Context modulates brain state dynamics and behavioral responses during narrative comprehension

Abstract

Narrative comprehension is inherently context-sensitive, yet the brain and cognitive mechanisms by which brief contextual priming shapes story interpretation remain unclear. Using hidden Markov modeling (HMM) of fMRI data, we identified dynamic brain states as participants listened to an ambiguous spoken story under two distinct narrative contexts (affair vs. paranoia). We identified recurrent states involving auditory, language, and default mode network (DMN) regions that were expressed across both groups, as well as additional states characterized by recruitment of multiple-demand network (MDN) systems, including control, dorsal attention, and salience networks. Bayesian mixed-effects modeling revealed that contextual framing modulated how specific linguistic and character-related features influenced the probability of occupying these states. Complementary behavioral data showed parallel context-sensitive modulation of participants’ moment-to-moment interpretive judgments. Together, these findings suggest that contextual priming influences narrative comprehension through subtle, feature-dependent adjustments in the engagement of DMN- and MDN-related brain states during naturalistic story listening.