Multiple subject learning for inter-subject prediction

Multi-voxel pattern analysis has become an important tool for neuroimaging data analysis by allowing to predict a behavioral variable from the imaging patterns. However, standard models do not take into account the differences that can exist between subjects, so that they perform poorly in the inter-subject prediction task. We here introduce a model called Multiple Subject Learning (MSL) that is designed to effectively combine the information provided by fMRI data from several subjects; in a first stage, a weighting of single-subject kernels is learnt using multiple kernel learning to produce a classifier; then, a data shuffling procedure allows to build ensembles of such classifiers, which are then combined by a majority vote. We show that MSL outperforms other models in the inter-subject prediction task and we discuss the empirical behavior of this new model.