The default network dominates neural responses to evolving movie stories

Abstract

Neuroscientific studies exploring real-world dynamic perception often overlook the influence of continuous changes in narrative content. In our research, we utilize machine learning tools for natural language processing to examine the relationship between movie narratives and neural responses. By analyzing over 50,000 brain images of participants watching Forrest Gump from the studyforrest dataset, we find distinct brain states that capture unique semantic aspects of the unfolding story. The default network, associated with semantic information integration, is the most engaged during movie watching. Furthermore, we identify two mechanisms that underlie how the default network liaises with the amygdala and hippocampus. Our findings demonstrate effective approaches to understanding neural processes in everyday situations and their relation to conscious awareness.

Mapping patterns of thought onto brain activity during movie-watching

“…Moreover, the pattern of "Episodic Knowledge" identified by our analysis focuses on features of cognition such as the past, knowledge, people and that selfall of which are terms that previous literature suggests could relate to the DMN [8,18]. However, both our voxel space, and, our state space analysis highlighted this experience was related to situations when brain activity was higher within visual cortex.…”

“…Although our study highlighted neural activity in sensory cortex and regions of association cortex with the frontoparietal system, we found less evidence for the hypothesized role of the DMN during the movie-watching experience. Notably, the pattern of “Episodic Knowledge” identified by our analysis focuses on features of cognition such as knowledge, people, and oneself — all of which are terms that previous literature suggests could relate to the DMN [8, 20]. However, despite this conceptual mapping, neither our voxel space nor our state space analysis highlighted that this experience was related to moments when brain activity was higher within the DMN (See Figures 3 and 6).…”

“…Consistent with this perspective, recent work in cognitive neuroscience suggest an important role for primary systems, such as visual and auditory cortices during movie watching; however, they also hypothesize a role for regions of association cortex linked to higher-order thought, such as the default mode network (DMN) or the frontoparietal network (FPN) [2,4,18].…”

“…Consistent with the notion that movie watching is a perceptually coupled state, recent work in cognitive neuroscience suggests an important role for primary systems, such as visual and auditory cortices [19]. However, studies also hypothesize a role for regions of association cortex linked to higher-order thought, such as the default mode network (DMN) or the frontoparietal network (FPN) [2, 4, 20]. For example, the DMN is hypothesized to be important in social cognition, episodic memory, and conceptual knowledge — all of which are likely important for understanding the narrative of the film (for a review of the broad role the DMN plays in cognition, see [21]).…”

Intrinsic structural covariation links cerebellum subregions to the cerebral cortex

“…In fact, attentional deficits were often observed in children and adolescents with too much TV exposure (Christakis et al, 2004; Johnson et al, 2007; Landhuis et al, 2007). At the same time, one receives abundant visual and narrative stimuli while watching TV, which is directly associated with the visual system and with semantic processing in association cortex (Yang et al, 2023). Thus, cerebellar structural brain variation can be expected to be jointly reflected in visual and association cortices, an idea which receives support from a cross-sectional study on TV viewing and brain structure (Takeuchi et al, 2015).…”