fMRI – “Pluripotentiality” vs. “Degeneracy”

H.R. Naghavi, L. Nyberg / Consciousness and Cognition 14 (2005) 390–425

Pluripotentiality (one to many) Structure A Function 2 Function 3 Function 1 State functions? Common processing stage? Or True pluripotentiality? If pluripotentiality – at what level? Lobe? Region? Ansemble? Single neuron?

Degeneracy (many to one) Structure C Structure B Structure A Function 1 Different normal strategies? Normal anatomical variation?

Level of description determines Pluripotent\Degenerate Structure: –Multiple regions (network) –Single regions –Neuronal assemplies\populations –Single neurons Function –E.g. “sentence comprehension” vs. [word recognition; working memory; syntactic parsing…”

Degenerate or not? קריאת מילים “phonology”“orthographic”

The spatial resolution Intrinsic resolution is determined by the physiology Precision depends on the voxel size + distrotions –Distinguishing two foci is hindered by intersubject variability –Neuronal adaptation technique