Using Dynamically Adaptive Imaging with FMRI to Rapidly Characterize Neural Representations

Rhodri Cusack¹, Michele Veldsman¹, Lorina Naci², Daniel Mitchell¹

Dynamically Adaptive Imaging (DAI) is a new real-time paradigm for fMRI. BOLD data were analyzed using our open-source real-time software and used to iteratively and automatically adapt the stimuli presented to the volunteer. DAI was applied to investigate feature coding in ventral visual cortex. Pictures of objects were presented on a screen. We performed an iterative search, in which the outcome of the experiment was the neural neighborhood of stimuli that evoked the most similar pattern of neural response to a referent stimulus. DAI converged rapidly and found object-specific tuning to complex conjunctions of sensory and semantic features.