Relating the past with the present: Information integration and segregation during ongoing narrative processing

Chang, Claire H.C.; Lazaridi, Christina; Yeshurun, Yehezkel; Norman, Kenneth A.; Hasson, Uri

doi:10.1101/2020.01.16.908731

Cited by 8 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Functional neuroimaging studies have used naturalistic, narrative stimuli to examine how we perceive 11,12 and remember 13 structured events based on memory of contexts, [14][15][16] prior knowledge or beliefs, [17][18][19] and emotional and social reasoning. [20][21][22] However, strikingly few neuroimaging studies have directly probed attention during naturalistic paradigms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural signatures of attentional engagement during narratives and its consequences for event memory

Song

Finn

Rosenberg

2020

Preprint

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As we comprehend narratives, our attentional engagement fluctuates over time. Despite theoretical conceptions of narrative engagement as emotion-laden attention, little empirical work has characterized the cognitive and neural processes that comprise subjective engagement in naturalistic contexts or its consequences for memory. Here, we relate fluctuations in narrative engagement to patterns of brain coactivation, and test whether neural signatures of engagement predict later recall. In behavioral studies, participants continuously rated how engaged they were as they watched a television episode or listened to a story. Self-reported engagement was synchronized across individuals and driven by the emotional content of the narratives. During fMRI, we observed highly synchronized activity in the default mode network when people were, on average, more engaged in the same narratives. Models based on time-varying whole-brain functional connectivity predicted evolving states of engagement across participants and even across different datasets. The same functional connections also predicted post-scan event recall, suggesting that engagement during encoding impacts subsequent memory. Finally, group-average engagement was related to fluctuations of an independent functional connectivity index of sustained attention. Together, our findings characterize the neural signatures of engagement dynamics and elucidate relationships between narrative engagement, sustained attention, and event memory.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural signatures of attentional engagement during narratives and its consequences for event memory

Song

Finn

Rosenberg

2020

Preprint

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“…In support of this idea, an fMRI study found evidence of integrated neural representations in a period shortly after encountering "bridge" events that linked previously unrelated experiences (Milivojevic et al, 2015). Behavioral signatures of a similar form of integration have been linked to neural reinstatement of relevant memories during the bridge learning experiences themselves (Chang et al, 2020). It thus appears that inferences dependent upon the integration of previously separate memories can stem from rapid changes in neural representations that occur largely online (during learning or immediately after).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Some forms of generalization, including the integration of information across otherwise separate memories can occur online during a learning experience (Chang et al, 2020;Milivojevic et al, 2015). The brain states that fluctuate with circadian rhythms, the physiological changes that cycle across the day, may influence this in-the-moment generalization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influences of time of day on generalization

Tandoc

Bayda

Poskanzer

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Extracting shared structure across our experiences allows us to generalize our knowledge to novel contexts. How do different brain states influence this ability to generalize? Using a novel category learning paradigm, we assess the effect of both sleep and time of day on generalization that depends on the flexible integration of recent information. Counter to our expectations, we found no evidence that this form of generalization is better after a night of sleep relative to a day awake. Instead, we observed an effect of time of day, with better generalization in the morning than the evening. This effect also manifested as increased false memory for generalized information. In a nap experiment, we found that generalization did not benefit from having slept recently, suggesting a role for circadian rhythms apart from sleep. We found, however, that this time of day effect appears to be sensitive to category structure and to task engagement more generally. We propose that a state of lowered inhibition in the morning may facilitate spreading activation between otherwise separate memories, promoting this form of generalization.

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“…The stronger hippocampal-PMC connectivity during higher centrality events might reflect greater reinstatement of other event representations cued by overlapping components (e.g., ref. 39 ).…”

Section: Narrative Network Centrality Modulates Hippocampal Encoding Signals During Movie Watchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting memory from the network structure of naturalistic events

Lee

Chen

2021

Preprint

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Human life consists of a multitude of diverse and interconnected events. However, extant research has focused on how humans segment and remember discrete events from continuous input, with far less attention given to how the structure of connections between events impacts memory. We conducted an fMRI study in which subjects watched and recalled a series of realistic audiovisual narratives. By transforming narratives into networks of events, we found that more central events—those with stronger semantic or causal connections to other events—were better remembered. During encoding, central events evoked larger hippocampal event boundary responses associated with memory consolidation. During recall, high centrality predicted stronger activation in cortical areas involved in episodic recollection, and more similar neural representations across individuals. Together, these results suggest that when humans encode and retrieve complex real-world experiences, the reliability and accessibility of memory representations is shaped by their location within a network of events.

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Relating the past with the present: Information integration and segregation during ongoing narrative processing

Cited by 8 publications

References 49 publications

Neural signatures of attentional engagement during narratives and its consequences for event memory

Neural signatures of attentional engagement during narratives and its consequences for event memory

Influences of time of day on generalization

Predicting memory from the network structure of naturalistic events

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