Tools of the trade: psychophysiological interactions and functional connectivity
Open accessAbstract
Psychophysiological interactions (PPIs) analysis is a method for investigating task-specific changes in the relationship between activity in different brain areas, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Specifically, PPI analyses identify voxels in which activity is more related to activity in a seed region of interest (seed ROI) in a given psychological context, such as during attention or in the presence of emotive stimuli. In this tutorial, we aim to give a simple conceptual explanation of how PPI analysis works, in order to assist readers in planning and interpreting their own PPI experiments.
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The psychophysiological interaction model specification ensures results only indicate effects over and above those explained by co-activation related to the task main effect or anatomical connections that lead to pervasively correlated activity regardless of task condition.
“Importantly, the model specification for this analysis ensures that results will only indicate effects over and above those explained by either co-activation related to the task main effect or anatomical connections that lead to pervasively correlated activity regardless of task condition33.”
From Intranasal oxytocin enhances connectivity in the neural circuitry supporting social motivation and social perception in children with autism (2016) · cites this paper as [33]
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- Authors
- O’Reilly, J. X., Woolrich, M. W., Behrens, T. E. J., Smith, S. M., & Johansen-Berg, H.
- Affiliations
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- FMRIB Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Oxford University, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, 2Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7JX and 3Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, 12 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK
- Venue
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-05-07
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 604-609
- ISSN
- 1749-5016 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-5024
- PMC
- PMC3375893
- OpenAlex
- W2148191429
- Cited by
- 765
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 46 · 2024: 38 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 90 · 2020: 67 · 2019: 64 · 2018: 69 · 2017: 84 · 2016: 71 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 48 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 21.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (090955)
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- psychophysiological interaction, functional connectivity, fMRI data analysis, attention, emotional stimuli
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Mapping, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Neural Pathways, Oxygen, Psychophysiology, Task Performance and Analysis
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