Cognition Lecture 17 - Coupling

Inter-Subject Correlation (ISC)

Correlation between the same voxel in our brains

Communicating a Story

My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts

• Seeing the the brain of a speaker and listener align in specific places

Activity in One Brain Predicts the Other

My mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thought

Activity in One Brain Predicts the Other (cont)

An interplay between prediction and comprehension

• Listeners are coupled with each other, and they are coupled with the speaker’s previous brain activity!

  • The largest lag is in the prefrontal cortex

Story Production

Speaking the same

Story Production vs Story Comprehension

Speaking the same, hearing the same

Neural Coupling Predicts Comprehension

Getting on the same page in our brains

Moving shapes example

Neural Coupling Predicts Comprehension

Getting on the same page in our brains

• Increased neural coupling in Ang and PMC between Movie participants with similar recalls

  • When shown a video vs description, how similar the structure of the story is what predicts coupling

Neural Coupling Predicts Shared Understanding

Assumptions matter in memory encoding and retrieval

• Watching a movie with a huge spoiler at the end; but sometimes being shown the spoiler first

Interpretation of the story context changes (neural) memory

Multiple brain regions encode the narrative differently, despite the same perceptual stimulus

Story Production vs Story Comprehension

Neural model of real-life communication