Figure 4.

Neuroimaging, Reverse inference. A, When using Neurosynth for a traditional meta-analysis, computing the probability that different brain regions are active when the topics of a study include consciousness, parts of frontal cortex show up. B, When using Neurosynth in reverse inference mode, computing the probability that consciousness is included within the topics of a study, given the activation of different parts of the brain, frontal cortex disappears. The key term “conscious” was used on the Neurosynth website to extract both “forward” meta-analysis and reverse inference analysis steps in A, B. C, The same frontal areas that identified in a traditional meta-analysis for consciousness also appear activated in a traditional meta-analysis for faces. D, In contrast, reverse inference for faces no longer identifies frontal cortex activity but rather locates the activation predicting highest probability for face percepts in the right FFA. The key term “faces” was used on the Neurosynth website to extract both “forward” meta-analysis and reverse inference analysis steps in C, D. x, y, z values represent MNI coordinates, and a color scale is used for Z values.