Decoding the contents of working memory from scalp EEG/ERP signals
/Bae, G. Y., & Luck, S. J. (2018). Dissociable Decoding of Working Memory and Spatial Attention from EEG Oscillations and Sustained Potentials. The Journal of Neuroscience, 38, 409-422.
You've probably seen MVPA and other decoding methods in fMRI, but did you know that it's possible to decode information from the scalp distribution of EEG/ERP signals?
In this recent paper, we show that it is possible to decode the exact orientation of a stimulus as it is being held in working memory from sustained (CDA-like) ERPs. A key finding is that we could decode both the orientation and the location of the attended stimulus with these sustained ERPs, whereas alpha-band EEG signals contained information only about the location.
Our decoding accuracy was only about 50% above the chance level, but it's still pretty amazing that such precise information can be decoded from brain activity that we're recording from electrodes on the scalp!
Stay tuned for more cool EEG/ERP decoding results — we will be submitting a couple more studies in the near future.