# Temporal propagation of neural state boundaries in naturalistic context

## TL;DR

This study explores how neural state boundaries spread across the brain during naturalistic movie watching, finding that they can propagate both top-down and bottom-up depending on the context.

## Contribution

The first investigation of neural state boundaries in intracranial data during event segmentation, revealing context-dependent propagation patterns.

## Key findings

- Neural state boundaries aligned with stimulus features and between brain areas.
- Top-down propagation was observed at clause onsets and offsets.
- Propagation direction varied depending on the stimulus input.

## Abstract

Our senses receive a continuous stream of complex information, which we segment into discrete events. Previous research has related such events to neural states: temporally and regionally specific stable patterns of brain activity. The aim of this paper was to investigate whether there was evidence for top-down or bottom-up propagation of neural state boundaries. To do so, we used intracranial measurements with high temporal resolution while subjects were watching a movie. As this is the first study of neural states in intracranial data in the context of event segmentation, we also investigated whether known properties of neural states could be replicated. The neural state boundaries indeed aligned with stimulus features and between brain areas. Importantly, we found evidence for top-down propagation of neural state boundaries at the onsets and offsets of clauses. Interestingly, we did not observe a consistent top-down or bottom-up propagation in general across all timepoints, suggesting that neural state boundaries could propagate in both a top-down and bottom-up manner, with the direction depending on the stimulus input at that moment. Taken together, our findings provide new insights on how neural state boundaries are shared across brain regions and strengthen the foundation of studying neural states in electrophysiology.