Several recent studies have interpreted multivariate evidence for stimulus-specific patterns of activity in parietal and/or frontal cortex as evidence for a representational function in those regions that is qualitatively similar to the representational functions of the visual system. Here we argue that although evidence that a brain system takes on a different configuration for each stimulus in a stimulus set is a necessary property for that system having a role in perceptual representation, such evidence is not specific for this function. Drawing on several recent examples from the recent literature, we offer alternative accounts for understanding stimulus-specificity in parietal and frontal cortex that are consistent with longstanding ideas that activity these regions is best understood as implementing control-related, rather than inherently representational, functions.
Keywords: attention; fMRI; multivariate; working memory.