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Main Authors: Policzer, Nico, Braunstein, Cameron, Toneva, Mariya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07988
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author Policzer, Nico
Braunstein, Cameron
Toneva, Mariya
author_facet Policzer, Nico
Braunstein, Cameron
Toneva, Mariya
contents Recent studies on audio models show brain-tuning - fine-tuning models to better predict corresponding fMRI activity - improves brain alignment and increases performance on downstream semantic and audio tasks. We extend this approach to a multimodal audio-video model to enhance social cognition, targeting the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS), a key region for social processing, while subjects watch Friends. We find significant increases in brain alignment to the STS and an adjacent ROI, as well as improvements to a social cognition task related to the training data - sarcasm detection in sitcoms. In summary, our study extends brain-tuning to the multi-modal domain, demonstrating improvements to a downstream task after tuning to a relevant functional region.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07988
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The One Where They Brain-Tune for Social Cognition: Multi-Modal Brain-Tuning on Friends
Policzer, Nico
Braunstein, Cameron
Toneva, Mariya
Artificial Intelligence
Recent studies on audio models show brain-tuning - fine-tuning models to better predict corresponding fMRI activity - improves brain alignment and increases performance on downstream semantic and audio tasks. We extend this approach to a multimodal audio-video model to enhance social cognition, targeting the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS), a key region for social processing, while subjects watch Friends. We find significant increases in brain alignment to the STS and an adjacent ROI, as well as improvements to a social cognition task related to the training data - sarcasm detection in sitcoms. In summary, our study extends brain-tuning to the multi-modal domain, demonstrating improvements to a downstream task after tuning to a relevant functional region.
title The One Where They Brain-Tune for Social Cognition: Multi-Modal Brain-Tuning on Friends
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07988