Representation of cognitive processes using the minimum spanning tree of local meshes.

A new graphical model called Cognitive Process Graph (CPG) is proposed, for classifying cognitive processes based on neural activation patterns which are acquired via functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in brain. In the CPG, first local meshes are formed around each voxel. Second, the relationships between a voxel and its neighbors in a local mesh, which are estimated by using a linear regression model, are used to form the edges among the voxels (graph nodes) in the CPG.

Analyzing the information distribution in the fMRI measurements by estimating the degree of locality.

In this study, we propose a new method for analyzing and representing the distribution of discriminative information for data acquired via functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). For this purpose, we form a spatially local mesh with varying size, around each voxel, called the seed voxel. The relationship among each seed voxel and its neighbors is estimated using a linear regression model by minimizing the square error.