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Movie-viewing as a clinical tool: Integrating emotional valence, gaze, and contextual language tasks

Poster No:

805

Submission Type:

Abstract Submission

Authors:

Manuel Marte¹^,2, Bryce Gillis², Rowan Faris², Colin Galvin³, Laura Rigolo³, Yanmei Tie³, Swathi Kiran¹, Einat Liebenthal⁴

Institutions:

¹Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University, Boston, MA, ²Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, ³Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, ⁴Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

First Author:

Manuel Marte
Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University|Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA|Belmont, MA

Co-Author(s):

Bryce Gillis
Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Belmont, MA

Rowan Faris
Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Belmont, MA

Colin Galvin
Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Laura Rigolo
Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Yanmei Tie
Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Swathi Kiran
Center for Brain Recovery, Boston University
Boston, MA

Einat Liebenthal
Institute for Technology in Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA

Introduction:

Naturalistic paradigms offer unique insights into real-world processing that may not be captured by traditional assessments. We investigated whether a movie-viewing paradigm, combining continuous emotional valence ratings with context-specific language tasks, could differentiate between healthy controls (HC, n=50), persons with aphasia (AP, n=30), and individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=17). A subset of participants completed eye-tracking during movie-viewing (HC: n=50; AP: n=7; MCI: n=17).

Methods:

Participants watched emotionally engaging movie clips while providing continuous valence ratings (-4 to +4), followed by comprehension questions and antonym generation tasks. We examined: (1) performance on post-movie language tasks, (2) rating deviation from group consensus using Root Mean Squared Z-scores, (3) rating complexity across timescales using multiscale sample entropy, and (4) the diagnostic utility of these measures using logistic LASSO classification models incorporating all features and their pairwise interactions. In an exploratory analysis, we examined inter-subject correlations (ISC) of eye-gaze patterns both horizontally and vertically in the subset of participants who completed eye-tracking.

Results:

HC outperformed both clinical groups on language tasks (p < 0.05), with MCI showing an intermediate profile - performing better than AP on antonym generation (p < 0.001) but similarly on comprehension (p = 0.067). AP showed significantly greater deviations from group consensus in valence ratings compared to both HC and MCI (p ≥ 0.004), while HC and MCI showed similar patterns. Complexity analysis demonstrated systematic differences across groups, with APs showing a steeper decline in entropy at longer timescales (p < 0.001), and MCIs exhibiting an intermediate profile, relative to HCs. Preliminary eye-gaze metrics revealed no significant group differences, but comprehension scores in AP showed a trending relationship with horizontal gaze synchronization (p = 0.06).

Classification models achieved strong performance distinguishing APs from HCs (AUC = 0.928, 95% CI: 0.877-0.989) and good performance for the combined patient groups versus HCs (AUC = 0.859, 95% CI: 0.784-0.934). Performance was more moderate for HC versus MCI classification (AUC = 0.721, 95% CI: 0.572-0.879). Post-movie language task performance and continuous movie valence ratings emerged as the strongest predictors of group membership, with sample entropy providing additional predictive value.

Conclusions:

Our findings demonstrate that continuous valence ratings during movie-viewing and post-movie language performance can effectively characterize cognitive-linguistic impairments. The paradigm's sensitivity to both marked (AP) and subtle (MCI) impairments validates its potential as an ecologically valid assessment tool. Future analyses of eye-tracking data will examine fine-grained measures, including spatiotemporal fixation density distributions, gaze entropy metrics, and scene-specific gaze behaviors to potentially reveal subtle group differences in visual attention allocation and exploration strategies to contrast against global synchronization measures. These results suggest that naturalistic paradigms not only offer robust diagnostic value but could also inform the development of targeted interventions for different clinical populations.

Disorders of the Nervous System:

Neurodegenerative/ Late Life (eg. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s) ²

Emotion, Motivation and Social Neuroscience:

Emotional Perception

Language:

Language Comprehension and Semantics ¹

Lifespan Development:

Aging

Modeling and Analysis Methods:

Classification and Predictive Modeling

Keywords:

Aphasia

Cognition

DISORDERS

Emotions

Language

^1|2Indicates the priority used for review

Abstract Information

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