Multidimensional stimulus-response correlation reveals supramodal neural responses to naturalistic stimuli

In neuroscience, stimulus-response relationships have traditionally been analyzed using either encoding or decoding models. Here we combined both techniques by decomposing neural activity into multiple components, each representing a portion of the stimulus. We tested this hybrid approach on encephalographic responses to auditory and audiovisual narratives identically experienced across subjects, as well as uniquely experienced video game play. The highest stimulus-response correlations (SRC) were detected for dynamic visual features. During narratives both auditory and visual SRC were modulated by attention and tracked correlations between subjects. During video game play, SRC was modulated by task difficulty and attentional state. Importantly, the strongest component extracted for visual and auditory features had nearly identical spatial distributions, suggesting that the predominant encephalographic response to naturalistic stimuli is supramodal. The variety of novel findings demonstrates the utility of measuring multidimensional stimulus-response correlations.