The Brains blog is excited about the next Neural Mechanisms webinar this Friday. It is free. You can find information about how and when to join the webinar below or at the Neural Mechanisms website—where you can also join their mailing list to be notified of their webinars, webconferences, and more!
Data Mining the Brain to Decode the Mind
Dan Weiskopf
(Georgia State University)
14 June 2019
exceptionally at h 14-16
(Convert to your local time here)
Abstract. In recent years, neuroscience has begun to transform itself into a “big data” enterprise with the importation of computational and statistical techniques from machine learning and informatics. In addition to their technological applications (e.g., brain-computer interfaces and early diagnosis of neuropathology), these techniques promise to advance new solutions to longstanding theoretical quandaries. Here I critically assess whether these promises will pay off, focusing on the application of multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to the problem of reverse inference. I argue that MVPA does not inherently provide a new answer to classical worries about reverse inference, and that the method faces pervasive interpretive problems of its own. Further, the epistemic setting of MVPA and other “decoding” methods contributes to a potentially worrisome shift towards prediction and away from explanation in fundamental neuroscience.
Join the online session (up to 10 minutes before it begins) | Ask for the paper
