arXiv subjects

Linda Geerligs

Publications and source records attributed to Linda Geerligs.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Metastable Mind: Neural Underpinnings of Naturalistic Cognition Through the Synthesis of Event Segmentation and Metastable Neural States

A multitude of findings and theories from cognitive, behavioural and computational neuroscience show that neural activity unfolds in a variety of meaningful temporal units. Behavioural research on event segmentation (ES) has shown that continuous experience is segmented into discrete events and sub-events, which aid real-time comprehension, memory, and decision-making. Computational neuroscience research observes and models ongoing brain activity as a series of stable population activity that occur across wide spatial and temporal scales, referred to as metastable neural activity (MNA). Through this review, we show that these isolated branches of literature, the cognitive theory of Event Segmentation (ES) and the mechanistic approach of metastability (MNA), actually study the same metastable neural states from different perspectives. While the behavioural branch offers a theory for the cognitive and behavioural utility of segmentation, the metastability literature provides the mechanistic account at the implementational level. We describe how metastable neural states act as the fundamental computational units of cognition and identify a number of core principles of how they operate. One is the spatio-temporally nested hierarchy of states, where longer-duration states in higher-order regions both constrain and are shaped by states in faster-operating regions. Another is that neural states are a reflection of underlying predictive models which shape perception, decision making, memory encoding and recall. And finally that neural states are periods of more modular processing, which are interspersed by boundaries where there is a reconfiguration of connectivity. Understanding how neural states emerge, interact, and shape cognition brings us closer to understanding the brain in its natural mode of operation.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2026

Neural network-based encoding in free-viewing fMRI with gaze-aware models

Representations learned by convolutional neural networks (CNNs) exhibit a remarkable resemblance to information processing patterns observed in the primate visual system on large neuroimaging datasets collected under diverse, naturalistic visual stimulation, but with instruction for participants to maintain central fixation. This viewing condition, however, diverges significantly from ecologically valid visual behaviour, suppresses activity in visually active regions, and imposes substantial cognitive load on the viewing task. We present a modification of the encoding model framework, adapting it for use with naturalistic vision datasets acquired under fully natural viewing conditions, without fixation, by incorporating eye-tracking data. Our gaze-aware encoding models were trained on the StudyForrest dataset, which features task-free naturalistic movie viewing. By combining eye-tracking data with the visual content of movie frames, we generate combined subject-wise gaze-stimulus specific feature time series. These time series are constructed by sampling only the locally and temporally relevant elements of the CNN feature map for each fixation. Our results demonstrate that gaze-aware encoding models match the performance of conventional encoding models with 112x fewer model parameters. Gaze-aware encoding models were especially beneficial for participants with more dynamic eye-movement patterns. Therefore, this approach opens the door to more ecologically valid models that can be built in more naturalistic settings, such as playing games or navigating virtual environments.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2025

Dynamic functional brain connectivity results depend on modeling assumptions: comparing the sliding-window method and the Wishart process for dynamic hypothesis testing

Understanding the temporal dynamics of functional brain connectivity is important for addressing various questions in network neuroscience, such as how connectivity affects cognition and changes with disease. A fundamental challenge is to evaluate whether connectivity truly exhibits dynamics, or simply is static. The most common approach uses sliding-window methods to model functional connectivity over time, and this is often combined with frequentist hypothesis testing frameworks to evaluate dynamics. However, this requires defining appropriate sampling distributions and hyperparameters, such as window length, which imposes specific assumptions on the dynamics. Here, we explore how these assumptions influence the detection of dynamic connectivity, and introduce an alternative approach based on Bayesian hypothesis testing with Wishart processes. This framework estimates uncertainty in the connectivity estimates, and uses this to provide strength of evidence for both dynamic and static connectivity. It encodes assumptions through prior distributions, allowing prior knowledge on the time-dependent structure of connectivity to be incorporated into the model. Using simulations, we compare the two approaches and demonstrate how different assumptions affect the detection of dynamic connectivity. Finally, by applying both approaches to an fMRI working-memory task, we find that conclusions at the group-level increase robustness to modeling choices. Our work highlights the importance of carefully considering modeling assumptions when evaluating dynamic connectivity.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2025

Reassessing prediction in the brain: Pre-onset neural encoding during natural listening does not reflect pre-activation

Predictive processing theories propose that the brain continuously anticipates upcoming input. However, direct neural evidence for predictive pre-activation during natural language comprehension remains limited and debated. Previous studies using large language model (LLM)-based encoding models with fMRI and ECoG have reported pre-onset signals that appear to encode upcoming words, but these effects may instead reflect dependencies in the stimulus or autocorrelations in neural activity. Here, we re-examined this question by aligning LLM-derived word embeddings with neural activity recorded during naturalistic listening using magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electrocorticography (ECoG). We replicated pre-onset encoding effects previously observed in ECoG across both modalities, and found that they persist even after controlling for stimulus correlations. Crucially, temporal generalization analyses revealed no stable overlap between pre- and post-onset representations, indicating that pre-onset activity does not reflect pre-activation of the next word. Consistent with this, long-range predictive effects previously reported in fMRI did not replicate in our higher-temporal-resolution data. While we found no evidence for predictive pre-activation, we observed clear signatures of postdiction, with neural activity reflecting persistent encoding of prior words. These results suggest that reported apparent predictive signals do not reflect pre-activation of upcoming input. They call for caution in interpreting LLM-based encoding models and highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of what constitutes "prediction" in language comprehension.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2024

Robust Inference of Dynamic Covariance Using Wishart Processes and Sequential Monte Carlo

Several disciplines, such as econometrics, neuroscience, and computational psychology, study the dynamic interactions between variables over time. A Bayesian nonparametric model known as the Wishart process has been shown to be effective in this situation, but its inference remains highly challenging. In this work, we introduce a Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) sampler for the Wishart process, and show how it compares to conventional inference approaches, namely MCMC and variational inference. Using simulations we show that SMC sampling results in the most robust estimates and out-of-sample predictions of dynamic covariance. SMC especially outperforms the alternative approaches when using composite covariance functions with correlated parameters. We demonstrate the practical applicability of our proposed approach on a dataset of clinical depression (n=1), and show how using an accurate representation of the posterior distribution can be used to test for dynamics on covariance

stat.ME↗