Tribev2 Brain Encoding

by reason-machines2384a003145aNo licenseListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026

Use TRIBE v2, Meta's multimodal foundation model for predicting fMRI brain responses to video, audio, and text stimuli

AI-generated overview

Predicts fMRI brain responses to video, audio, and text stimuli using Meta's TRIBE v2 multimodal model.

What it does
This skill documents how to use TRIBE v2, a multimodal foundation model that maps video, audio, and text representations onto the cortical surface (fsaverage5, roughly 20k vertices). It covers loading pretrained weights, building event dataframes from media files, running inference to produce prediction arrays, and visualizing results on brain surfaces. It also describes training from scratch with PyTorch Lightning and Slurm grid searches, plus ROI extraction and surface projection helpers.
When to use it
Use it when you need to predict cortical activity from naturalistic stimuli such as video, audio, or narration. It fits in-silico neuroscience experiments, fMRI encoding modeling, and analyses of predicted responses in specific brain regions.
Requirements
Python with the tribev2 package installed, PyTorch, and HuggingFace access to download pretrained weights; LLaMA 3.2 access requires a HuggingFace read token. Optional extras provide plotting (PyVista, Nilearn) and training (PyTorch Lightning, W&B) dependencies. Training uses Slurm and environment variables for data, output, and partition paths. Network access is needed for weight downloads. The skill ships no scripts; it is instructions only.

TRIBE v2 Brain Encoding Model

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection

TRIBE v2 is Meta's multimodal foundation model that predicts fMRI brain responses to naturalistic stimuli (video, audio, text). It combines LLaMA 3.2 (text), V-JEPA2 (video), and Wav2Vec-BERT (audio) encoders into a unified Transformer architecture that maps multimodal representations onto the cortical surface (fsaverage5, ~20k vertices).

Installation

bash
# Inference onlypip install -e .
# With brain visualization (PyVista & Nilearn)pip install -e ".[plotting]"
# Full training dependencies (PyTorch Lightning, W&B, etc.)pip install -e ".[training]"

Quick Start — Inference

Load pretrained model and predict from video

python
from tribev2 import TribeModel
# Load from HuggingFace (downloads weights to cache)model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")
# Build events dataframe from a video filedf = model.get_events_dataframe(video_path="path/to/video.mp4")
# Predict brain responsespreds, segments = model.predict(events=df)print(preds.shape)  # (n_timesteps, n_vertices) on fsaverage5

Multimodal input — video + audio + text

python
from tribev2 import TribeModel
model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")
# All modalities together (text is auto-converted to speech and transcribed)df = model.get_events_dataframe(    video_path="path/to/video.mp4",    audio_path="path/to/audio.wav",   # optional, overrides video audio    text_path="path/to/script.txt",   # optional, auto-timed)
preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)print(preds.shape)  # (n_timesteps, n_vertices)

Text-only prediction

python
from tribev2 import TribeModel
model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")
df = model.get_events_dataframe(text_path="path/to/narration.txt")preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)

Brain Visualization

python
from tribev2 import TribeModelfrom tribev2.plotting import plot_brain_surface
model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")df = model.get_events_dataframe(video_path="path/to/video.mp4")preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)
# Plot a single timepoint on the cortical surfaceplot_brain_surface(preds[0], backend="nilearn")   # or backend="pyvista"

Training a Model from Scratch

1. Set environment variables

bash
export DATAPATH="/path/to/studies"export SAVEPATH="/path/to/output"export SLURM_PARTITION="your_slurm_partition"

2. Authenticate with HuggingFace (required for LLaMA 3.2)

bash
huggingface-cli login# Paste a HuggingFace read token when prompted# Request access at: https://huggingface.co/meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B

3. Local test run

bash
python -m tribev2.grids.test_run

4. Full grid search on Slurm

bash
# Cortical surface modelpython -m tribev2.grids.run_cortical
# Subcortical regionspython -m tribev2.grids.run_subcortical

Key API — TribeModel

python
from tribev2 import TribeModel
# Load pretrained weightsmodel = TribeModel.from_pretrained(    "facebook/tribev2",    cache_folder="./cache"  # local cache for HuggingFace weights)
# Build events dataframe (word-level timings, chunking, etc.)df = model.get_events_dataframe(    video_path=None,   # str path to .mp4    audio_path=None,   # str path to .wav    text_path=None,    # str path to .txt)
# Run predictionpreds, segments = model.predict(events=df)# preds: np.ndarray of shape (n_timesteps, n_vertices)# segments: list of segment metadata dicts

Project Structure

tribev2/├── main.py              # Experiment pipeline: Data, TribeExperiment├── model.py             # FmriEncoder: Transformer multimodal→fMRI model├── pl_module.py         # PyTorch Lightning training module├── demo_utils.py        # TribeModel and inference helpers├── eventstransforms.py  # Event transforms (word extraction, chunking)├── utils.py             # Multi-study loading, splitting, subject weighting├── utils_fmri.py        # Surface projection (MNI / fsaverage) and ROI analysis├── grids/│   ├── defaults.py      # Full default experiment configuration│   └── test_run.py      # Quick local test entry point├── plotting/            # Brain visualization backends└── studies/             # Dataset definitions (Algonauts2025, Lahner2024, …)

Configuration — Defaults

Edit tribev2/grids/defaults.py or set environment variables:

python
# tribev2/grids/defaults.py (key fields){    "datapath": "/path/to/studies",       # override with DATAPATH env var    "savepath": "/path/to/output",        # override with SAVEPATH env var    "slurm_partition": "learnfair",       # override with SLURM_PARTITION env var    "model": "FmriEncoder",    "modalities": ["video", "audio", "text"],    "surface": "fsaverage5",              # ~20k vertices}

Custom Experiment with PyTorch Lightning

python
from tribev2.main import Data, TribeExperimentfrom tribev2.pl_module import TribePLModuleimport pytorch_lightning as pl
# Configure experimentexperiment = TribeExperiment(    datapath="/path/to/studies",    savepath="/path/to/output",    modalities=["video", "audio", "text"],)
data = Data(experiment)module = TribePLModule(experiment)
trainer = pl.Trainer(    max_epochs=50,    accelerator="gpu",    devices=4,)trainer.fit(module, data)

Working with fMRI Surfaces

python
from tribev2.utils_fmri import project_to_fsaverage, get_roi_mask
# Project MNI coordinates to fsaverage5 surfacesurface_data = project_to_fsaverage(mni_data, target="fsaverage5")
# Get a specific ROI mask (e.g., early visual cortex)roi_mask = get_roi_mask(roi_name="V1", surface="fsaverage5")v1_responses = preds[:, roi_mask]print(v1_responses.shape)  # (n_timesteps, n_v1_vertices)

Common Patterns

Batch prediction over multiple videos

python
from tribev2 import TribeModelimport numpy as np
model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")
video_paths = ["video1.mp4", "video2.mp4", "video3.mp4"]all_predictions = []
for vp in video_paths:    df = model.get_events_dataframe(video_path=vp)    preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)    all_predictions.append(preds)
# all_predictions: list of (n_timesteps_i, n_vertices) arrays

Extract predictions for specific brain region

python
from tribev2 import TribeModelfrom tribev2.utils_fmri import get_roi_mask
model = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")df = model.get_events_dataframe(video_path="video.mp4")preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)
# Focus on auditory cortexac_mask = get_roi_mask("auditory_cortex", surface="fsaverage5")auditory_responses = preds[:, ac_mask]  # (n_timesteps, n_ac_vertices)

Access segment timing metadata

python
preds, segments = model.predict(events=df)
for i, seg in enumerate(segments):    print(f"Segment {i}: onset={seg['onset']:.2f}s, duration={seg['duration']:.2f}s")    print(f"  Brain response shape: {preds[i].shape}")

Troubleshooting

LLaMA 3.2 access denied

bash
# Must request access at https://huggingface.co/meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B# Then authenticate:huggingface-cli login# Use a HuggingFace token with read permissions

CUDA out of memory during inference

python
# Use CPU for inference on smaller machinesimport torchmodel = TribeModel.from_pretrained("facebook/tribev2", cache_folder="./cache")model.to("cpu")

Missing visualization dependencies

bash
pip install -e ".[plotting]"# Installs pyvista and nilearn backends

Slurm training not submitting

bash
# Check env vars are setecho $DATAPATH $SAVEPATH $SLURM_PARTITION# Or edit tribev2/grids/defaults.py directly

Video without audio track causes error

python
# Provide audio separately or use text-only modedf = model.get_events_dataframe(    video_path="silent_video.mp4",    audio_path="separate_audio.wav",)

Citation

bibtex
@article{dAscoli2026TribeV2,  title={A foundation model of vision, audition, and language for in-silico neuroscience},  author={d'Ascoli, St{\'e}phane and Rapin, J{\'e}r{\'e}my and Benchetrit, Yohann and Brookes, Teon          and Begany, Katelyn and Raugel, Jos{\'e}phine and Banville, Hubert and King, Jean-R{\'e}mi},  year={2026}}

Resources

Source and attribution

Source:reason-machines/trending-skillsinskills/tribev2-brain-encodingat commit2384a00

License: No license

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