Modeling the Resituation of Memory in Neurobiology and Narrative

Narrative structure offers mechanisms for modeling the interpretation of unexpected events in an open world, using situationtheoretic foundations. Our current project applies this method to an example in neurobiology. The process of resolving fear memory is handled across two related domains, cognitive and biological, which we model as interacting contexts. This example enables us to experiment with representational reasoning about cause, implicit knowledge and shifts in dominance between distinct systems – characteristics that usually elude representation. This work-in-progress indicates that mechanisms of narrative can model cross-system, multi-ontology phenomena. This approach can also inform the visualization of processes that are difficult to represent by conventional methods, such as the shift in dominance between systems or the resulting changes to causal affordance. Capturing implicit agency in biology is thus feasible but comes with challenges in graphical display, which are discussed.