Neural encoding — The representation of a sensory feature in a population of neurons.
Mental state decoding — Inferring the representational content of a mental state from a brain activation pattern, typically using multivariate pattern classification.
Neural correlate of a content of consciousness — The brain signal that encodes a specific aspect of conscious experience. The brain signal is the carrier, the specific aspect of consciousness constitutes the phenomenal representational content carried (in short, its “phenomenal content”).
Multivariate pattern classification — A mathematical procedure for identifying patterns of brain activity, the labels of which have been previously learned.
Mapping — The assignment of brain activation patterns to the representational content of mental states.
Low-level visual features — Simple dimensions of visual experience that are encoded in early visual brain regions (e.g., contrast, orientation). If consciously represented, they may constitute corresponding simple forms of phenomenal content.
High-level visual features — More complex dimensions of visual experience that are encoded in downstream visual brain regions (e.g., object identity) and that are to some degree independent of the low-level features by which they are defined.