Addressing reverse inference in structural brain alterations

Abstract

In the field of neuroimaging reverse inferences can lead us to suppose the involvement of cognitive processes from certain patterns of brain activity. Still, the same reasoning holds if we substitute "brain activity" with "brain alteration" and "cognitive process" with "brain disorder". To assess the involvement of a certain alteration pattern in a brain disorder we used the Bayes' factor technique on voxel-based morphometry data of schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. This technique allows to calculate the ratio between the likelihoods of two alternative hypotheses (in our case, that the alteration of the voxel is specific for the brain disorder under scrutiny or that the alteration is not specific). We then performed temporal simulations of the alterations' spread associated with different pathologies. The Bayes' factor values calculated on these simulated data were able to reveal that the areas, which are more specific to a certain disease, are also the ones to be early altered.

The Neural Correlates of Consciousness and Attention: Two Sister Processes of the Brain

“…In other words, how confident can we be when we assign to an observed activation pattern a specific function? This is often called “reverse inference” and a dissertation of this topic is beyond the scope of this review (for an in-depth analysis see Cauda et al, 2019). The debate about the possibilities, as well as difficulties, of reverse inference is currently ongoing, involving not only neuroscientific aspects, but also philosophical and mathematical ones.…”