Mapping perception and emotion in the human brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging using naturalistic stimuli

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Creating cognitive maps of how the brain processes the real-world around us is a central goal of neuroscience. This is no simple task, however, as human cognition is vastly complex, nuanced, and involves processing information in a multimodal and dynamic world. Because of its complexity, previous research has relied on proxies of stimuli in the real-world that may not adequately represent the stimulus (and thus the cognitive process) they are attempting to investigate. Increasingly, research in cognitive neuroscience is shifting away from strictly controlled experimental paradigms in favour of more naturalistic tasks to probe the multiscale dynamics of real-world processing. Naturalistic stimuli (such as audiovisual movies) may be better suited to help map complex human brain responses by providing a more valid proxy of natural viewing and listening. With the shift from strict control to naturalistic cognition, however, comes the computational challenge of analyzing, interpreting, and disentangling complex brain responses in a meaningful way. To overcome these challenges, my research combines behavioural, neuroimaging, and computational techniques to study the brain under dynamic and naturalistic conditions. The long-term objective of this program of research is to map the structural and functional architecture of naturalistic cognition in the human brain. To achieve this, this program of research has three specific short-term objectives: 1) to build a database of emotional, perceptual, and physiological responses of individuals to a wide range of movie stimuli that will be an essential and valuable resource for expanding the field of naturalistic neuroscience; 2) to use advanced data-driven analysis approaches that identify events in movie stimuli using brain activity patterns and integrate brain response patterns with perceptual and emotional attributes of the stimulus; and 3) to use state-of-the-art computational modeling techniques to identify structure/function relationships between white matter connectivity and naturalistic brain responses. This highly innovative program of research will take a systems approach to the study of naturalistic cognition by incorporating behavioural characteristics, functional neuroimaging, and structural connectivity to identify the underlying network architecture of naturalistic cognition. Thus, it will facilitate ground-breaking advancements in the field of naturalistic neuroscience in Canada and will provide the first step to mapping the structural and functional architecture of real-world cognition in the human brain. This research will be at the forefront of an exciting and timely data-driven approach to cognitive neuroscience aimed at bridging the gap between research and the real-world. Further, it will provide a critical benefit to society by elucidating the ways in which the brain is able to process the complex, multimodal world around us.