Heroes and villains: opposing narrative roles engage neural synchronization in the inferior frontal gyrus

Abstract

Neuroscientific studies have highlighted the role of the default mode network (DMN) in processing narrative information. Here, we examined whether the neural synchronization of the DMN tracked the appearances of protagonists and antagonists when viewing highly engaging, socially rich audiovisual narratives. Using inter-subject correlation analysis on two independent, publicly available movie-watching fMRI datasets, we computed whole-brain neural synchronization during the appearance of the protagonists and antagonists. Results showed that the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) had higher ISC values during the appearance of the protagonists than the antagonists. Importantly, these findings were generalized in both datasets. We discuss the results in the context of information integration and emotional empathy, which are relevant to functions of the IFG. Our study presents generalizable evidence that the IFG show distinctive synchronization patterns due to differences in narrative roles.