Solving the Narrative Puzzle: Hippocampal Systems for Event Encoding and Sequencing during Ongoing Comprehension

Solving the Narrative Puzzle: Hippocampal Systems for Event Encoding and Sequencing during Ongoing Comprehension | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Solving the Narrative Puzzle: Hippocampal Systems for Event Encoding and Sequencing during Ongoing Comprehension Won Mok Shim, Jiwoong Park, Hayoung Song This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4569104/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 23 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Communications Biology → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Narrative comprehension requires encoding individual events and sequencing them into coherent structures. This study demonstrates how the hippocampus contributes to these processes during ongoing narrative processing. Participants viewed a temporally scrambled movie and subsequently recounted its inferred original story during fMRI scans. Content encoding and event sequencing abilities were assessed by comparing semantic similarity and temporal order between movie annotations and recall. Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex predicted sequencing ability during moments when past and present information are integrated, identified through pre-defined narrative structures and data-driven language models. Conversely, hippocampus-posterior medial cortex connectivity predicted content encoding abilities following event boundaries. These findings reveal two distinct hippocampus-centered memory systems in narrative processing: the hippocampus-PMC system for event encoding and the hippocampus-vmPFC system for their integration into coherent narratives. Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Cognitive neuroscience Biological sciences/Neuroscience/Learning and memory Narrative comprehension Event encoding Event sequencing Hippocampus Default mode network Predictive model fMRI Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files NarrativePuzzleReportingSummary.pdf Reporting Summary NarrativePuzzleResponsetoreviewers.pdf Response to Nature Communications Reviewers Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 23 Jun, 2025 Read the published version in Communications Biology → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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