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News! New preprint by Leyao Wang using machine learning on 100-year old novels to predict which ones are still being read (i.e., timeless)!
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big questions
We study human memory and spontaneous thought.
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What makes an experience sticky -- likely to form a lasting memory or linger in our thoughts?
What is mental context and how does it constrain moment-by-moment cognition?
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How do remembering and sense-making interact?
Why are stories so ubiquitous our lives? What might this reveal about human cognition?
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philosophy
Our goal is to contribute to understanding how the human mind works, particularly in the domains of memory and spontaneous thought.
We strive to pursue a rigorous and creative science, that addresses cognition at the level of subjective experience and its underlying computation.
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We believe that promoting diversity in those who do science (e.g., race, gender, class, sexuality, ability) is a necessary step towards achieving the rigorous and creative science of the mind that we want.
research
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stories change how we think
Stories can have a lasting influence on how we think. How do we measure this influence? What are its consequences? We examine how and why stories linger in our spontaneous thoughts, using techniques from natural language processing. [talk] [paper]
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old knowledge, new learning
Our past experiences and knowledge fundamentally shape how we learn new information. We are curious about the consequences of this contextualizing/sense-making process on learning and memory. [paper]
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hippocampus and memory
The hippocampus, a brain structure tucked deep in our medial temporal lobe, is involved in our ability to remember past events. How does the hippocampus contribute to remembering? Do different aspects of the hippocampus contribute in different ways? [paper]
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default mode network
The default mode network (DMN), a set of functionally coupled brain regions, seem to be implicated in variety of contexts (e.g., remembering, imagining, story comprehension, mentalizing, and mind-wandering). Could these regions be ideally situated in the brain to represent our internal models of the external environment? [paper] [commentary]
selected papers
For a complete list, please see Google Scholar.
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preprints / forthcoming
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Wang, L, Heidari, F., Nguyen, A., van Zundert, J., van Dalen-Oskam. K., Mar, R. A.*, & Bellana, B.*, (preprint). What makes a novel timeless? psyArxiv. [pdf, data]
*Co-senior author
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Li, X., Ni, N. K., Born, S. J., Gualano, R. J., Lee, I., Bellana, B.*, & Chen, J.*, (preprint). Agency personalizes episodic memories. psyArxiv. [pdf]
*Co-senior author
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published
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Fenerci, C., Cheng, Z., Addis, D. R., Bellana, B., & Sheldon, S. (2025). Studying memory narratives with natural language processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. [pdf]
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Honey, C. J., Mahabal, A., Bellana, B. (2023). Psychological momentum. Current Directions in Psychological Science. [pdf]
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Bouffard, N., Golestani, A., Brunec, I. K., Bellana, B., Barense, M. D., Moscovitch, M. (2023). Single voxel autocorrelation uncovers gradients of temporal dynamics in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex during rest and navigation. Cerebral Cortex. 33, 3265-3283. [pdf]
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Bellana, B., Ladyka-Wojcik, N., Lahan, S., Moscovitch, M. & Grady, C.L. (2023). Activity in the left angular tracks both recollection and prior knowledge during recognition. Brain Structure & Function. 228, 197-217. [pdf]
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Bellana, B., Mahabal, A., Honey, C. J. (2022). Narrative thinking lingers in spontaneous thought. Nature Communications. 13(1), 4585. [pdf, data]
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Bellana, B., Mansour, R., Ladyka-Wojcik, N., Grady, C.L. & Moscovitch, M. (2021). The influence of prior knowledge on the formation of detailed and durable memories. Journal of Memory and Language. 121, 104264. [pdf, data]
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Lee, H., Bellana, B., & Chen, J. (2020). What can narratives tell us about the neural bases of human memory? Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. 32, 111-119. [pdf]
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Ramanan, S. & Bellana, B. (2019, commentary). A domain general role for the angular gyrus in retrieving internal representations of the external world. The Journal of Neuroscience, 39(16), 2978-2980. [pdf]
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Brunec, I.K.*, Bellana, B.*, Ozubko, J.D., Man, V., Robin, J., Liu, Z-X., Grady, C.L., Rosenbaum, R.S., Winocur, G., Barense, M.D. & Moscovitch, M. (2018). Multiple scales of representation along the hippocampal anteroposterior axis in humans. Current Biology, 28(13), 2129-2135.e6 [pdf]
*Equal contributions
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Bellana, B.*, Liu, Z-X.*, Diamond, N., Grady, C.L. & Moscovitch, M. (2017). Similarities and differences in the default mode network across rest, retrieval and future imagining. Human Brain Mapping, 38(3): 1155-1171. [pdf]
*Equal contributions
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Anderson, J.A.E., Sarraf, S., Amer, T., Bellana, B., Man, V., Campbell, K.L., Hasher, L. &
Grady, C.L. (2017). Task-linked diurnal brain network reorganization in older adults: A graph theoretical approach. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 29(3), 560-572. [link]
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Bellana, B., Liu, Z., Anderson, J.A.E., Moscovitch, M. & Grady, C.L. (2016). Laterality effects in functional connectivity of the angular gyrus during rest and episodic retrieval. Neuropsychologia, 80(8): 24-34. [pdf]
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guest editor
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Hartung, F., & Bellana, B. (Eds.) . (2024). Advances in Neuroaesthetics: Narratives and Art as Windows into the Mind and the Brain. [Special Issue]. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 47(3). [pdf]
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resources
demo: free association
Interested in measuring spontaneous thought? Check out our code for a free association task that we use in some of our research. [demo]
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demo: self paced reading
In some of our experiments, we have participants read stories. Check out our self paced reading task and read a story at different levels of coherence.
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tutorial repo
We're slowly building a repository of tutorials for the various tools we use in the lab (e.g., word embeddings in R; permutation testing; etc).
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cool things (from the internet)
A way to use AI tools to estimate the distribution of gender and ethnicities in the authors we cite. Check out this online tool to help you generate your own.
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A searchable (!) repository of openly available behavioural datasets.
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Interactive fiction, where you collaborate with transformer models to create a story world of your own.
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Word2Vec embedding space, but like, space. Fun and interactive way to get a handle on word embeddings.
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An exhaustingly large, if not exhaustive, list of common tropes in TV and movies.
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the living handbook of narratology
Interested in thinking about stories? Read about some of the key concepts in this evolving online handbook.
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A massive database of freely available speculative (i.e.,sci-fi/fantasy) fiction.
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the interactive fiction database
A whole world of (interactive) storytelling.
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Icons for everything.
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