NYC Gazette

Psychology PhD student Courtney Jimenez and her colleagues conducted a study to explore how the brain processes social information when at rest. The researchers used the documentary film Samsara to investigate how study subjects' brains reacted to scenes featuring people and how they remembered the film after watching it.

In an interview with Columbia News, Jimenez explained the goals of the study, stating, "What we’re interested in is whether there are brain mechanisms that specifically prioritize our ability to learn social information when we are resting and the default network is activated."

The findings of the study revealed that the brain patterns observed while individuals watched social clips in the movie recurred when they were at rest. This suggests that the brain was consolidating the social experiences from the film. Jimenez also noted that subjects were better at remembering the parts of the film with people in them, indicating a prioritization of social content in memory consolidation.

Jimenez highlighted the significance of the research, stating, "The minute our brain gets a chance to breathe after we’ve been navigating our social environment, we’re seeing brain patterns that suggest that the brain is consolidating those social experiences so that we remember them well, and remember them better than any non-social experiences."

The choice of using the documentary Samsara in the study was explained by Jimenez as an effort to capture naturalistic stimuli that reflect real-world social experiences. She emphasized the importance of studying sociality in a way that closely mirrors everyday interactions, rather than through traditional controlled experiments.

Reflecting on her academic journey, Jimenez expressed gratitude for the opportunity to continue her graduate training at Columbia University, under the mentorship of Professor Meghan Meyer. She also shared her passion for women's sports, particularly women's soccer, mentioning the success of the New York/New Jersey team, Gotham FC.

In conclusion, the study led by Courtney Jimenez sheds light on how the brain processes social information during periods of rest, emphasizing the brain's prioritization of social content in memory consolidation. The use of naturalistic stimuli such as documentaries provides valuable insights into the complexities of social cognition and brain function.