Volume 65, October 2025, 101581Author links open overlay panel, , Highlights•

The brain constructs stable event models representing the current situation.

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Event models shape memory and planning.

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Event models have a distributed representation in the default mode network.

The human mind constructs and updates models of events during comprehension. Event models are multidimensional, multitimescale, and structured. They enable prediction, shape memory formation, and facilitate action control. Event models may be updated incrementally by replacing feature information as it changes or globally by constructing an entirely new model; there is evidence for both mechanisms. Default mode network components, particularly medial prefrontal cortex, are thought to implement key event model functions, utilizing a temporally graded architecture in which regions with longer timescales perform more integration and abstraction. Two signatures of event model representations are phasic changes in overall activity at event boundaries and shifts in neural patterns at those boundaries. Current theories propose multiple control structures for event model updating, including monitoring the quality of event model–driven predictions. Event model updating during comprehension has important consequences not only for processing information in the moment but also for forming long-term memories.

Section snippetsEvents in the stream of behavior

Events are discrete, structured units of experience that are localized in time and space. For example, an event involving going to the beach might include features such as clear water, sandcastles, and families setting up umbrellas. The mind represents the individual components of this experience, their relations, and the coherent whole they form. These structured internal representations of events are referred to as event models [34]. Event models integrate sensory input with general knowledge

Event representations in the default mode network

Event models are working memory representations that interact with long-term event knowledge, or schemas, and with episodic memory. These varieties of event representation depend on multiple cortical systems, prominently including regions in the default mode network (DMN). The DMN was first identified as a collection of brain areas that are highly active during periods of rest between cognitive tasks [35] and have synchronized activity fluctuations [21]. Research subsequently implicated the DMN

Representations of event models and event dimensions

It is well established that brain areas can be specialized for representing a particular dimension of experience, such as specific stimulus types 10, 14. Events are composed of components, including subevents, locations, objects, and entities [34]. Along these lines, a recent memory theory proposes that the DMN comprises at least two subnetworks, each with distinct representational characteristics [36]. This framework argues that a posteror-medial (PM) system supports more contextual aspects of

Neural mechanisms of event model updating

If event representations within the DMN are parcellated according to their content, then updating different components of an event model might engage distinct brain regions. In line with this idea, Speer et al. [45] tested how brain activity responds to shifts in various narrative dimensions — causality, characters, goals, objects, spatial context, and time — in a text narrative. They hypothesized that regions representing specific event dimensions would show feature-specific phasic increases

Default mode network event representations and memory

An important feature of event models during comprehension is that they affect subsequent memory. This is reflected in fMRI studies. Ben-Yakov et al. found that the hippocampus activates around event boundaries, that the strength of the hippocampal response at event boundaries scales with the strength of the perceived boundary, and that the extent of hippocampal activation during an event’s offset is related to whether the previous event is later recalled 6, 7. Extending this work, recent

Representations of action, schemas, and scripts in the medial prefrontal cortex

The mPFC refers to the midline portion of the prefrontal cortex, anterior to the corpus callosum. Studies have linked activity in mPFC across multiple species [15] to complex behaviors, ranging from action planning [13] to memory retrieval [43]. This understanding emerged from lesion studies, which found that mPFC damage leads to impairments in memory and decision-making behaviors guided by internal states and goals [33].

Among its potential functions, mPFC plays a prominent role in representing

Conclusion

Behavioral, computational, and neurophysiological evidence converge on a picture of event comprehension in which multiple neural systems collaborate to construct stable representations of event sequences. Regions within the DMN are convergence zones [12], where multiple streams come together to form integrated gestalts. Representations in this system form stable patterns that are updated at adaptive moments. These representations support inference during comprehension, subsequent memory, and

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health: T32AG000030.

Declaration of Competing Interest

No authors have conflicts of interest pertaining to this manuscript.

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