Testing hypotheses of context-dependent, distributed, and non-hierarchical neural representation using hypermodal MRI

The project aims to evaluate specific computational models of context-dependent auditory
and visual representation, attention, and integration using a new 'hypermodal' MRI dataset.
The MOVIE II project uses high temporal and spatial resolution functional MRI to
comprehensively map out participants' blood-oxygen-level-dependent responses to a full
length movie, as well as more controlled visual, auditory, and somatosensory mapping
stimuli, brain-region-specific hemodynamic responses, high-resolution maps of
macromolecular, water, and iron content, and time-locked recordings of participants'
eyegaze, and physiology.
The PhD student will evaluate the explanatory power of models that take into account
temporal buildup of sensory information within and across modalities, as well as more
abstract characterizations, such as event flow and the establishment of musical motifs or
phrasal tension. In Year 2 of the PhD, under the supervision of Skipper and Dick, the student
will build explanatory computational models for fMRI activity that build in an increasing
degree of contextual modulation on acoustic and visual features, and test these in
functionally and myeloarchitectonically defined brain regions that are at different tiers in
putative cortical hierarchies. In Year 3-4, supervised by Tierney, Skipper, and Dick, the
student will also conduct a 'spin-off' EEG study, where participants will again view the same
movie used in the MOVIE II database.This new dataset will be used to generate temporal
response functions to a subset of the features used for fMRI analyses; these will in turn
generate more temporally detailed estimates of neural responses that will be used to further
condition the initial fMRI models of the MOVIE II data. The student will also design and run
small-N fMRI studies that vary the linguistic or acoustic content of the movie presented to
test hypotheses about the modulation of perceptual processing by more abstract cognitive
constructs.