Individualized video recommendation modulates functional connectivity between large scale networks

With the emergence of AI-powered recommender systems and their extensive use in the video streaming service, questions and concerns also arise. Why can recommended video content continuously capture users' attention? What is the impact of long-term exposure to personalized video content on one's behaviors and brain functions? To address these questions, we designed an fMRI experiment presenting participants with personally recommended videos and generally recommended ones. To examine how large-scale networks were modulated by personalized video content, graph theory analysis was applied to investigate the interaction between seven networks, including the ventral and dorsal attention networks (VAN, DAN), frontal-parietal network (FPN), salience network (SN), and three subnetworks of default mode network (dorsal medial prefrontal (dMPFC), Core, and medial temporal lobe (MTL)). Our results showed that viewing nonpersonalized video content mainly enhanced the connectivity in the DAN-FPN-Core pathway, whereas viewing personalized ones increased not only the connectivity in this pathway but also the DAN-VAN-dMPFC pathway. In addition, both personalized and nonpersonalized short videos decreased the couplings between SN and VAN as well as between two DMN subsystems, Core and MTL. Collectively, these findings uncovered distinct patterns of network interactions in response to short videos and provided insights into potential neural mechanisms by which human behaviors are biased by personally recommended content.