Cited by 78Neural dynamics and brain functionFunctional Brain Connectivity StudiesMemory and Neural Mechanisms
A partially nested cortical hierarchy of neural states underlies event segmentation in the human brain
Open accessGeerligs, Linda, Gözükara, Dora, Oetringer, Djamari, Campbell, Karen L, van Gerven, Marcel, Güçlü, Umut·2022·eLife
DOI 10.7554/elife.77430PMC PMC9531941
Published version of a preprint
Abstract
A fundamental aspect of human experience is that it is segmented into discrete events. This may be underpinned by transitions between distinct neural states. Using an innovative data-driven state segmentation method, we investigate how neural states are organized across the cortical hierarchy and where in the cortex neural state boundaries and perceived event boundaries overlap. Our results show that neural state boundaries are organized in a temporal cortical hierarchy, with short states in primary sensory regions, and long states in lateral and medial prefrontal cortex. State boundaries are shared within and between groups of brain regions that resemble well-known functional networks. Perceived event boundaries overlap with neural state boundaries across large parts of the cortical hierarchy, particularly when those state boundaries demarcate a strong transition or are shared between brain regions. Taken together, these findings suggest that a partially nested cortical hierarchy of neural states forms the basis of event segmentation.
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Cognitive neuroscience indicates that the brain does not encode information uniformly; instead, it privileges event boundaries.
“Cognitive neuroscience indicates that the brain does not encode information uniformly. Instead, it privileges event boundaries [3, 16].”
From HingeMem: Boundary Guided Long-Term Memory with Query Adaptive Retrieval for Scalable Dialogues (2026) · cites this paper as [16]
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- Authors
- Geerligs, L., Gözükara, D., Oetringer, D., Campbell, K. L., van Gerven, M., & Güçlü, U.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Brock University (CA)
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen
- Corresponding author
- Geerligs, Linda
- Venue
- eLife
- Publisher
- eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
- Published
- 2022-09-16
- Volume
- 11
- ISSN
- 2050-084X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9531941
- OpenAlex
- W4296027313
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 9
- FWCI
- 8.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (VI.Vidi.201.150)
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2017-03804)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- event segmentation, neural states, cortical hierarchy, state boundaries, prefrontal cortex, functional networks, sensory cortex, neural state transitions
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Mapping, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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