Higher levels of narrativity lead to similar patterns of posterior EEG activity across individuals

Abstract

IntroductionThe focus of cognitive and psychological approaches to narrative has not so much been on the elucidation of important aspects of narrative, but rather on using narratives as tools for the investigation of higher order cognitive processes elicited by narratives (e.g., understanding, empathy, etc.). In this study, we work toward a scalar model of narrativity, which can provide testable criteria for selecting and classifying communication forms in their level of narrativity. We investigated whether being exposed to videos with different levels of narrativity modulates shared neural responses, measured by inter-subject correlation, and engagement levels.MethodsThirty-two participants watched video advertisements with high-level and low-level of narrativity while their neural responses were measured through electroencephalogram. Additionally, participants’ engagement levels were calculated based on the composite of their self-reported attention and immersion scores.ResultsResults demonstrated that both calculated inter-subject correlation and engagement scores for high-level video ads were significantly higher than those for low-level, suggesting that narrativity levels modulate inter-subject correlation and engagement.DiscussionWe believe that these findings are a step toward the elucidation of the viewers’ way of processing and understanding a given communication artifact as a function of the narrative qualities expressed by the level of narrativity.

Exploring the Neural Processes behind Narrative Engagement: An EEG Study

“…We then explored whether individuals’ brain activity was modulated by their engagement levels throughout the dramatic arc model. We previously found that different levels of narrativity led to differences in ISC and different levels of perceived engagement, thereby predicting narrativity level ( Dini et al, 2023 ). Cohen et al (2017) evaluated time perception and its relation to engagement during narrative videos, from which they posited that engagement could be considered subject’s levels of similarity among EEG channels (i.e., ISC).…”

“…ISC is a data-driven method that correlates individuals’ neural data to others’ neural data to test whether participants perceive the same stimulus in similar ways and at the same time while neglecting subjective differences ( Nastase et al, 2019 ). ISC is an approach that is well suited to both EEG and fMRI datasets as it captures the stimulus-driven patterns of neural activity ( Simony et al, 2016 ; Petroni et al, 2018 ; Finn et al, 2020 ; Imhof et al, 2020 ; Dini et al, 2023 ). Moreover, to identify the brain regions’ patterns that are modulated by stimuli, ISC is considered an alternative method that overcomes the problems of traditional methods (e.g., general linear model) as it reduces intrinsic noises ( Simony et al, 2016 ; Song et al, 2021a ).…”

“…Moreover, to identify the brain regions’ patterns that are modulated by stimuli, ISC is considered an alternative method that overcomes the problems of traditional methods (e.g., general linear model) as it reduces intrinsic noises ( Simony et al, 2016 ; Song et al, 2021a ). Compared with traditional methods, ISC does not require stimulus repetition and fixed experimental manipulation, which leads to a more naturalistic experimental design ( Nastase et al, 2019 ; Dini et al, 2023 ). To test the hypothesis that ISC is modulated by engagement (i.e., ISC is higher in the more engaging moments), a tapered sliding window with 15 samples (70 ms) was obtained by convolving a rectangular window with a Gaussian (σ = 3).…”