Since the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal is likely to re ect a spatial average of the activity of neurons with partly dissimilar response properties, its interpretation in terms of neuronal information processing may be di cult. We explored this problem by means of a simple computational model based on known tuning properties of individual neurons and on the assumption that the fMRI BOLD signal is proportional to the local mean activity. We investigated the relationship between information transmitted by the population, BOLD signal and information conveyed by the BOLD signal. We found that the relationships between these variables were complex and dependent on voxel-size. c 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Angel Nevado, Malcolm P. Young, Stefano Panzeri