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    Real-world memory and the brain

     

    How do we construct and retrieve memories of complex real-world episodes? In this research we use realistic stimuli (such as movies and narratives) and behaviors (such as spoken recall) that contain rich natural semantics and unfold continuously across multiple timescales. Employing temporal and spatial pattern analysis methods with functional brain imaging data, we ask how mnemonic and sensory systems operate together dynamically to create the present moment.

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    In the mind, the present moment is a convergence point of two information streams: one, a continuous flow of sensory input from the outside world; and two, a series of elements from our past experiences, i.e., memories. Memories may be triggered by sensory stimuli, they may themselves cue more memories, and they may change the way incoming stimuli are interpreted, all of which become part and parcel of our current experience.

     

    Past information casts an influence across multiple timescales: events that occurred a moment ago, a minute ago, and a day ago may all impact the present. In order to understand how the mind and brain work, we need an account of how memories of past events, across multiple timescales, continuously influence and merge with ongoing perception and behavior.

     

    Studying real memory requires using real stimuli. Scientists often trade realism for control; we use lists or configurations of random items, attempting to isolate selected variables. However, this approach can strip away the very richness and complexity that made memory such a compelling topic in the first place, and cause us to neglect phenomena that emerge only when stimuli are as dynamic and detailed as the real world.

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  • Publications

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    Peer-reviewed Publications

    • Eckardt D, Helion C, Schmidt H, Chen J, Murty V (2024). Storytelling changes the structure and perceived value of event memories. Cognition.
    • Lee Y, Chen J (2024). The relationship between event boundarystrength and pattern shifts across the cortical hierarchy during naturalistic movie-viewing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
    • Antony J, Lozano A, Dhoat P, Chen J, & Bennion K (2024). Causal network properties predict memory organization for non-linear narratives. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
    • Chen J, Bornstein AM (2024) Thecausal structure and computational value of narratives. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
    • Lee Masson H, Chen J, Isik L (2024). A shared neural code forsocial interaction perception and memory in the superior temporal sulcus. Neuropsychologia.
    • Born S, Shi K, Lee Masson H, Lee H, Lee Y, Chen J (2023). Word-timestampedtranscripts of two spoken narrative recall functional neuroimaging datasets. Data in Brief.
    • Nau M, Tarder-Stoll H, Greene A, Chen J, Baldassano C, Lossio-Ventura JA, Pereira F, Baker C (2023). Linking brain activity during viewing and recall of movie events through gaze behavior. Journal of Vision.
    • Lee H, Chen J, Hasson U (2023). A functional neuroimaging dataset acquired during naturalistic movie watching and narrated recall of a series of short cinematic films. Data in Brief.
    • Musz E, Loiotile RE, Chen J, Bedny M (2023). Naturalistic audio-movies reveal common spatial organization across "visual" cortices of different blind individuals. Cerebral Cortex.
    • Zadbood A, Nastase SA, Chen J, Norman KA, Hasson U (2022). Neural representations of naturalistic events are updated as our understanding of the past changes. eLife.
    • Lee H, Chen J (2022). Narratives as networks: Predicting memory from the structure of naturalistic events. Nature Communications. [link]
    • Lee H, Chen J (2022). A generalized cortical activity pattern at internally-generated mental context boundaries during unguided narrative recall. eLife. [link]
    • Musz E, Chen J (2022). Neural signatures of compression in the retelling of past events. Communications Biology. [link]
    • Nastase SA, Liu Y-F, Hillman H, Zadbood A, Hasenfratz L, Keshavarzian N, Chen J, Honey J, Yeshurun Y, Regev M, Nguyen M, Chang CHC, Baldassano C, Lositsky O, Simony E, Chow MA, Leong YC, Brooks PP, Micciche E, Choe E, Goldstein A, Vanderwal T, Halchenko YO, Norman KA, Hasson U (2021). The “Narratives” fMRI dataset for evaluating models of naturalistic language comprehension. Scientific Data. [link]
    • Leong YC, Chen J, Willer R, Zaki J (2021). Conservative and liberal attitudes drive polarized neural responses to political content. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [link]
    • Lee H, Bellana B, Chen J (2020). What can narratives tell us about the neural bases of human memory? Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. [link]
    • Zuo X, Honey CJ, Barense MD, Crombie D, Norman KA, Hasson U, Chen J (2020). Temporal integration of narrative information in a hippocampal amnesic patient. NeuroImage. [PDF]
    • Sadeh T, Chen J, Y Goshen-Gottstein, Moscovitch M (2019). Overlap between hippocampal pre-encoding and encoding patterns supports episodic memory. Hippocampus. [PDF]
    • Aly M, Chen J, Turk-Browne N, Hasson U (2018). Learning naturalistic temporal structure in the posterior medial network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. [PDF]
    • Baldassano C, Chen J, Zadbood A, Pillow JW, Hasson U, & Norman KA (2017). Discovering event structure in continuous narrative perception and memory. Neuron. [PDF]
    • Zadbood A, Chen J, Leong YC, Norman KA, & Hasson U (2017). How we transmit memories to other brains: constructing shared neural representations via communication. Cerebral Cortex. [PDF]
    • Chen J*, Leong YC*, Honey CJ, Yong CH, Norman KA, Hasson U (2017). Shared memories reveal shared structure in neural activity across individuals. Nature Neuroscience. (*co-authorship) [PDF]
    • Chen J, Honey CJ, Simony E, Arcaro MJ, Norman KA, Hasson U (2016). Accessing real-life episodic information from minutes versus hours earlier modulates hippocampal and high-order cortical dynamics. Cerebral Cortex. [PDF]
    • Chen J, Hasson U, Honey CJ (2015, commentary). Processing timescales as an organizing principle for primate cortex. Neuron.
    • Chen PH, Chen J, Yeshurun Y, Hasson U, Haxby J, Ramadge PJ (2015). A reduced-dimension fMRI shared response model. Neural Information Processing Systems.
    • Hasson U, Chen J, Honey CJ. Hierarchical process memory: memory as an integral component of information processing (2015). Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
    • Chen J, Cook PA, Wagner AD (2015). Prediction strength modulates responsesin human area CA1 to sequence violations. Journal of Neurophysiology.
    • Gonzalez A, Hutchinson JB, Uncapher MR, Chen J, LaRocque KF, Foster BL, Rangarajan V, Parvizi J, Wagner AD (2015). Electrocorticography reveals the temporal dynamics of posterior parietal cortical activity during recognition memory decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
    • Chen J, Dastjerdi M, Foster BL, Larocque KF, Rauschecker AM, Parvizi J, Wagner AD (2013). Human hippocampal increases in low-frequency power during associative prediction violations. Neuropsychologia.
    • Chen J, Olsen RK, Preston AR, Glover GH, & Wagner AD (2011). Associative retrieval processes in the human medial temporal lobe: hippocampal retrieval success and CA1 mismatch detection. Learning & Memory.
    • Rauschecker AM, Dastjerdi M, Weiner KS, Witthoft N, Chen J, Selimbeyoglu A,Parvizi J (2011). Illusions of visual motion elicited by electrical stimulation of human MT complex. PLoS ONE.
    • Clausen TP, Chen J, Bryant JP,Provenza FD, Villalba J (2010). Dynamicsof the volatile defense of winter “dormant” balsam poplar (Populusbalsamifera). Journal of Chemical Ecology.
    • Olsen RK, Nichols EA, Chen J, Hunt JF, Glover GH, Gabrieli JDE, Wagner, AD (2009). High-resolution fMRI of human medial temporal lobe reveals performance-related sustained and anticipatory activity during delayed-match-to-sample. Journal of Neuroscience.

    Other Publications

    • Moral Narratives Workshop Proceedings (2023). Kim J, et al. PsyArXiv:10.31234/osf.io/m59vz.
    • Zhang H, Chen PH, Chen J, Zhu X, Turek JS, Willkie TL, Hasson U,Ramadge PJ (2016). A searchlight factor model approach for locating shared information in multi-subject fMRI analysis. arXiv:1610.03914.
    • Chen PH, Zhu X, Zhang H, Turek JS, ChenJ, WillkeTL, Hasson U, Ramadge PJ (2016). Aconvolutional autoencoder for multi-subject fMRI data aggregation. arXiv:1608.04846.
  • Datasets

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    Film Festival

    Data

    https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds004042/versions/1.0.0

     

    Papers

    Lee, Chen, & Hasson (2023) Data in Brief

    Lee & Chen (2022) Nature Communications [link]

    Lee & Chen (2022) ELife [link]

     

     

     

  • People

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    Janice Chen

    Principal Investigator

    Assistant Professor

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    Rolando Masís-Obando

    Postdoc

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    Yoonjung Lee

    Graduate Student

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    Xian Li

    Graduate Student

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    Brian Winston

    Graduate Student

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    Flory Huang

    Graduate Student

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    Sammy Tavassoli

    Graduate Student

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    Colette Youstra

    Lab Manager

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    Kahlyn Eckles

    Lab Manager

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    Anna Hu

    Postbac Research Assistant

    Undergraduate Research Assistants

    Hannah Fu
    Jordan Holleran
    Nicole Ni
    Sophia Lin
    Akaash Suresh
    Iris Lee 
  • Lab Alumni

    Postdocs:

    Lisa Musz - Scholar page

    Buddhika Bellana - https://www.bellanalab.com/

    Hongmi Lee - https://sites.google.com/view/lmclab

     

    Research Staff:
    Zoey Zuo - Scholar page

    Savannah Born - Scholar page

     

    Graduate Students:

    Yoonjin Nah

    Peter Johnson

    Yiyuan Zhang (BME masters) - https://moralitylab.bc.edu/people/yiyuan-zhang/

     

    Undergraduate Researchers:

    Qingwei Zhang

    Amanda Liu

    Kenz Wilkinson

    Edward Halpin

    Katelyn Macholl

    Elly Yeom

    Subin Han

    Michelle Rodriguez

    Paulina Medina

    Ria Gualano

    Elizabeth Im

    Kathy Shi - Scholar page

    Sydney Baek

    Ben Du

    Josh (Euikwang) Kim

  • Positions Available

    Not actively recruiting.

     

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