A5090526778- Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Neural dynamics and brain function
- Face Recognition and Perception
- Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Memory Processes and Influences
- Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Action Observation and Synchronization
- Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Mental Health and Psychiatry
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Media Influence and Health
- Music Technology and Sound Studies
- Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Study
- Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Aesthetic Perception and Analysis
University of Chicago
2021-2025
Neuroscience Institute
2023-2024
University of California, Berkeley
2020-2021
Yale University
2021
Stanford University
2015-2019
Princeton University
2012
In recent years, ideas from the computational field of reinforcement learning have revolutionized study in brain, famously providing new, precise theories how dopamine affects basal ganglia. However, algorithms are notorious for not scaling well to multidimensional environments, as is required real-world learning. We hypothesized that brain naturally reduces dimensionality problems only those dimensions relevant predicting reward, and conducted an experiment assess by what with neural...
Humans are able to mentally construct an episode when listening another person's recollection, even though they themselves did not experience the events. However, it is unknown how strongly neural patterns elicited by mental construction resemble those found in brain of individual who experienced original Using fMRI and a verbal communication task, we traced associated with viewing specific scenes movie encoded, recalled, then transferred group naïve listeners. By comparing across 3...
The "Narratives" collection aggregates a variety of functional MRI datasets collected while human subjects listened to naturalistic spoken stories. current release includes 345 subjects, 891 scans, and 27 diverse stories varying duration totaling ~4.6 hours unique stimuli (~43,000 words). This data is well-suited for neuroimaging analysis, intended serve as benchmark models language narrative comprehension. We provide standardized accompanied by rich metadata, preprocessed versions the ready...
Significance Partisan biases in processing political information contribute to rising divisions society. How do such arise the brain? We measured neural activity of participants watching videos related immigration policy. Despite same videos, conservative and liberal exhibited divergent responses. This “neural polarization” between groups occurred a brain area associated with interpretation narrative content intensified response language risk, emotion, morality. Furthermore, polarized...
Abstract Humans are able to mentally construct an episode when listening another person’s recollection, even though they themselves did not experience the events. However, it is unknown how strongly neural patterns elicited by mental construction resemble those found in brain of individual who experienced original Using fMRI and a verbal communication task, we traced associated with viewing specific scenes movie encoded, recalled, then transferred group naïve listeners. By comparing across...
psychoacoustic theories of dissonance often follow Helmholtz and attribute it to partials (fundamental frequencies or overtones) near enough in frequency affect the same region basilar membrane therefore cause roughness, i.e., rapid beating. In contrast, tonal violations harmonic principles embodied Western music. We propose a dual-process theory that embeds roughness within principles. The predicts robust increasing trend triads: major < minor diminished augmented. Previous...
As people form social groups, they benefit from being able to detect socially valuable community members-individuals who act prosocially, support others, and strong relationships. Multidisciplinary evidence demonstrates that indeed track others' value, but the mechanisms through which such detection occurs remain unclear. Here, we combine network neuroimaging analyses examine this process. We mapped networks in two freshman dormitories (
Hostile attribution bias refers to the tendency interpret social situations as intentionally hostile. While previous research has focused on its developmental origins and behavioral consequences, underlying neural mechanisms remain underexplored. Here, we employed fNIRS investigate correlates of hostile bias. undergoing fNIRS, male female participants listened provided ratings for 21 hypothetical scenarios where a character's actions resulted in negative outcome listener. Ratings intentions...
Perceptual judgments are often influenced by goals and preferences, resulting in biased that deviate from objective reality. When presented with ambiguous images, observers to report seeing images associated rewards. However, it remains unclear whether this is driven a bias toward stimuli desirable or motivationally salient. As rewards both salient, these effects not easily dissociated reward context. This study investigates the of desirability motivational salience on perceptual an aversive...
Emotional events tend to be vividly remembered. While growing evidence suggests that emotions have their basis in brain-wide network interactions, it is unclear if and how these whole-brain dynamics contribute memory encoding. We combined fMRI, graph theory, text analyses, pupillometry a naturalistic context where participants recalled complex narratives own words. Across three independent datasets, emotionally arousing moments during the were associated with an integrated brain state...
We make sense of everyday events by reasoning about their underlying causes. When we connect causal links between separated in time, often experience a sudden feeling "aha!", or moment insight. What cognitive and neural processes underlie these moments understanding? hypothesized that narrative insight accompanies retrieving causally related past memory updating the current event representation. To test this, designed an fMRI study which participants watched TV episode was cut into multiple...
Abstract The “Narratives” collection aggregates a variety of functional MRI datasets collected while human subjects listened to naturalistic spoken stories. current release includes 345 subjects, 891 scans, and 27 diverse stories varying duration totaling ~4.6 hours unique stimuli (~43,000 words). This data is well-suited for neuroimaging analysis, intended serve as benchmark models language narrative comprehension. We provide standardized accompanied by rich metadata, preprocessed versions...
Self-deception, paranoia, and overconfidence involve misbeliefs about the self, others, world. They are often considered mistaken. Here we explore whether they might be adaptive, further, explicable in Bayesian terms. We administered a difficult perceptual judgment task with without social influence (suggestions from cooperating or competing partner). Crucially, was uninformative. found that participants heeded suggestions most under uncertain conditions did so high confidence, particularly...
Expert advisors often make surprisingly inaccurate predictions about the future, yet people heed their suggestions nonetheless. Here we provide a novel, computational account of this unrealistic optimism in advice taking. Across 3 studies, participants observed as predicted performance stock. Advisors varied accuracy, performing reliably above, at, or below chance. Despite repeated feedback, exhibited inflated perceptions advisors' and "bet" on more than warranted. Participants' decisions...
Abstract Our daily lives revolve around sharing experiences and memories with others. When different people recount the same events, how similar are their underlying neural representations? In this study, participants viewed a fifty-minute audio-visual movie, then verbally described events while undergoing functional MRI. These descriptions were completely unguided highly detailed, lasting for up to forty minutes. As each person spoke, event-specific spatial patterns reinstated...
People’s perceptual reports are biased toward percepts they motivated to see. The arousal system coordinates the body’s response motivationally significant events and is well positioned regulate motivational effects on judgments. However, it remains unclear whether would enhance or reduce biases. Here, we measured pupil dilation as a measure of while participants ( N = 38) performed visual categorization task. We used monetary bonuses motivate perceive one category over another. Even though...
The Islamist group ISIS has been particularly successful at recruiting Westerners as terrorists. A hypothesized explanation is their simultaneous use of two types propaganda: Heroic narratives, emphasizing individual glory, alongside Social which emphasize oppression against Islamic communities. In the current study, functional MRI was used to measure brain responses short propaganda videos distributed online. Participants were shown 4 and categorized such by another independent subjects....
Abstract People tend to believe their perceptions are veridical representations of the world, but also commonly report perceiving what they want see or hear, a phenomenon known as motivated perception . It remains unclear whether this reflects an actual change in people perceive merely bias responding. We manipulated percept participants wanted performed visual categorization task for reward. Even though reward maximizing strategy was perform accurately, manipulation biased participants’...
Individuals modulate their facial emotion expressions in the presence of other people. Does this social tuning reflect changes emotional experiences or attempts to communicate emotions others? Here, “target” participants underwent electromyography (EMG) recording while viewing emotion-inducing images, believing they were either visible not “observer” participants. In Study 1, when targets believed visible, produced greater EMG activity and more accurately perceived by observers, but did...
The extent to which a belief is rooted in one’s sense of morality has significant societal implications. While moral convictions can inspire positive collective action, they also prompt dogmatism, intolerance, and divisions. These negative effects may be exacerbated by poor metacognition. There been extensive research social psychology about the characteristics convictions, but their neural mechanisms how are incorporated into valuation decision-making process remain unclear. This study was...
Abstract Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a portable, cost-effective alternative to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for non-invasively measuring neural activity. However, fNIRS measurements are limited cortical regions near the scalp, missing important medial and deeper brain areas. We introduce predictive model that maps prefrontal signals whole-brain fMRI activity during movie-watching. By aligning responses common audiovisual stimulus, our approach...