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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-NDNature Communications

Cortical reinstatement of causally related events sparks narrative insights by updating neural representation patterns

  • Hayoung Song1,2
  • Jin Ke3,4
  • Rhea Madhogarhia3
  • Yuan Chang Leong3,5,6
  • Monica D. Rosenberg7,8,9
9 affiliations
  1. 1Center for Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA. [email protected]
  2. 2Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. [email protected]
  3. 3Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  4. 4Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
  5. 5Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  6. 6Neuroscience Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
  7. 7Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. [email protected]
  8. 8Institute for Mind and Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. [email protected]
  9. 9Neuroscience Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. [email protected]
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Abstract

We make sense of everyday events by reasoning about their underlying causes. When we connect causal links between events separated in time, we often experience a sudden feeling of "aha!", or a moment of insight. What cognitive and neural processes underlie these moments of understanding? We hypothesized that narrative insight accompanies retrieving causally related past events in memory and updating the current event representation. To test this, we designed an fMRI study in which participants watched a TV episode that was cut into multiple events and presented in temporally scrambled orders. Participants pressed an "aha" button whenever they understood something new and verbally explained why they pressed in those moments at the end of each run. Supporting our prediction, more than 40% of insights included the retrieval of past events that were causally related to the current event. Neural patterns representing causally related past events were reinstated in cortical areas. This neural reinstatement drove sudden shifts in cortical representation patterns ~2 s prior to aha button presses, reflecting an update in situational representation at moments of insight. Moreover, distributed areas in the brain represented causally related events with similar neural patterns, beyond their shared semantic or perceptual features. Together, the study suggests that we comprehend events by reinstating causally related past events via shared neural patterns, followed by updating neural patterns at moments of insight.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{song2026cortical,
  title = {{Cortical reinstatement of causally related events sparks narrative insights by updating neural representation patterns}},
  author = {Hayoung Song and Jin Ke and Rhea Madhogarhia and Yuan Chang Leong and Monica D. Rosenberg},
  journal = {Nature Communications},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-73914-3},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73914-3},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Cortical reinstatement of causally related events sparks narrative insights by updating neural representation patterns
AU  - Hayoung Song
AU  - Jin Ke
AU  - Rhea Madhogarhia
AU  - Yuan Chang Leong
AU  - Monica D. Rosenberg
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/06/10
JO  - Nature Communications
DO  - 10.1038/s41467-026-73914-3
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73914-3
AB  - We make sense of everyday events by reasoning about their underlying causes. When we connect causal links between events separated in time, we often experience a sudden feeling of "aha!", or a moment of insight. What cognitive and neural processes underlie these moments of understanding? We hypothesized that narrative insight accompanies retrieving causally related past events in memory and updating the current event representation. To test this, we designed an fMRI study in which participants watched a TV episode that was cut into multiple events and presented in temporally scrambled orders. Participants pressed an "aha" button whenever they understood something new and verbally explained why they pressed in those moments at the end of each run. Supporting our prediction, more than 40% of insights included the retrieval of past events that were causally related to the current event. Neural patterns representing causally related past events were reinstated in cortical areas. This neural reinstatement drove sudden shifts in cortical representation patterns ~2 s prior to aha button presses, reflecting an update in situational representation at moments of insight. Moreover, distributed areas in the brain represented causally related events with similar neural patterns, beyond their shared semantic or perceptual features. Together, the study suggests that we comprehend events by reinstating causally related past events via shared neural patterns, followed by updating neural patterns at moments of insight.
SN  - 2041-1723
ER  -