Abstract
IntroductionWhen listening to a narrative, the verbal expressions translate into meanings and flow of mental imagery. However, the same narrative can be heard quite differently based on differences in listeners' previous experiences and knowledge. We capitalized on such differences to disclose brain regions that support transformation of narrative into individualized propositional meanings and associated mental imagery by analyzing brain activity associated with behaviorally assessed individual meanings elicited by a narrative.MethodsSixteen right‐handed female subjects were instructed to list words that best described what had come to their minds while listening to an eight‐minute narrative during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The fMRI data were analyzed by calculating voxel‐wise intersubject correlation (ISC) values. We used latent semantic analysis (LSA) enhanced with Wordnet knowledge to measure semantic similarity of the produced words between subjects. Finally, we predicted the ISC with the semantic similarity using representational similarity analysis.ResultsWe found that semantic similarity in these word listings between subjects, estimated using LSA combined with WordNet knowledge, predicting similarities in brain hemodynamic activity. Subject pairs whose individual semantics were similar also exhibited similar brain activity in the bilateral supramarginal and angular gyrus of the inferior parietal lobe, and in the occipital pole.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate, using a novel method to measure interindividual differences in semantics, brain mechanisms giving rise to semantics and associated imagery during narrative listening. During listening to a captivating narrative, the inferior parietal lobe and early visual cortical areas seem, thus, to support elicitation of individual meanings and flow of mental imagery.
Highlights
When listening to a narrative, the verbal expressions translate into meanings and flow of mental imagery
In a study where word‐meaning categories occurring in a narrative were mapped onto human cerebral cortex using func‐ tional magnetic resonance imaging (Huth, Heer, Griffiths, Theunissen, & Jack, 2016), the results both agreed with previous meta‐analysis of semantic areas of the human brain (Binder et al, 2009) and extended our understanding, as they disclosed how se‐ mantic categories tile the cortical surface
We hy‐ pothesized that by analyzing brain activity based on behaviorally assessed individual semantics (Bar, 2007) elicited by a narrative we can disclose brain regions supporting the elicitation of individ‐ ual semantics and mental imagery during story listening
Summary
When listening to a narrative, the verbal expressions translate into propositional meanings (i.e., semantics) along with the asso‐ ciated mental imagery, with the keen listener seeing with his/her “mind's eye” the objects, environments, actions, and events in the story. What previous studies have not yet addressed is that stories can be experienced quite differently (Jääskeläinen, Pajula, Tohka, Lee, & Kuo, 2016) based on differences in previous experiences (Cabeza & Jacques, 2007), for example, upon hearing the word “dog” one person can come to think of a happy Collie, another an angry Rottweiler Given such interindividual differences, we hy‐ pothesized that by analyzing brain activity based on behaviorally assessed individual semantics (Bar, 2007) elicited by a narrative we can disclose brain regions supporting the elicitation of individ‐ ual semantics and mental imagery during story listening. By demonstrating how interindividual differences in semantic representations can be measured and utilized to map the semantic areas in the brain, our findings provide an important methodological extension for studying the human semantic system
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