The “Narratives” fMRI dataset for evaluating models of naturalistic language comprehension

The “Narratives” collection aggregates a variety of functional MRI datasets collected while human subjects listened to naturalistic spoken stories. The current release includes 345 subjects, 891 functional scans, and 27 diverse stories of varying duration totaling ~4.6 hours of unique stimuli (~43,000 words). This data collection is well-suited for naturalistic neuroimaging analysis, and is intended to serve as a benchmark for models of language and narrative comprehension. We provide standardized MRI data accompanied by rich metadata, preprocessed versions of the data ready for immediate use, and the spoken story stimuli with time-stamped phoneme- and word-level transcripts. All code and data are publicly available with full provenance in keeping with current best practices in transparent and reproducible neuroimaging

Brain-Machine convergent evolution: a window into the functional role of neuronal selectivity

Central nervous system neurons manifest a rich diversity of specializations and selectivity profiles. However, the precise roles these properties play in brain function has remained the domain of intuition and educated guesswork. Here we propose a different approach to address this central question: searching for insights that can be gained from identifying parallel functional properties that emerge in both brain and artificial, engineered, systems. The central rational for this approach is that functional similarities observed in systems whose origins are so disparate are unlikely to be mere coincidences. To the contrary, these parallel properties point to critical bottlenecks that force the convergent evolution of widely diverse systems towards similar functional properties. In this review, we will focus on the mammalian cerebral cortex and present examples derived from three levels along the cortical hierarchy of visual processing: oriented receptive fields in primary visual cortex, relational geometries in high order, face selective, cortical areas and place-related entorhinal grid-cells at the top of the cortical processing hierarchy. In these three cases, intriguing parallels appear between the functional properties of cortical neurons and successful engineered systems. Such coincident properties highlight their significant functional role. Thus, contrary to the common intuition that artificial brain models are more informative as their basic elements are made more brain-like, here we propose that searching for parallel convergences with artificial systems could provide insights into brain function particularly in those cases that are far removed from realistic brain biology

Coupled neural systems underlie the production and comprehension of naturalistic narrative speech

Neuroimaging studies of language have typically focused on either production or comprehension of single speech utterances such as syllables, words, or sentences. In this study we used a new approach to functional MRI acquisition and analysis to characterize the neural responses during production and comprehension of complex real-life speech. First, using a time-warp based intrasubject correlation method, we identified all areas that are reliably activated in the brains of speakers telling a 15-min-long narrative. Next, we identified areas that are reliably activated in the brains of listeners as they comprehended that same narrative. This allowed us to identify networks of brain regions specific to production and comprehension, as well as those that are shared between the two processes. The results indicate that production of a real-life narrative is not localized to the left hemisphere but recruits an extensive bilateral network, which overlaps extensively with the comprehension system. Moreover, by directly comparing the neural activity time courses during production and comprehension of the same narrative we were able to identify not only the spatial overlap of activity but also areas in which the neural activity is coupled across the speaker’s and listener’s brains during production and comprehension of the same narrative. We demonstrate widespread bilateral coupling between production- and comprehension-related processing within both linguistic and nonlinguistic areas, exposing the surprising extent of shared processes across the two systems

Accessing Real-Life Episodic Information from Minutes versus Hours Earlier Modulates Hippocampal and High-Order Cortical Dynamics

Further information available in dataset README file.It is well known that formation of new episodic memories depends on hippocampus, but in real-life settings (e.g., conversation), hippocampal amnesics can utilize information from several minutes earlier. What neural systems outside hippocampus might support this minutes-long retention? In this study, subjects viewed an audiovisual movie continuously for 25 min; another group viewed the movie in 2 parts separated by a 1-day delay. Understanding Part 2 depended on retrieving information from Part 1, and thus hippocampus was required in the day-delay condition. But is hippocampus equally recruited to access the same information from minutes earlier? We show that accessing memories from a few minutes prior elicited less interaction between hippocampus and default mode network (DMN) cortical regions than accessing day-old memories of identical events, suggesting that recent information was available with less reliance on hippocampal retrieval. Moreover, the 2 groups evinced reliable but distinct DMN activity timecourses, reflecting differences in information carried in these regions when Part 1 was recent versus distant. The timecourses converged after 4 min, suggesting a time frame over which the continuous-viewing group may have relied less on hippocampal retrieval. We propose that cortical default mode regions can intrinsically retain real-life episodic information for several minutes

Dynamic reconfiguration of the default mode network during narrative comprehension

Subjects were scanned in a 3T full-body MRI scanner while listening to a three version of a story, an intact version, a version in paragraph scramble condition, and word scramble condition.Download the README.txt file for a detailed description of this dataset's contentDoes the default mode network (DMN) reconfigure to encode information about the changing environment? This question has proven difficult, because patterns of functional connectivity reflect a mixture of stimulus-induced neural processes, intrinsic neural processes and non-neuronal noise. Here we introduce inter-subject functional correlation (ISFC), which isolates stimulus-dependent inter-regional correlations between brains exposed to the same stimulus. During fMRI, we had subjects listen to a real-life auditory narrative and to temporally scrambled versions of the narrative. We used ISFC to isolate correlation patterns within the DMN that were locked to the processing of each narrative segment and specific to its meaning within the narrative context. The momentary configurations of DMN ISFC were highly replicable across groups. Moreover, DMN coupling strength predicted memory of narrative segments. Thus, ISFC opens new avenues for linking brain network dynamics to stimulus features and behaviour

Same story, different story: the neural representation of interpretive frameworks

This data set contains functional runs of 475 TRs for 40 subjects passively listening to an audio story while viewing a gray screen. Just before listening subjects were exposed to one of two different brief contexts, “cheating” or “paranoia”, which had an effect on the whole interpretation of the story.Download the README.txt file for a detailed description of this dataset's content

Altered Topology of Neural Circuits in Congenital Prosopagnosia

Using a novel, fMRI-based inter-subject functional correlation (ISFC) approach, which isolates stimulus-locked inter-regional correlation patterns, we compared the cortical topology of the neural circuit for face processing in participants with an impairment in face recognition, congenital prosopagnosia (CP), and matched controls. Whereas the anterior temporal lobe served as the major network hub for face processing in controls, this was not the case for the CPs. Instead, this group evinced hyper-connectivity in posterior regions of the visual cortex, mostly associated with the lateral occipital and the inferior temporal cortices. Moreover, the extent of this hyper-connectivity was correlated with the face recognition deficit. These results offer new insights into the perturbed cortical topology in CP, which may serve as the underlying neural basis of the behavioral deficits typical of this disorder. The approach adopted here has the potential to uncover altered topologies in other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well