Building a story: coherent narrative formation relies on functional connectivity in posterior cortex and frontoparietal networks

Abstract

Narratives are embedded in human experience, enabling the integration and communication of large quantities of accumulated information. Despite the ubiquity of this deeply rooted ability, the neural networks involved in narrative formation are yet unclear. Building on literary and philosophical definitions of narrative, we explored brain networks that differentially coactivated while individuals were presented with either coherent or incoherent narratives. Using movie scenes presented in a functional MRI environment, either in their correct or reversed order, we found that regions in the posterior cortex and frontoparietal networks were preferentially co-activated during coherent narrative formation. Moreover, whereas coactivation patterns of posterior cortex converged across conditions over time, the frontoparietal network remained constantly higher in the coherent narrative condition. We suggest that processing and integrating accumulating information is supported by functional coupling of posterior cortical networks, whereas the frontoparietal network serves to maintain the coherence and causal relations that underpin plot comprehension.