulus condition is estimatedvia linear regression A set of parametric maps for each condi-tion is then constructed and used to infer locations in the brainwhere these model coefficients are statistically nonzero ordifferent between conditions The proposed innovation is to usethe DF model to reparametize the GLMs because the DF modelpredicts the expected patterns across conditions The DF modelin this case constitutes a task-independent and transferablebridge theory with the ability to make simultaneous task-specific predictions of both brain and behavior Note that thisapproach is novel relative to existing fMRI methods such asdynamic causal modeling (DCM Penny Stephan Mechelli ampFriston 2004) in that most common variants of DCM usedeterministic state-space models while the DF model is stochas-tic (but see Daunizeau Stephan amp Friston 2012) Moreoverthe DF model provides a direct link to behavioral measureswhile DCM does not (but see Rigoux amp Daunizeau 2015 forsteps in this direction) More generally DF and DCM havedifferent goals with DCM using fMRI data to make hypothesis-led inferences about interactions among regions and DF pro-viding a predictive model of both brain and behavior

Figure 8 Task design and behavioralsimulation data (A) A trial beganwith a sample array consisting of 2 4 or 6 colored items Next came aretention interval and presentation of a test array On change trials (50 oftrials) one randomly selected item was shifted 36deg in color space (B)Percent correct from behavioral study (C) Percent correct from functionalmagnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study In both studies there weremany errors at set-Size 4 but performance was above chance t(27) 235p 001 (D) Simulations reproduced the behavioral pattern Error barsshow 131 SD See the online article for the color version of this figure

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The next question was how to apply the GLM-based ap-proach to the brain One option is an exploratory whole-brainapproach We opted however for a more constrained approachusing a recent meta-analysis of the VWM literature (Wijeaku-mar et al 2015) In particular we extracted the BOLD responsefrom 23 regions of interest (ROIs) implicated in fMRI studies ofVWM Twenty-one of these ROIs were from Wijeakumar et al(2015) we added two ROIs so all bilateral entries were presentwith the exception of l SFG that was centrally located

Consider what this GLM-based approach might reveal Itcould be that specific model components such as the WM fieldcapture variance in just 1 or 2 ROIs This would constituteevidence that the WM function was implemented in thosecortical areas It is also possible however that multiple com-ponents capture activation in the same ROI In this case we canconclude that multiple functionalities are evident in this ROIand the model does not unpack the specificity of the functionFor instance the CF and WM fields work together during theinitial encoding and consolidation of the colors while CF andthe different node conspire during comparison In the brainthese functionalities might be handled by separate but coupledcortical fields Indeed we know this is the case already andhave proposed a more complex DF architecture to pull func-tions like encoding and consolidation apart (see Schoner ampSoebcer 2015) Unfortunately this new model is more com-plex harder to fit to behavior and has not been tested as fullyas the model used here We acknowledge up front then thatthere might be some lack of specificity in the mapping of modelcomponents to ROIs that suggests more work needs to be doneto articulate what these brain regions are doing Our hope is thatthe work we present here gives us a theoretical tool to use as wesearch for this more articulated understanding of VWM

To determine whether the model statistically outperforms thestandard task-based GLM approach and makes accurate predic-tions about activation in specific cortical regions we used aBayesian Multilevel Model (MLM) approach using Equation 8with d ROIs N time points and p regressors where Y is an Nby d data matrix X is an N by p design matrix W is a p by dmatrix of regression coefficients and E is an N by d matrix oferrors (using functions provided by SPM12) The errors Ehave a zero-mean Normal distribution with [d d] precisionmatrix

Y XW E (8)

A specific MLM can then be specified by the choice of thedesign matrix In the following analyses we use regressorsderived from the DF model or sets of regressors capturing thefactorial design of the experiment (eg main effects of set-sizeaccuracy samedifferent or interactions thereof) A VariationalBayes algorithm (Roberts amp Penny 2002) was then used to estimatethe model evidence for each MLM p(Y | m) and the posteriordistributions over the regression coefficients p(W | Y m) andnoise precision p( | Y m) The model evidence takes intoaccount model fit but also penalizes models for their complexity(Bishop 2006 Penny et al 2004) It can be used in the contextof random effects model selection to find the best model over agroup

Method

To assess the quality of fit between the predicted hemodynamicresponses from the model components and the BOLD data ob-tained from participants we first ran the model through the fMRIparadigm 10 times calculating the average LFP timecourse foreach model component (different node same node CF or WM) oneach trial type (same correct same incorrect different correct ordifferent incorrect) for each set-size (2 4 and 6) Figure 9 showsthe full set of hemodynamic predictions for all trial types andcomponents calculated from these LFPs (showing M HDR signalchange for simplicity) To the extent that the model captures whatis happening in the brain during change detection we should seethese same patterns reflected in participantsrsquo fMRI data Note thatthese predictions are quite specific For instance as noted previ-ously the same node shows a stronger hemodynamic response onhits than on correct rejections This holds across memory loads Bycontrast the different node shows a stronger hemodynamic re-sponse on hit and miss trials except at the highest memory loadwhere the strongest hemodynamic response is on false alarms Thisreflects the strong different signal on false alarm trials at highmemory loads when a WM peak fails to consolidate The other twolayers in the modelmdashCF and WMmdashshow strong effects of thememory load with an increase in activation as the set size in-creases Differences across trial types emerge in WM as thememory load increases with higher activation for miss and correctrejection trials that is when the model responds same

Next the LFP timecourses were turned into subject-specifictime courses These time courses were created by setting the timewindows corresponding to each trial equal to the average LFPtimecourse based on the timing and type of each trial for eachparticipant For each participant four separate time courses were

Figure 9 Average amplitude of hemodynamic response across modelcomponents and trial types This figure shows the variations in the ampli-tude of the hemodynamic response when performing our version of thechange detection task (correct change trial hit correct same trial correct-rejection [CR] incorrect change trial Miss incorrect sametrial false alarm [FA]) See the online article for the color version of thisfigure

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20 BUSS ET AL

AQ 7

AQ 14

F9

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

created corresponding to the LFPs from the different same CFand WM model components The variations in timing in the timecourses for a participant reflect the random jitter between trialsfrom the fMRI experiment while the variations in the trial typesreflect both the trial-by-trial randomization in trial types as well asparticipantrsquos performancemdashwhether each trial was for instance aset Size 2 ldquocorrectrdquo trial a set Size 4 ldquoincorrectrdquo trial and so onThe LFP time courses were then convolved with an impulseresponse function and down-sampled at 2 TR to match the fMRIexperiment Individual-level GLMs were first fit to each partici-pantrsquos fMRI data These results were then evaluated at the grouplevel using Bayesian MLM

Results

Categorical versus DF model In a first analysis we gener-ated standard task-based regressors that include the stimulus tim-ing for each trial type For example a standard task-based analysisof the change detection task would model hemodynamic activationacross voxels with regressors for correct-same trials correct-change trials incorrect-same trials and incorrect-change trials ateach set-sizemdash12 categorical regressors in total (4 trial types 3set sizes) To explore the full range of task-based models wespecified eight models based on combinations of task-based re-gressors (1) a model with three factors that categorize trials basedon set-size change and accuracy (12 total task-based regressors)(2) a model with two factors that categorize trials based on set-sizeand change (six total task-based regressors) (3) a model with twofactors that categorize trials based on set-size and accuracy (sixtotal task-based regressors) (4) a model with two factors thatcategorize trials based on change and accuracy (four total task-based regressors) (5) a model with one factor that categorizestrials based on set-size (three total task-based regressors) (6) amodel with one factor that categorizes trials based on change (twototal task-based regressors) (7) a model with one factor thatcategorizes trials based on accuracy (2 total task-based regressors)and (8) a null model (one constant regressor) For all of thesemodels the hemodynamic response at each trial was modeledbased on the GAM function in AFNI

Second we generated regressors from the four components ofthe DF model as described above Note that all nine models wereindividualized based on the specific sequence of trials for eachparticipant Additionally all models included six regressors basedon motion (roll pitch yaw translations right-left translationsinferior-superior and translations anterior-posterior) six regres-sors based on the motion regressors with a time lag of 1 TR and25 baseline parameters reflecting a four degree polynomial modelfor the baseline of each of the five blocks Lastly all models werenormalized to have zero-mean unit variance among columns be-fore model estimation (for each column the mean was subtractedand then divided by the standard deviation)

Random Effects Bayesian Model Comparison (Rigoux et al2014 Stephan et al 2009) was then implemented across allmodels and participants using the statistical function provided bySPM12 This method uses the concept of model frequencieswhich are the relative prevalence of models in the population fromwhich the sample subjects were drawn For example model fre-quencies of 090 and 010 indicate a prevalence of 90 for Model1 and 10 for Model 2 Random Effects Bayesian Model Com-

parison provides for statistical inferences over model frequenciesand Stephan et al (2009) describe an iterative algorithm forcomputing them Initial inspection of the data revealed that fre-quencies were nonuniform (Bayes Omnibus Risk (BOR) 478 105) The DF model accuracy categorical model and changecategorical model had the largest frequencies of 044 020 and012 respectively The probability that the DF model had thehighest model frequency (quantified using the ldquoprotected ex-ceedance probabilityrdquo) is PXP 09312 This value is a posteriorprobability so has no simple relation to a classical p value Theposterior odds can be expressed as the product of the Bayes factorand prior odds or the log of the posterior odds can expressed as thesum of the log of the Bayes factor and the log of the of the priorodds If the prior odds are unity (ie no hypothesis is preferred apriori as is the case in this article) then the log of the posteriorodds is equivalent to the log of the Bayes factor For example forPXP 09312 the log Bayes Factor is log [09312(1ndash09312)] 261 and the Bayes Factor is exp(261) 135 meaning there is135 times the evidence for the statement than against it Conven-tionally a Bayes factor of 1 to 3 is considered ldquoWeakrdquo evidence3 to 20 as ldquoPositiverdquo evidence and 20 to 150 as ldquoStrongrdquo evidence(Kass amp Raftery 1995) It is in this sense that the DF model ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF model for 10individuals the accuracy categorical model for four individualsand the change categorical model for two individuals Table 2shows the log Bayes Factors for the different models acrossparticipants These results indicate that some individuals showeddifferences in activation across accuracy or change factors thatwere not effectively captured by the DF model

Testing the specificity of the DF model It is an open ques-tion to what extent the dynamics implemented by the model areimportant for its explanatory value in the MLM results One of ourkey claims is that the neural dynamics that are implemented in themodel provide an explanation of what the brain is doing to giverise to same or different decisions in the change detection taskboth on correct and incorrect trials To probe this issue wegenerated new sets of four randomized DF regressors and reran theMLM analysis For each participant and for each trial an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type and componentThese LFPs were slotted in based on the timing of trials for eachindividual participant and then convolved to generate sets of 4 DFmodel regressors as described above We refer to this as theRandom Trial and Component DF Model (DF-RTC) If the struc-ture of activation within each component for each trial type isimportant for the explanatory value of the model then this modelshould do poorly compared with the categorical model

Results from the MLM analysis showed that observed modelfrequencies were nonuniform (BOR 120 105) In contrastto the prior analysis the DF model was not the most frequentrather the accuracy categorical model change categorical modeland DF-RTC model had the largest frequencies of 047 021 and008 respectively The probability that the accuracy categoricalmodel had the highest model frequency is PXP 09459 Thus inthis new analysis the accuracy categorical model best explains thefMRI data In our group of 16 participants the posterior modelprobabilities were highest for the accuracy categorical model for11 individuals the change categorical model for two individualsand the DF-RTC model for one individual These results show that

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21MODEL-BASED FMRI

T2

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the DF-RTC model regressors poorly explain the fMRI data whenthe trial and component structure is removed

Next we asked whether preserving the component structure butdisrupting the trial structure would impact the explanatory powerof the DF model To accomplish this we generated new sets offour DF regressors for each participant In particular an LFP wasselected from a randomly determined trial type on each trial buteach regressor was sampled from a single component to maintainthe integrity of the component-level predictions As before theseLFPs were inserted into the predicted time series based on thetiming of each individual trial for each participant the individual-level GLMs were reestimated and the MLM analysis was repeatedat the group level We refer to this as the Random-Trial DF model(DF-RT) If the specific structure of activation pattern across trialswithin each component is important for the explanatory value ofthe model then this model should do poorly compared with thecategorical model If however this model still captures the datawell then this would suggest that the relative differences in acti-vation dynamics across components are an important contributorto the modelrsquos explanation of the data

In this new analysis we observed that frequencies were non-uniform (BOR 478 105) The DF-RT model accuracycategorical model and change categorical model had the largestfrequencies of 044 020 and 012 respectively The probabilitythat the DF-RT model has higher model frequency than any othermodel is PXP 09312 Thus the DF-RT model still ldquobestrdquoexplains the fMRI data In our group of 16 participants theposterior model probabilities were highest for the DF-RT modelfor 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model for two indi-viduals and the change categorical model for two individuals

We then asked whether the ldquostandardrdquo DF model provides abetter fit to the data than the DF-RT model In this comparison weobserved that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 00396) Thestandard DF model had a frequency of 083 that was higher thanthe DF-RT model frequency of 017 (PXP 09789) Thus thestandard DF model better explains the fMRI data compared withthe random-trial DF model In our group of 16 participants the

posterior model probabilities were highest for the standard DFmodel for 15 individuals Thus the detailed predictions of the DFmodel regarding how brain activity varies over trial types is infact important in capturing the fMRI data from the present study

Are all DF model components necessary The correlationamong the DF regressors was very high most likely reflecting thestrong reciprocal connections between model components Aver-aged over the group the maximum correlation was between CFand WM (r2 93) and the minimum was between the same nodeand WM (r2 52) Thus it is important to assess whether allmodel components are adding explanatory value

We compared the model evidence of the full model with all fourregressors to four other models that eliminated one regressorThese results indicated that removing the different node regressoryielded a better model Specifically the frequency of this modelwas higher than the other four models that were compared (PXP 9998) The model frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 572 107) indicating a very low probability that the model frequenciesare equal (this is a posterior probability and can also be convertedinto a Bayes Factor as above) We examined whether furtherreducing the model would yield a better model We compared themodel with the different node regressor removed to three othermodels with one of the remaining three regressors removed Re-sults from this comparison indicated that the model with threeregressors had the highest model frequency PXP 10000 andthe model frequencies were significantly nonuniform (BOR 226 107) From this we concluded that the best variant of theDF model across participants was a three-regressor model with CFWM and same regressors included

In an additional MLM analysis we examined how the reducedmodel compared with the set of categorical models describedabove We observed that frequencies were nonuniform (BOR 434 106) The DF model accuracy categorical model andchange categorical model had the largest frequencies of 052 012and 012 respectively The probability that the DF model has thehighest model frequency is PXP 09922 Thus the reduced DFmodel still best explains the fMRI data In our group of 16

Table 2Log Bayes Factors Across Models for All Subjects

Participant Null Set size (SS) Accuracy Change SSAcc SSCh SSChAcc DF

1 8131 4479 4023 3882 5267 5307 4647 638

2 9862 4219 3577 3482 5144 5103 4107 6359

3 1002 1581 671 763 2677 2714 1209 4546

4 5837 185 478 42 1032 1151 198 24565 529 1672 943 1278 2143 2523 1351 3021

6 6048 1807 1028 1229 2516 2935 1771 4145

7 8448 393 91 1067 915 633 34 25158 2309 808 1318 1415 97 64 905 8879 4606 151 86 794 566 695 422 1708

10 2861 2849 2789 2812 2857 2868 281 2865

11 1381 457 3832 4079 5807 6033 4875 8048

12 1052 2984 2439 2601 4001 419 3337 5969

13 2612 1151 584 585 1577 1789 1029 202

14 1207 317 2556 2862 4712 4961 3844 7558

15dagger 4209 546 121 14 1239 1282 398 231716dagger 6911 685 196 21 177 215 772 3927

Note Preferred model is indicated by asterisk () Negative values indicate cases in which a categorical model outperformed the Dynamic Field (DF)model The reduced DF model with three components was preferred by participants denoted with 13

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22 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

participants the posterior model probabilities were highest for theDF model for 12 individuals the accuracy categorical model fortwo individuals and the change categorical model for two indi-viduals (see Table 2)

To explore why the different node regressor failed to contributemuch to model performance we explored the multicollinearity ofthe four DF regressors using Belsley collinearity diagnostics (Bels-ley 1991) This revealed that the three remaining regressors weremulticollinear (variance decompositions larger than 5) and thatthe different node was independent of this collinearity (condIdx 5697 different 03155 same 08212 CF 09945 WM 09811) When we examined the connection weights between thedifferent node and the regions of interest all of the regions withrelatively large different weightings had negative weights Thusthe different hemodynamics in the model appear to be relativelydistinct and inversely mapped to brain hemodynamics This mayindicate that difference detection in the model is too simplistic Forinstance evidence suggests that people typically both detectchanges in the test array and shift attention to the changed location(Hyun Woodman Vogel Hollingworth amp Luck 2009) this sec-ond operation is not captured by our model

Mapping model components to cortical regions The anal-yses thus far indicate that the DF model provides a better accountof the fMRI data than eight standard categorical models the trialtype and component structure of the DF model regressors bothmatter to the quality of the data fits and a streamlined three-regressor DF model provides the most parsimonious account of thedata Our next goal was to understand how the model maps ontospecific brain regions and which aspects of the fMRI data themodel captures In this context it is important to emphasize thatthe beta weights for each component of the model are estimatedtogether along with the other components that are being consid-ered That is neural activation in a ROI is the dependent variableand the predicted neural activation from the model components arethe independent variables Because the model components areentered into the model together the beta weight estimated for eachcomponent controls for the other predictors At the group leveldescribed below the statistical comparison was performed indi-vidually on each component using a t test Here the question iswhether each component contributes significantly to prediction atthe group level allowing for inferences to be made about thepartial correlation between each model component and each regionof interest

We performed group-level t tests (Bonferroni corrected) toexamine which of the three components from the reduced DFmodel explained activation in different cortical regions across ourgroup of participants We focused on connections that were posi-tive Note that negative connections were observed (ie samenode lIFG lIPS lOCC lSFG lsIPS rIFG rMFG rOCC rsIPSCF lTPJ rTPJ WM alIPS lIFG lIPS lsIPS rIFG rsIPS) In allbut one case (rMFG) a negative connection was paired with apositive connection with another component Thus negative con-nections could be explained by the inverse nature of differentcomponents involved in same and different decisions in whichcase it is easier to interpret the positive connection weights TheCF component explained significant activation in nine regions(alIPS t(14) 485 p 001 lIFG t(14) 565 p 001 lIPSt(14) 560 p 001 lOCC t(14) 441 p 001 lSFGt(14) 467 p 001 lsIPS t(14) 494 p 001 rIFG

t(14) 556 p 001 rOCC t(14) 432 p 001 and rsIPSt(14) 679 p 001) Additionally WM and the same nodeexplained activation in lTPJ t(14) 825 p 001 t(14 783p 001) and rTPJ t(14) 959 p 001 t(14 789 p 001) Figure 10A shows the mapping of model components tocortical regions A first observation from this pattern of results isthat bilateral IPS is once again mapped to the contrast layerconsistent with our first simulation experiment In addition to IPSthe CF regressor also captured significant variance in other regionsassociated with the dorsal frontoparietal network including bilat-eral OCC and IFG as well as another brain region commonlylinked to an aspect of the ventral right frontoparietal networkmdashSFG (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002)

Given the striking presence of bilateral activation in the t testresults we tested if the regression vectors were significantly dif-ferent between paired regions across hemispheres In our sample ofROIs there were 11 such regions (eg leftright IPS leftright IFGetc) We tested for differences within-subject using the Savage-Dickey (Rosa Friston amp Penny 2012) approximation of modelevidence and then examined consistency over the group (usingrandom effects model comparison) For all pairs no log BayesFactors were decisively negative This indicates that the regressionvectors were different Thus although both hemispheres may beengaged in the same type of function (eg contrasting items withthe content of VWM) activation profiles between hemispheresdiffer This is consistent with data suggesting for instance thatIPS might be most sensitive to visual information in the contralat-eral visual field (Gao et al 2011 Robitaille Grimault amp Jolicœur2009)

To assess the quality of the data fits between the DF regressorsand activation in these brain regions we plotted the predicted datafrom the model against the fMRI timecourses We selected threeregions of interestmdashrTPJ that was mapped to the WM Samecomponent across the group (Figure 10B) lIPS that was mapped tothe CF component across the group (Figure 10C) and a contrastareamdashlMFGmdashthat was not robustly mapped to any component(Figure 10D) In each panel we show an example plot from oneindividual who ldquopreferredrdquo the DF model based on our MLManalysis along with data from one individual who preferred theaccuracy categorical model The annotation in each figure (seegreen ovals) show time epochs where the preferred model showeda better fit to the empirical data For instance in the top panel ofFigure 10B there are several epochs where the DF model fit theempirical data better by contrast the categorical model generallyshows a negative undershoot relative to the data In the lowerpanel however there is a run of trials where the categorical modelprovides a better fit Figure 10C shows comparable results withclear time epochs where the DF model (top panel) or categoricalmodel (lower panel) provides a better data fit Finally in Figure10D one can see two examples where neither model fits theBOLD data particularly well

To explore individual differences in further detail we exam-ined whether the connection values (ie weights) betweenmodel components and cortical regions were correlated (Spear-manrsquos correlation) with an individualrsquos WM performance asindexed by the maximum value of Pashlerrsquos K Note that oursample size of 16 may not be large enough to provide strongevidence of brain-behavior relationships Further we testedonly positive weights between regions and model components

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23MODEL-BASED FMRI

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(13 total comparisons) Using the Benjamin-Hochberg (Benja-mini amp Hochberg 1995) correction procedure and a false-discovery rate of 1 (given the exploratory nature of thesecomparisons) we found that capacity was significantly corre-lated with the connection weight between WM and lTPJ(r 066 p 0055 Figure 10E) As is evident in the scatterplot higher capacity individuals show weaker weights for theWM component in lTPJ Recall from the behavioral data inFigure 8C that performance drops over set sizes particularly inthe different condition thus higher capacity individuals (whohad the highest percent correct) show less of a same bias andmore selective responding on different trials This is consistentwith the correlation in TPJ higher capacity individuals show a

weaker same bias in TPJ (negative correlations between brainactivation and the WM regressor)

Assessing the quality of the mapping of model componentsto cortical regions One way to evaluate the mapping of modelcomponents to cortical regions was shown in Figure 10 where wehighlighted both group-level data as well as data from individualparticipants While this is helpful in evaluating model fits in thisfinal section we use a quantitative metric to help understand whatdetails of the data the DF and categorical models are explaining

To quantitatively assess the quality of the fit for the DF modelrelative to the categorical models we examined the precision ofthe different models Precision was derived from the inverse co-variance matrix for each model Specifically given the linear

Figure 10 Mapping of model components to regions of interest (ROIs) (A) Yellow spheres show ROIs thatcorresponded to contrast field (CF) and red spheres show ROIs that corresponded to WM ldquosamerdquo (WMworking memory) (BndashC) Time-course plots showing the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response andpredicted time-courses from the Dynamic Field (DF) model and from the accuracy categorical model withinregions that were mapped by DF components A participant is shown that preferred the DF model (P1) and aparticipant that preferred the accuracy categorical model (P8) (D) The same time-courses and participants areshown within a region that was not mapped by a DF component (E) Scatter plot showing the correlation betweenparticipant-specific weights of the working memory (WM) component from the DF model to rTPJ (temporo-parietal junction) activation and individual capacity See the online article for the color version of this figure

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24 BUSS ET AL

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Model Y XW E where the errors have covariance matrix Cthe corresponding precision matrix is (the inverse of C) Theprecision metric reflects the partial correlation between variablesindependent of covariation with other variables (Varoquaux ampCraddock 2013) We defined a diagonal version of the precisionmatrix to get region by region precisions diag() such that(r) is high if the model fit is good in region r that is if a lot ofunique variance is captured in this region Improvements in modelprecision were calculated as the relative percent improvement inprecision for the DF model relative to the different categorical

models For instance we can calculate the precision of the DFmodel for subject 1 in left IPS the precision of a categorical modelfor subject 1 in left IPS and then compute the relative percentincrease (or decrease) in precision for the DF model

Figure 11A shows the average improvement in precision oversubjects for the 23 brain regions The arrows below specificregions highlight the mapping of model components to regionsshown in Figure 10A (yellow arrows CF red arrows WM Same) As can be seen in the figure regions mapped to specific DFregressors in the group-level comparisons generally showed a

Figure 11 Relative model precision Average improvement in model precision for the Dynamic Field (DF)model relative to the array of categorical models Top panel shows relative improvement in model precisionwithin the 23 ROIs (regions of interest) Yellow (contrast field CF) and red (working memory WM ldquosamerdquo)arrows mark regions that were mapped to components of the DF model Bottom panel shows relativeimprovement in model precision by participant Arrows indicate participants that preferred a categorical modelover the Dynamic Field (DF) model with four components Gray arrows indicate participants that switched toprefer the DF model when only three components of the DF model were included See the online article for thecolor version of this figure

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25MODEL-BASED FMRI

O CN OL LI ON RE

F11

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

large relative increase in precision for the DF model (positivevalues) Some regions such as rFEF showed a large averagechange in precision even though this region was not mapped to aparticular DF component in the group-level t tests Figure 11Bshows the average improvement in precision over regions split byparticipants The arrows below specific participants indicate theparticipants that preferred a categorical model in the MLM anal-ysis These participants all have small changes in relative preci-sion indicating that the precision of the DF model was onlyslightly higher than the precision of the categorical model Con-sidered together then the data in Figure 11 largely mirror thegroup-level results that mapped DF components to ROIs as well asthe MLM results showing which models were preferred by whichsubjects

Critically the precision for some regions for the categorical-preferring participants showed higher precision for the categoricalmodel of interest This can give us a sense of what the DF modelis failing to capture Figure 12 shows two exemplary participants

Figure 12A shows data from subject 1mdasha DF preferring partici-pant with high relative precision in rIPS (relative precision 17527) while Figure 12B shows data from subject 8mdasha categor-ical preferring participant with a negative relative precision in thissame ROI that is higher precision for the change categoricalmodel (relative precision 19862) Each panel shows theBOLD data the DF time series predictions and the categoricaltime series predictions with the data split by trial types All timetraces were constructed by averaging the time series data from trialonset (0s) through 10 s posttrial onset where data were baselinedat 0 s

As can be seen in Figure 12A the DF-preferring participantshowed a large hemodynamic response in the SS2-correct condi-tions as well as a large hemodynamic response on all SS6 trialtypes (bottom row) This highlights how brain activity is modu-lated by the memory load Note that the SS4 condition had themost trials this appears to have reduced the magnitude of theresponse (note the scale difference in the middle row) Comparing

Figure 12 Activation and model prediction across trial-types within lIPS Activation (solid) and modelpredictions for the Dynamic Field (DF dotted) and change categorical (dashed) models is plotted acrosstrial-types and different set sizes Left graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the DF modelRight graphs represent activation for a participant that preferred the change categorical model The bar graphsshow the average absolute difference between activation and model predictions within the 10 s time window Seethe online article for the color version of this figure

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26 BUSS ET AL

F12

O CN OL LI ON RE

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

the DF time series data with the categorical time series data theDF model data are closer to the empirical values for all SS2 trialsfor SS4-same-correct trials and SS6-same trials (both correct andincorrect) with mixed results in the other conditions Thus in thisregion the DF model is doing relatively well with weaker per-formance on high set size change trials Note that the amplitude ofthe model predictions are low in all cases reflecting the limiteddegrees of freedom in the overall model (only three predictors)

In Figure 12B we see a similar modulation in the HDR over SSalthough this participant shows a robust HDR across all SS2conditions (top row) Looking at the relative accuracy of the DFand categorical time series data the top row shows mixed resultswith one exceptionmdashthe DF model is closer to the data on theSS2-different-incorrect trials The categorical model generallyfares better on the SS4 trials (middle row) SS6 is again mixed withthe categorical model closer to the BOLD data particularly earlyin the trial Even though this region showed high precision for thecategorical model this improved fit is subtle We conclude there-fore that the DF model is generally doing reasonably wellmdashevenwith categorical-preferring participantsmdashand is not overtly failingon a small subset of conditions

Finally we examined the differences between the observedBOLD data measured from rIPS relative to the DF and categoricalmodels Here we focused on the accuracy and change categoricalmodels since these were the only categorical models preferred byany participants First we computed the average absolute differ-ence between the DF model and the BOLD signal and the cate-gorical models and the BOLD signal to determine how much thesemodels deviated from the observed BOLD signal for each trialtype Plotted in Figure 13 is the difference in deviation between thetwo categorical models and the DF model averaged across partic-ipants This visualization provides a sense of which trial types theDF model did well (where there are large positive values in Figure13) and where the DF model did poorer (where there are negative

values in Figure 13) As can be seen the DF model does very wellrelative to these categorical models on incorrect trials at SS2 andacross trial types for SS6 Most notably the DF model does theworst on correct change trials at SS2 Note however the degree ofdifference for this trial type is small relative to the degree ofdifference on other trial types in which the DF model does better

General Discussion

The central goal of the current article was to test whether aneural dynamic model of visual working memory could directlybridge between brain and behavior We initially fit a model thatsimulates behavioral and hemodynamic data simultaneously todata from two fMRI studies that reported seemingly contradictoryfindings The model simulated results from both studies Simulatedresults from the modelrsquos contrast layer most closely mirrored fMRIdata from IPS suggesting that IPS plays more of a role in com-parison and change detection than in the maintenance of items inVWM Moreover the model explained why IPS fails to show anasymptote in a long-delay paradigmmdashthe longer-delay allows formore subtle variations in the neural dynamics of the contrast layerto be reflected in the hemodynamic response

We then used a Bayesian MLM approach to test model predic-tions against BOLD data from a set of ROIs to assess the fit of themodelrsquos predicted patterns of hemodynamic activation Thismethod was used to shed light on the mechanisms that underlieVWM and change detection performance with a special emphasison the neural processes that underlie errors in change detectionResults showed that the model-based regressors explained morevariance in the BOLD data than standard task-based categoricalregressors Additional analyses showed that both the componentstructure of the model and the details of neural activation on eachtrial type mattered to the quality of the data fits Evidence that thetrial types matter is important because the DF model offers a novel

Figure 13 Relative differences between activation in lIPS and model predictions by trial-type We firstcalculated the absolute average difference between activation and model predictions for the Dynamic Field (DF)model accuracy categorical model and change categorical model within a 10 s window for each trial type (asvisualized in Figure 12) Next the difference for the DF model was subtracted from the difference of eachcategorical model Positive values then reflect instances where the categorical model deviated from observedactivation more so than the DF model Negative values indicate instances in which the DF model deviated fromobserved activation more so than the categorical model

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27MODEL-BASED FMRI

F13

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account of why people make errors in change detection In partic-ular the model predicts a false alarm when an item is not main-tained in WM and a miss because of decision errors caused bywidespread suppression of the contrast layer By contrast previouscognitive accounts hypothesized that misses occur when items arenot maintained in WM and false alarms reflect decision errors orguessing (Cowan 2001 Pashler 1988) The fMRI data support theDF account

The model-based fMRI approach not only provided robust fitsto the BOLD data in specific ROIs this approach also conferrednew understanding of the neural bases of VWM In particulargroup-level analyses mapped model components to patterns ofactivation in specific regions of the brain and this mapping offersan explanation of the functional significance of this brain activityAlthough our results here are still correlational in nature futurework could use methods such as TMS to more directly probemodel predictions that can push this explanation to the causallevel Notably once again the contrast layer provided the bestaccount of data from IPS This helps resolve ongoing debates inthe literature Previous work has suggested IPS is a critical site forVWM because this area shows an asymptote in the BOLD signalat higher set sizes (Todd amp Marois 2004) while other worksuggests IPS plays an attentional role (Szczepanski Pinsk Doug-las Kastner amp Saalmann 2013) Our results provide a newaccount of these data suggesting that IPS is critically involved inthe comparison operation This highlights how a model-basedfMRI approach can lead to an integrated account when currentexperimental results have yielded contradictory findings

More generally the contrast field provided a robust account ofneural activation across 10 regions linked to a dorsal frontoparietalnetwork as well as key regions in a ventral right frontoparietalnetwork (Corbetta amp Shulman 2002) One critique of the model isthat it failed to make functional distinctions across these 10 ROIsWe suspect this reflects the simplicity of the model tested hereThe model only had four components While results show thatthese components were sufficient to capture key aspects of thebehavioral and neural dynamics in the task the model does notspecify all the processes that underlie participantsrsquo performanceFor instance in the current model encoding and comparison bothhappen in the CF layer In a more recent model of VWM andchange detection (Schneegans 2016 Schneegans SpencerSchoner Hwang amp Hollingworth 2014) we have unpacked thesefunctions by including new cortical fields that implement encodingwithin lower-level visual fields as well as attentional fields thatcapture known shifts of attention that occur in change detection Ifwe were to test this more articulated VWM model using the toolsdeveloped here it is possible that some of the CF ROIs like OCCwould now show an encoding function while other ROIs like SFGwould be mapped to an attentional function Future work will beneeded to explore these possibilities This work can directly use allof the tools developed here

Another key result in the present article was the mapping of theWM and same functionalities to brain activation in bilateral TPJThe link between WM and TPJ is consistent with previous fMRIstudies (Todd et al 2005) Moreover we found significant corre-lations between the WM and same weights in rTPJ and individ-ual differences in WM capacity Although this suggests TPJ is acentral hub for VWM one could once again critique the specificityof the model predictions shouldnrsquot the model reveal a neural site

for VWM that is distinct from activation predicted by the samenode We suspect there are two key limitations on this front Firstas noted above the model is relatively simple In our recent modelof VWM for instance we tackle how working memories forfeatures are bound to spatial positions to create an integratedworking memory for objects in a scene that is distributed acrossmultiple cortical fields Moreover working memory peaks in thisnew model build sequentially as attention is shifted from item toitem This leads to differences in the neural dynamics of workingmemory through time that are not captured by the model used here(that builds peaks in parallel) It is possible that this more articu-lated model of VWM would help pull part the details of neuralprocessing in TPJ potentially capturing data in other brain regionsas well that the current model failed to detect

A second limitation of the present work was hinted at by oursimulations of data from Magen et al (2009) Those simulationsshow that short-delay change detection paradigms may provideonly limited information about the neural dynamics that underlieVWM because subtle variations in the dynamics are not detectedin the slow hemodynamic response We suspect this contributed tothe high collinearity of our model regressors that ultimately con-tributed to the removal of the different regressor in our final modelThat is the design of the task may not have been optimized to elicitdistinguishing patterns of activation from the model componentsOne way to reduce collinearity in future model-based fMRI wouldcould be to vary the task If for instance the model was put in avariety of task settings including both short-delay and long-delaytrials as well as variations in the memory load the collinearitywould likely reduce Indeed one advantage of having a neuralprocess model is that the properties of the design matrix could beoptimized in advance by simulating the model directly To explorethe relationship between model dynamics and hemodynamics inmore detail we ran additional simulations in which we varied thetiming parameters of the canonical HRF function used to generatehemodynamics from the simulated LFP (see online supplementalmaterials figure) This illustrates how future work can use aniterative process to not only inform interpretation of neural databut to influence the parameters used in the model

In summary although there are limitations to our findings theintegrative cognitive neuroscience approach used here opens up anew way to assess how well a particular class of neural processtheories explain and predict functional brain data and behavioraldata In this regard the DF model presents a bridge betweencognitive and neural concepts that can shed new light on thefunctional aspects of brain activation

Relations Between the DF Model and OtherTheoretical Accounts

DFT provides a rich computational framework that generatesnovel predictions not explained by other accounts focusing on slotsand resources (Bays et al 2009 Bays amp Husain 2009 Brady ampTenenbaum 2013 Donkin et al 2013 Kary et al 2016 Rouderet al 2008b Sims et al 2012 Wilken amp Ma 2004) One novelprediction previously reported using a DF model of VWM dem-onstrated enhanced change detection performance for items inmemory that are metrically similar (Johnson Spencer Luck et al2009) Other more recent models have also addressed metriceffects For example Sims Jacobs and Knill (2012) explain such

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28 BUSS ET AL

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effects in terms of informational bits contained in the memoryarray Items that are more similar to one another contain fewerinformational bits leading to items being encoded more preciselyand change detection performance is improved The model re-ported by Oberauer and Lin (2017) implement neural processesthat explain the benefits of have similarity between items in VWMIn this case the benefit arises from the partial overlap of repre-sentations in VWM that mutually support one another This con-trasts with the explanation offered by the DNF model whichsuggests that benefits in performance arising from item similarityare because of to the sharpening of representations through sharedlateral inhibition (Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009)

Here we extended the DF model to also generate novel neuralpredictions that no other behaviorally grounded model of VWMhas achieved Beyond the capability to generate both behavioraland neural predictions the DF model of change detection is alsothe only model that specifies the neural processes that underliecomparison (Johnson et al 2014) Swan and Wyble (2014) im-plement a comparison process in their model that calculates thedifference between items held in VWM and items displayed in thetest array This calculation results in a vector whose angle is thedegree of difference between a memory item and test display itemand whose length is the confidence that the model has about theaccuracy of that difference calculation To make a ldquochangerdquo deci-sion the vector must be sufficiently different and sufficientlyconfident The response that the model generates is determined byan algorithm that sets thresholds on these two values that linearlyscale with SS Swan and Wyble (2014) also demonstrated how thissame process could generate color reproduction responses sug-gesting this a general process that can be used to both recollectitems from memory and compare the recollected value with anavailable perceptual input It should be noted that the DF modelengages in a similar comparison process but generates activeneural responses based on nonlinear neural dynamics without theneed for a separate comparison algorithm

More recent debates about whether VWM is best explained viaslots or resources have examined color reproduction responsesOther variations of neural models discussed above have simulatedthese type of data using neural units that bind features and spatiallocations (Oberauer amp Lin 2017 Swan amp Wyble 2014) In thesemodels the spatial or featural cue in the task is used to recollect acolor or line orientation value from memory Although the modelwe presented here has not been used to generate color reproductionresponses the model can be adapted in this direction (Johnson etal 2014) For example Johnson et al (nd) tested a novel pre-diction of the DF model that similar items in VWM should berepelled from one another during short-term delays and this shouldbe reflected in color reproduction estimates Recent extensions ofthe DF model have also been used to explain how object featuresare bound into integrated object representations (Schoner amp Spen-cer 2015)

Although there are ways in which DFT is unique it also sharesconsiderable overlap with other theories The neural mechanism ofself-sustaining activation is similar to the mechanism used inmodels proposed by Edin and colleagues (Edin et al 2009 2007)and Wang and colleagues (Compte et al 2000) Additionallycapacity limitations in the DF model arise from competitive dy-namics instantiated through inhibition among active representa-tions similar to the neural model reported by Swan and Wyble

(2014) The model also overlaps with concepts from the slots andresources frameworks Specifically the nonlinear nature of peakformation bears similarity to the qualitative nature of slots Relat-edly the width of peaks and their shifting over time leads to spreadof variance that is consistent with resource accounts Moreoverthe gradual rise in activation for each peak is consistent with theidea of the gradual accumulation of information over time inresource models It is notable that there are inconsistencies regard-ing whether a slots or a resources account fit different data sets(Donkin et al 2013 Rouder et al 2008 Sims Jacobs amp Knill2012 van den Berg Yoo amp Ma 2017) Because the DF model hasaspects consistent with both approaches the model may have theflexibility needed to bridge these disparate findings in the literature(for discussion see Johnson et al 2014)

The DNF model presented here is relatively simple but has beenextensively used to examine VWM from childhood to older adults(Costello amp Buss 2018 Johnson Spencer Luck et al 2009Simmering 2016) Other applications have implemented a moreelaborated model that captures aspects of visual attention saccadeplanning and spatial-transformations (Ross-Sheehy Schneegansamp Spencer 2015 Schneegans 2016 Schneegans et al 2014)These models incorporate a similar network to the model wepresented here but embedded it within a broader architecture thatbinds visual features to multiple different spatial frames of refer-ence and performs spatial transformation across these referenceframes (Schneegans 2016) For example this DF model architec-ture has been used to explain how VWM is updated across howeye movements (Schneegans et al 2014) and how spontaneousexploration of an array of visual stimuli can build a representationof a scene (Grieben et al 2020) Other applications have explainedhow change detection can occur if the same color occupies mul-tiple spatial locations and how changes can be detected if twocolors swap locations as well as differences in performance acrossthese scenarios (Schneegans et al 2016) Future work using themodel-based fMRI methods we describe here can explore how thisfuller architecture accounts for patterns of cortical activation

Limitations and Future Directions

It is important to highlight several limitations of the integrativecognitive neuroscience approach used here as well as future direc-tions One issue that will need to be addressed by future work is thestrong collinearity between regressors generated from the modelThe DF model is dominated by recurrent interactions meaning thatmany properties of the pattern of activation such as the timing orduration are likely to be shared across components The approachused here could be strengthened by designing tasks that are notonly optimized for fMRI but also optimized from the perspectiveof the theory to be tested so that the regressors from a model areas independent as possible

Beyond such challenges this work presents an important stepforward in understanding brain-behavior relationships that opensup new avenues of future research In particular we are currentlyusing this method to determine if model-based fMRI can adjudi-cate between competing neural process models to determine whichprovides a better explanation of brain data If different models usedifferent neural mechanisms or processes to produce the samepattern of behavior can the Bayesian MLM and model-based

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29MODEL-BASED FMRI

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fMRI methods be used to determine which model provides a betterexplanation of the functional brain data

We are also exploring the transferability of models One way toachieve this might be to use one model to simulate two differenttasks If cortical fields implemented by the model corresponddirectly to processing in specific ROIs we would expect the samefield to map onto the same ROI across tasks However it is alsopossible that the function of specific cortical fields might be softlyassembled from interactions among different ROIs in the brain Inthis case the function implemented by a cortical field mightcorrespond to different ROIs across different tasks This explora-tion can determine whether the architecture of a model reflects thearchitecture of the brain or if the functional mapping is morecomplex

Future work can also explore the relationship between the DFmodel and the large body of work examining VWM processes withEEG and ERP Such efforts would complement the work presentedhere by evaluating the fine-grained temporal predictions of themodel The model is implemented with distinct neural processescorresponding to excitatory and inhibitory interactions thus themodel is well-positioned to generate simulated voltage changesand previous reports have provided initial comparisons betweenDF model activation and electrophysiological measures (SpencerBarich Goldberg amp Perone 2012)

Lastly we are also exploring the brain-behavior relationshipusing other metrics of behavioral performance In this project wefocused on accuracy as a measure of performance however RTcan also be informative of the processes underlying VWM Al-though the modelrsquos behavior unfolds in real-time and previous DFmodels have been used to simulate RT as a target beahvior (Busset al 2014 Erlhagen amp Schoumlner 2002) the current model was notoptimized to fit patterns of RT nor was the task optimized toreveal differences in RTs across memory loads Future work canuse this behavioral metric to further constrain model parametersand potentially reveal novel aspects of the neural dynamics ofVWM

In conclusion the DF account of VWM and change detectionlinks behavioral and neuroimaging data in a newmdashand directmdashway We showed how a model that was initially constrained bybehavioral data predicted patterns of fMRI data from a novelchange detection paradigm outperforming standard methods ofanalysis The predicted and experimentally confirmed neural sig-natures of both correct and incorrect performance shed new lighton the functional role of IPS as well as lending support to the roleof the TPJ in VWM maintenance Critically these functionalneural signatures provide support for the neural dynamic accountcontrasting with classic accounts of the origin of errors in changedetection upon which more recent models are based The model-based fMRI approach also raises new questions For instance howspecific is the mapping between the different activation fields inthe DF architecture and cortical sites in the brain Integratingmultiple different tasks within a single model and a single neuraldata set may be a way to address such questions about the mappingof brain function to neural architecture

References

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Psychological Science 15 106ndash111 httpdxdoiorg101111j0963-7214200401502006x

Amari S (1977) Dynamics of pattern formation in lateral-inhibition typeneural fields Biological Cybernetics 27 77ndash87 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00337259

Ambrose J P Wijeakumar S Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2016)Feature-based change detection reveals inconsistent individual differ-ences in visual working memory capacity Frontiers in Systems Neuro-science 10 Article 33 httpdxdoiorg103389fnsys201600033

Anderson J R Albert M V amp Fincham J M (2005) Tracing problemsolving in real time FMRI analysis of the subject-paced tower of HanoiJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17 1261ndash1274 httpdxdoiorg1011620898929055002427

Anderson J R Bothell D Byrne M D Douglass S Lebiere C ampQin Y (2004) An integrated theory of the mind Psychological Review111 1036ndash1060 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X11141036

Anderson J R Carter C Fincham J Qin Y Ravizza S ampRosenberg-Lee M (2008) Using fMRI to test models of complexcognition Cognitive Science 32 1323ndash1348 httpdxdoiorg10108003640210802451588

Anderson J R Qin Y Jung K-J amp Carter C S (2007) Information-processing modules and their relative modality specificity CognitivePsychology 54 185ndash217 httpdxdoiorg101016jcogpsych200606003

Anderson J R Qin Y Sohn M-H Stenger V A amp Carter C S(2003) An information-processing model of the BOLD response insymbol manipulation tasks Psychonomic Bulletin amp Review 10 241ndash261 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03196490

Ashby F G amp Waldschmidt J G (2008) Fitting computational modelsto fMRI data Behavior Research Methods 40 713ndash721 httpdxdoiorg103758BRM403713

Awh E Barton B amp Vogel E K (2007) Visual working memoryrepresents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity Psycho-logical Science 18 622ndash628 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200701949x

Bastian A Riehle A Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (1998) Prior infor-mation preshapes the population representation of movement directionin motor cortex NeuroReport 9 315ndash319 httpdxdoiorg10109700001756-199801260-00025

Bastian A Schoner G amp Riehle A (2003) Preshaping and continuousevolution of motor cortical representations during movement prepara-tion The European Journal of Neuroscience 18 2047ndash2058 httpdxdoiorg101046j1460-9568200302906x

Bays P M (2018) Reassessing the evidence for capacity limits in neuralsignals related to working memory Cerebral Cortex 28 1432ndash1438httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhx351

Bays P M Catalao R F G amp Husain M (2009) The precision ofvisual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource Journalof Vision 9(10) 7 httpdxdoiorg1011679107

Bays P M amp Husain M (2008) Dynamic shifts of limited workingmemory resources in human vision Science 321 851ndash854 httpdxdoiorg101126science1158023

Bays P M amp Husain M (2009) Response to Comment on ldquoDynamicShifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human VisionrdquoScience 323 877 httpdxdoiorg101126science1166794

Belsley D A (1991) A Guide to using the collinearity diagnosticsComputer Science in Economics and Management 4 33ndash50 httpdxdoiorg101007bf00426854

Benjamini Y amp Hochberg Y (1995) Controlling the false discoveryrate A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing Journal ofthe Royal Statistical Society Series B Methodological 57 289ndash300httpdxdoiorg101111j2517-61611995tb02031x

Bishop C M (2006) Pattern recognition and machine learning NewYork NY Springer

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Borst J P amp Anderson J R (2013) Using model-based functional MRIto locate working memory updates and declarative memory retrievals inthe fronto-parietal network Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 110 1628ndash1633 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1221572110

Borst J P Nijboer M Taatgen N A van Rijn H amp Anderson J R(2015) Using data-driven model-brain mappings to constrain formalmodels of cognition PLoS ONE 10 e0119673 httpdxdoiorg101371journalpone0119673

Brady T F amp Tenenbaum J B (2013) A probabilistic model of visualworking memory Incorporating higher order regularities into workingmemory capacity estimates Psychological Review 120 85ndash109 httpdxdoiorg101037a0030779

Brunel N amp Wang X-J (2001) Effects of neuromodulation in a corticalnetwork model of object working memory dominated by recurrentinhibition Journal of Computational Neuroscience 11 63ndash85 httpdxdoiorg101023A1011204814320

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2014) The emergent executive A dynamicfield theory of the development of executive function Monographs ofthe Society for Research in Child Development 79 viindashvii httpdxdoiorg101002mono12096

Buss A T amp Spencer J P (2018) Changes in frontal and posteriorcortical activity underlie the early emergence of executive functionDevelopmental Science 21 e12602 Advance online publication httpdxdoiorg101111desc12602

Buss A T Wifall T Hazeltine E amp Spencer J P (2014) Integratingthe behavioral and neural dynamics of response selection in a dual-taskparadigm A dynamic neural field model of Dux et al (2009) Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 26 334 ndash351 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_00496

Cohen M R amp Newsome W T (2008) Context-dependent changes infunctional circuitry in visual area MT Neuron 60 162ndash173 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron200808007

Compte A Brunel N Goldman-Rakic P S amp Wang X J (2000)Synaptic mechanisms and network dynamics underlying spatial workingmemory in a cortical network model Cerebral Cortex 10 910ndash923httpdxdoiorg101093cercor109910

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (1996) Neuronal activity in pos-terior parietal area 7a during the delay periods of a spatial memory taskJournal of Neurophysiology 76 1352ndash1355 httpdxdoiorg101152jn19967621352

Constantinidis C amp Steinmetz M A (2001) Neuronal responses in area7a to multiple-stimulus displays I Neurons encode the location of thesalient stimulus Cerebral Cortex 11 581ndash591 httpdxdoiorg101093cercor117581

Corbetta M amp Shulman G L (2002) Control of goal-directed andstimulus-driven attention in the brain Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3201ndash215 httpdxdoiorg101038nrn755

Costello M C amp Buss A T (2018) Age-related decline of visualworking memory Behavioral results simulated with a dynamic neuralfield model Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 30 1532ndash1548 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01293

Cowan N (2001) The magical number 4 in short-term memory Areconsideration of mental storage capacity Behavioral and Brain Sci-ences 24 87ndash185 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003922

Daunizeau J Stephan K E amp Friston K J (2012) Stochastic dynamiccausal modelling of fMRI data Should we care about neural noiseNeuroImage 62 464ndash481 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201204061

Deco G Rolls E T amp Horwitz B (2004) ldquoWhatrdquo and ldquowhererdquo in visualworking memory A computational neurodynamical perspective for in-tegrating FMRI and single-neuron data Journal of Cognitive Neurosci-ence 16 683ndash701 httpdxdoiorg101162089892904323057380

Domijan D (2011) A computational model of fMRI activity in theintraparietal sulcus that supports visual working memory CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 11 573ndash599 httpdxdoiorg103758s13415-011-0054-x

Donkin C Nosofsky R M Gold J M amp Shiffrin R M (2013)Discrete-slots models of visual working-memory response times Psy-chological Review 120 873ndash902 httpdxdoiorg101037a0034247

Durstewitz D Seamans J K amp Sejnowski T J (2000) Neurocompu-tational models of working memory Nature Neuroscience 3 1184ndash1191 httpdxdoiorg10103881460

Edin F Klingberg T Johansson P McNab F Tegner J amp CompteA (2009) Mechanism for top-down control of working memory capac-ity Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the UnitedStates of America 106 6802ndash 6807 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0901894106

Edin F Macoveanu J Olesen P Tegneacuter J amp Klingberg T (2007)Stronger synaptic connectivity as a mechanism behind development ofworking memory-related brain activity during childhood Journal ofCognitive Neuroscience 19 750ndash760 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn2007195750

Engel T A amp Wang X-J (2011) Same or different A neural circuitmechanism of similarity-based pattern match decision making TheJournal of Neuroscience 31 6982ndash6996 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI6150-102011

Erlhagen W Bastian A Jancke D Riehle A Schoumlner G ErlhangeW Schoner G (1999) The distribution of neuronal populationactivation (DPA) as a tool to study interaction and integration in corticalrepresentations Journal of Neuroscience Methods 94 53ndash66 httpdxdoiorg101016S0165-0270(99)00125-9

Erlhagen W amp Schoumlner G (2002) Dynamic field theory of movementpreparation Psychological Review 109 545ndash572 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1093545

Faugeras O Touboul J amp Cessac B (2009) A constructive mean-fieldanalysis of multi-population neural networks with random synapticweights and stochastic inputs Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience3 1 httpdxdoiorg103389neuro100012009

Fincham J M Carter C S van Veen V Stenger V A amp AndersonJ R (2002) Neural mechanisms of planning A computational analysisusing event-related fMRI Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences of the United States of America 99 3346ndash3351 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas052703399

Franconeri S L Jonathan S V amp Scimeca J M (2010) Trackingmultiple objects is limited only by object spacing not by speed time orcapacity Psychological Science 21 920 ndash925 httpdxdoiorg1011770956797610373935

Fuster J M amp Alexander G E (1971) Neuron activity related toshort-term memory Science 173 652ndash654 httpdxdoiorg101126science1733997652

Gao Z Xu X Chen Z Yin J Shen M amp Shui R (2011) Contralat-eral delay activity tracks object identity information in visual short termmemory Brain Research 1406 30 ndash 42 httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres201106049

Gerstner W Sprekeler H amp Deco G (2012) Theory and simulation inneuroscience Science 338 60ndash65 httpdxdoiorg101126science1227356

Grieben R Tekuumllve J Zibner S K U Lins J Schneegans S ampSchoumlner G (2020) Scene memory and spatial inhibition in visualsearch Attention Perception amp Psychophysics 82 775ndash798 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-019-01898-y

Grossberg S (1982) Biological competition Decision rules pattern for-mation and oscillations In Studies of the mind and brain (pp379ndash398) Dordrecht Springer httpdxdoiorg101007978-94-009-7758-7_9

Thi

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ent

isco

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y

31MODEL-BASED FMRI

AQ 9

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Hock H S Kelso J S amp Schoumlner G (1993) Bistability and hysteresisin the organization of apparent motion patterns Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 19 63ndash80 httpdxdoiorg1010370096-152319163

Hyun J Woodman G F Vogel E K Hollingworth A amp Luck S J(2009) The comparison of visual working memory representations withperceptual inputs Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Percep-tion and Performance 35 1140 ndash1160 httpdxdoiorg101037a0015019

Jancke D Erlhagen W Dinse H R Akhavan A C Giese MSteinhage A amp Schoner G (1999) Parametric population representa-tion of retinal location Neuronal interaction dynamics in cat primaryvisual cortex The Journal of Neuroscience 19 9016ndash9028 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI19-20-090161999

Jilk D Lebiere C OrsquoReilly R amp Anderson J R (2008) SAL Anexplicitly pluralistic cognitive architecture Journal of Experimental ampTheoretical Artificial Intelligence 20 197ndash218 httpdxdoiorg10108009528130802319128

Johnson J S Ambrose J P van Lamsweerde A E Dineva E ampSpencer J P (nd) Neural interactions in working memory causevariable precision and similarity-based feature repulsion httpdxdoiorg

Johnson J S Simmering V R amp Buss A T (2014) Beyond slots andresources Grounding cognitive concepts in neural dynamics AttentionPerception amp Psychophysics 76 1630 ndash1654 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-013-0596-9

Johnson J S Spencer J P Luck S J amp Schoumlner G (2009) A dynamicneural field model of visual working memory and change detectionPsychological Science 20 568ndash577 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200902329x

Johnson J S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2009) A layered neuralarchitecture for the consolidation maintenance and updating of repre-sentations in visual working memory Brain Research 1299 17ndash32httpdxdoiorg101016jbrainres200907008

Kary A Taylor R amp Donkin C (2016) Using Bayes factors to test thepredictions of models A case study in visual working memory Journalof Mathematical Psychology 72 210ndash219 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201507002

Kass R E amp Raftery A E (1995) Bayes Factors Journal of theAmerican Statistical Association 90 773ndash795 httpdxdoiorg10108001621459199510476572

Kopecz K amp Schoumlner G (1995) Saccadic motor planning by integratingvisual information and pre-information on neural dynamic fields Bio-logical Cybernetics 73 49ndash60 httpdxdoiorg101007BF00199055

Lee J H Durand R Gradinaru V Zhang F Goshen I Kim D-S Deisseroth K (2010) Global and local fMRI signals driven by neuronsdefined optogenetically by type and wiring Nature 465 788ndash792httpdxdoiorg101038nature09108

Lipinski J Schneegans S Sandamirskaya Y Spencer J P amp SchoumlnerG (2012) A neurobehavioral model of flexible spatial language behav-iors Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cog-nition 38 1490ndash1511 httpdxdoiorg101037a0022643

Logothetis N K Pauls J Augath M Trinath T amp Oeltermann A(2001) Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signalNature 412 150ndash157 httpdxdoiorg10103835084005

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (1997) The capacity of visual working memoryfor features and conjunctions Nature 390 279ndash281 httpdxdoiorg10103836846

Luck S J amp Vogel E K (2013) Visual working memory capacity Frompsychophysics and neurobiology to individual differences Trends inCognitive Sciences 17 391ndash400 httpdxdoiorg101016jtics201306006

Magen H Emmanouil T-A McMains S A Kastner S amp TreismanA (2009) Attentional demands predict short-term memory load re-

sponse in posterior parietal cortex Neuropsychologia 47 1790ndash1798httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia200902015

Markounikau V Igel C Grinvald A amp Jancke D (2010) A dynamicneural field model of mesoscopic cortical activity captured with voltage-sensitive dye imaging PLoS Computational Biology 6 e1000919httpdxdoiorg101371journalpcbi1000919

Matsumora T Koida K amp Komatsu H (2008) Relationship betweencolor discrimination and neural responses in the inferior temporal cortexof the monkey Journal of Neurophysiology 100 3361ndash3374 httpdxdoiorg101152jn905512008

Miller E K Erickson C A amp Desimone R (1996) Neural mechanismsof visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque TheJournal of Neuroscience 16 5154ndash5167 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI16-16-051541996

Mitchell D J amp Cusack R (2008) Flexible capacity-limited activity ofposterior parietal cortex in perceptual as well as visual short-termmemory tasks Cerebral Cortex 18 1788ndash1798 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhm205

Moody S L Wise S P di Pellegrino G amp Zipser D (1998) A modelthat accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayedmatching-to-sample task The Journal of Neuroscience 18 399ndash410httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI18-01-003991998

Oberauer K amp Lin H-Y (2017) An interference model of visualworking memory Psychological Review 124 21ndash59 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000044

OrsquoDoherty J P Dayan P Friston K Critchley H amp Dolan R J(2003) Temporal difference models and reward-related learning in thehuman brain Neuron 38 329ndash337 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00169-7

OrsquoReilly R C (2006) Biologically based computational models of high-level cognition Science 314 91ndash94 httpdxdoiorg101126science1127242

Pashler H (1988) Familiarity and visual change detection Perception ampPsychophysics 44 369ndash378 httpdxdoiorg103758BF03210419

Penny W D Stephan K E Mechelli A amp Friston K J (2004)Comparing dynamic causal models NeuroImage 22 1157ndash1172 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200403026

Perone S Molitor S J Buss A T Spencer J P amp Samuelson L K(2015) Enhancing the executive functions of 3-year-olds in the dimen-sional change card sort task Child Development 86 812ndash827 httpdxdoiorg101111cdev12330

Perone S Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2011) Stronger neuraldynamics capture changes in infantsrsquo visual working memory capacityover development Developmental Science 14 1379ndash1392 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687201101083x

Pessoa L Gutierrez E Bandettini P A amp Ungerleider L G (2002)Neural correlates of visual working memory Neuron 35 975ndash987httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(02)00817-6

Pessoa L amp Ungerleider L (2004) Neural correlates of change detectionand change blindness in a working memory task Cerebral Cortex 14511ndash520 httpdxdoiorg101093cercorbhh013

Qin Y Sohn M-H Anderson J R Stenger V A Fissell K GoodeA amp Carter C S (2003) Predicting the practice effects on the bloodoxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) Function of fMRI in a symbolicmanipulation task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 100 4951ndash4956 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0431053100

Raffone A amp Wolters G (2001) A cortical mechanism for binding invisual working memory Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13 766ndash785 httpdxdoiorg10116208989290152541430

Rigoux L amp Daunizeau J (2015) Dynamic causal modelling of brain-behaviour relationships NeuroImage 117 202ndash221 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201505041

Thi

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32 BUSS ET AL

AQ 10

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Rigoux L Stephan K E Friston K J amp Daunizeau J (2014) Bayesianmodel selection for group studiesmdashRevisited NeuroImage 84 971ndash985 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201308065

Roberts S J amp Penny W D (2002) Variational Bayes for generalizedautoregressive models IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing 502245ndash2257 httpdxdoiorg101109TSP2002801921

Robitaille N Grimault S amp Jolicœur P (2009) Bilateral parietal andcontralateral responses during maintenance of unilaterally encoded ob-jects in visual short-term memory Evidence from magnetoencephalog-raphy Psychophysiology 46 1090ndash1099 httpdxdoiorg101111j1469-8986200900837x

Rosa M J Friston K amp Penny W (2012) Post-hoc selection ofdynamic causal models Journal of Neuroscience Methods 208 66ndash78httpdxdoiorg101016jjneumeth201204013

Rose N S LaRocque J J Riggall A C Gosseries O Starrett M JMeyering E E amp Postle B R (2016) Reactivation of latent workingmemories with transcranial magnetic stimulation Science 354 1136ndash1139 httpdxdoiorg101126scienceaah7011

Ross-Sheehy S Schneegans S amp Spencer J P (2015) The infantorienting with attention task Assessing the neural basis of spatialattention in infancy Infancy 20 467ndash506 httpdxdoiorg101111infa12087

Rouder J N Morey R D Cowan N Zwilling C E Morey C C ampPratte M S (2008) An assessment of fixed-capacity models of visualworking memory Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ofthe United States of America 105 5975ndash5979 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0711295105

Rouder J N Morey R D Morey C C amp Cowan N (2011) How tomeasure working memory capacity in the change detection paradigmPsychonomic Bulletin amp Review 18 324ndash330 httpdxdoiorg103758s13423-011-0055-3

Schneegans S (2016) Sensori-motor transformations In G Schoner J PSpencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic thinkingmdashA primeron dynamic field theory (pp 169ndash195) New York NY Oxford Uni-versity Press

Schneegans S amp Bays P M (2017) Restoration of fMRI decodabilitydoes not imply latent working memory states Journal of CognitiveNeuroscience 29 1977ndash1994 httpdxdoiorg101162jocn_a_01180

Schneegans S Spencer J P amp Schoumlner G (2016) Integrating ldquowhatrdquoand ldquowhererdquo Visual working memory for objects in a scene In GSchoumlner J P Spencer amp DFT Research Group (Eds) Dynamic think-ingmdashA primer on dynamic field theory (pp 197ndash226) New York NYOxford University Press

Schneegans S Spencer J P Schoner G Hwang S amp Hollingworth A(2014) Dynamic interactions between visual working memory andsaccade target selection Journal of Vision 14(11) 9 httpdxdoiorg10116714119

Schoumlner G amp Thelen E (2006) Using dynamic field theory to rethinkinfant habituation Psychological Review 113 273ndash299 httpdxdoiorg1010370033-295X1132273

Schoner G Spencer J P amp DFT Research Group (2015) Dynamicthinking A primer on Dynamic Field Theory New York NY OxfordUniversity Press

Schutte A R amp Spencer J P (2009) Tests of the dynamic field theoryand the spatial precision hypothesis Capturing a qualitative develop-mental transition in spatial working memory Journal of ExperimentalPsychology Human Perception and Performance 35 1698ndash1725httpdxdoiorg101037a0015794

Schutte A R Spencer J P amp Schoner G (2003) Testing the DynamicField Theory Working memory for locations becomes more spatiallyprecise over development Child Development 74 1393ndash1417 httpdxdoiorg1011111467-862400614

Sewell D K Lilburn S D amp Smith P L (2016) Object selection costsin visual working memory A diffusion model analysis of the focus of

attention Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory andCognition 42 1673ndash1693 httpdxdoiorg101037a0040213

Sheremata S L Bettencourt K C amp Somers D C (2010) Hemisphericasymmetry in visuotopic posterior parietal cortex emerges with visualshort-term memory load The Journal of Neuroscience 30 12581ndash12588 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI2689-102010

Simmering V R (2016) Working memory in context Modeling dynamicprocesses of behavior memory and development Monographs of theSociety for Research in Child Development 81 7ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101111mono12249

Simmering V R amp Spencer J P (2008) Generality with specificity Thedynamic field theory generalizes across tasks and time scales Develop-mental Science 11 541ndash555 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-7687200800700x

Sims C R Jacobs R A amp Knill D C (2012) An ideal observeranalysis of visual working memory Psychological Review 119 807ndash830 httpdxdoiorg101037a0029856

Smith S M Fox P T Miller K L Glahn D C Fox P M MackayC E Beckmann C F (2009) Correspondence of the brainrsquosfunctional architecture during activation and rest Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 10613040ndash13045 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas0905267106

Spencer B Barich K Goldberg J amp Perone S (2012) Behavioraldynamics and neural grounding of a dynamic field theory of multi-objecttracking Journal of Integrative Neuroscience 11 339ndash362 httpdxdoiorg101142S0219635212500227

Spencer J P Perone S amp Johnson J S (2009) The Dynamic FieldTheory and embodied cognitive dynamics In J P Spencer M SThomas amp J L McClelland (Eds) Toward a unified theory of devel-opment Connectionism and Dynamic Systems Theory re-considered(pp 86ndash118) New York NY Oxford University Press httpdxdoiorg101093acprofoso97801953005980030005

Sprague T C Ester E F amp Serences J T (2016) Restoring latentvisual working memory representations in human cortex Neuron 91694ndash707 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuron201607006

Stephan K E Penny W D Daunizeau J Moran R J amp Friston K J(2009) Bayesian model selection for group studies NeuroImage 461004ndash1017 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage200903025

Swan G amp Wyble B (2014) The binding pool A model of shared neuralresources for distinct items in visual working memory Attention Per-ception amp Psychophysics 76 2136ndash2157 httpdxdoiorg103758s13414-014-0633-3

Szczepanski S M Pinsk M A Douglas M M Kastner S amp Saal-mann Y B (2013) Functional and structural architecture of the humandorsal frontoparietal attention network Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 15806ndash15811 httpdxdoiorg101073pnas1313903110

Tegneacuter J Compte A amp Wang X-J (2002) The dynamical stability ofreverberatory neural circuits Biological Cybernetics 87 471ndash481httpdxdoiorg101007s00422-002-0363-9

Thelen E Schoumlner G Scheier C amp Smith L B (2001) The dynamicsof embodiment A field theory of infant perseverative reaching Behav-ioral and Brain Sciences 24 1ndash34 httpdxdoiorg101017S0140525X01003910

Todd J J Fougnie D amp Marois R (2005) Visual Short-term memoryload suppresses temporo-pariety junction activity and induces inatten-tional blindness Psychological Science 16 965ndash972 httpdxdoiorg101111j1467-9280200501645x

Todd J J Han S W Harrison S amp Marois R (2011) The neuralcorrelates of visual working memory encoding A time-resolved fMRIstudy Neuropsychologia 49 1527ndash1536 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuropsychologia201101040

Todd J J amp Marois R (2004) Capacity limit of visual short-termmemory in human posterior parietal cortex Nature 166 751ndash754

Thi

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onal

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33MODEL-BASED FMRI

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

Todd J J amp Marois R (2005) Posterior parietal cortex activity predictsindividual differences in visual short-term memory capacity CognitiveAffective amp Behavioral Neuroscience 5 144ndash155 httpdxdoiorg103758CABN52144

Turner B M Forstmann B U Love B C Palmeri T J amp VanMaanen L (2017) Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitiveneuroscience Journal of Mathematical Psychology 76 65ndash79 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201601001

van den Berg R Yoo A H amp Ma W J (2017) Fechnerrsquos law inmetacognition A quantitative model of visual working memory confi-dence Psychological Review 124 197ndash214 httpdxdoiorg101037rev0000060

Varoquaux G amp Craddock R C (2013) Learning and comparing func-tional connectomes across subjects NeuroImage 80 405ndash415 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201304007

Veksler B Z Boyd R Myers C W Gunzelmann G Neth H ampGray W D (2017) Visual working memory resources are best char-acterized as dynamic quantifiable mnemonic traces Topics in CognitiveScience 9 83ndash101 httpdxdoiorg101111tops12248

Vogel E K amp Machizawa M G (2004) Neural activity predicts indi-vidual differences in visual working memory capacity Nature 428748ndash751 httpdxdoiorg101038nature02447

Wachtler T Sejnowski T J amp Albright T D (2003) Representation ofcolor stimuli in awake macaque primary visual cortex Neuron 37681ndash691 httpdxdoiorg101016S0896-6273(03)00035-7

Wei Z Wang X-J amp Wang D-H (2012) From distributed resourcesto limited slots in multiple-item working memory A spiking networkmodel with normalization The Journal of Neuroscience 32 11228ndash11240 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI0735-122012

Wijeakumar S Ambrose J P Spencer J P amp Curtu R (2017)Model-based functional neuroimaging using dynamic neural fields An

integrative cognitive neuroscience approach Journal of MathematicalPsychology 76 212ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101016jjmp201611002

Wijeakumar S Magnotta V A amp Spencer J P (2017) Modulatingperceptual complexity and load reveals degradation of the visual work-ing memory network in ageing NeuroImage 157 464ndash475 httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201706019

Wijeakumar S Spencer J P Bohache K Boas D A amp MagnottaV A (2015) Validating a new methodology for optical probe designand image registration in fNIRS studies NeuroImage 106 86ndash100httpdxdoiorg101016jneuroimage201411022

Wilken P amp Ma W J (2004) A detection theory account of changedetection Journal of Vision 4 11 httpdxdoiorg10116741211

Wilson H R amp Cowan J D (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interac-tions in localized populations of model neurons Biophysical Journal12 1ndash24 httpdxdoiorg101016S0006-3495(72)86068-5

Xiao Y Wang Y amp Felleman D J (2003) A spatially organizedrepresentation of colour in macaque cortical area V2 Nature 421535ndash539 httpdxdoiorg101038nature01372

Xu Y (2007) The role of the superior intraparietal sulcus in supportingvisual short-term memory for multifeature objects The Journal of Neu-roscience 27 11676 ndash11686 httpdxdoiorg101523JNEUROSCI3545-072007

Xu Y amp Chun M M (2006) Dissociable neural mechanisms supportingvisual short-term memory for objects Nature 440 91ndash95 httpdxdoiorg101038nature04262

Zhang W amp Luck S J (2008) Discrete fixed-resolution representationsin visual working memory Nature 453 233ndash235 httpdxdoiorg101038nature06860

Received July 19 2017Revision received August 28 2020

Accepted September 1 2020

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ent

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Ass

ocia

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34 BUSS ET AL

tapraid5z2q-psychoz2q-psychoz2q99920z2q2654d20z xppws S1 92420 1141 Art 2017-0719APA NLM

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