Chang L.JJolly ECheong J.HRapuano K.MGreenstein NChen P.-H.APIN-HAO CHEN2022-04-252022-04-25202123752548https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85105087619&doi=10.1126%2fsciadv.abf7129&partnerID=40&md5=47bafb293960c545bf1fa7e470061607https://scholars.lib.ntu.edu.tw/handle/123456789/606262How we process ongoing experiences is shaped by our personal history, current needs, and future goals. Consequently, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity involved in processing these subjective appraisals appears to be highly idiosyncratic across individuals. To elucidate the role of the vmPFC in processing our ongoing experiences, we developed a computational framework and analysis pipeline to characterize the spatiotemporal dynamics of individual vmPFC responses as participants viewed a 45-minute television drama. Through a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging, facial expression tracking, and self-reported emotional experiences across four studies, our data suggest that the vmPFC slowly transitions through a series of discretized states that broadly map onto affective experiences. Although these transitions typically occur at idiosyncratic times across people, participants exhibited a marked increase in state alignment during high affectively valenced events in the show. Our work suggests that the vmPFC ascribes affective meaning to our ongoing experiences. Copyright ? 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).Magnetic resonance imagingComputational frameworkEmotional experiencesFacial ExpressionsFunctional magnetic resonance imagingPersonal historyPrefrontal cortexSpatio-temporal dynamicsState dynamicsPipeline processing systems[SDGs]SDG3journal article10.1126/sciadv.abf7129338931062-s2.0-85105087619