A shared neural code for perceiving and remembering social interactions in the human superior temporal sulcus

Lee Masson, Haemy; Chen, Janice; Isik, Leyla

Abstract

Recognizing and remembering social information is a crucial cognitive skill. Neural patterns in the superior temporal sulcus (STS) support our ability to perceive others' social interactions. However, despite the prominence of social interactions in memory, the neural basis of remembering social interactions is still unknown. To fill this gap, we investigated the brain mechanisms underlying memory of others' social interactions during free spoken recall of a naturalistic movie. By applying machine learning-based fMRI encoding analyses to densely labeled movie and recall data we found that a subset of the STS activity evoked by viewing social interactions predicted neural responses in not only held-out movie data, but also during memory recall. These results provide the first evidence that activity in the STS is reinstated in response to specific social content and that its reactivation underlies our ability to remember others’ interactions. These findings further suggest that the STS contains representations of social interactions that are not only perceptually driven, but also more abstract or conceptual in nature.

Citation

Lee Masson, H., Chen, J., & Isik, L. (2024). A shared neural code for perceiving and remembering social interactions in the human superior temporal sulcus. Neuropsychologia, 196, Article 108823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108823

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 9, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Feb 17, 2024
• Publication Date: Apr 15, 2024
• Deposit Date: Feb 23, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 23, 2024
• Journal: Neuropsychologia
• Print ISSN: 0028-3932
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 196
• Article Number: 108823
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108823
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2257938