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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 25, 2025

Dynamic Inter-subject Functional Connectivity Reveals Moment-to-Moment Brain Network Configurations Driven by Continuous or Communication Paradigms

Dynamic Inter-subject Functional Connectivity Reveals Moment-to-Moment Brain Network Configurations Driven by Continuous or Communication Paradigms

Published on: March 21, 2019

Intrasubject functional connectivity related to self-generated thoughts.

Daniel Brennan¹, James W Murrough², Laurel S Morris²

¹Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, NYU, New York, NY, USA.

Brain and Behavior

|December 15, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Functional connectivity (FC) in resting-state fMRI may reflect mind-wandering patterns, not just brain architecture. A study found sensorimotor network connectivity negatively correlated with self-referential thoughts, suggesting a confounding effect in psychiatric research.

Keywords:

data-driven analysis functional connectivity mind-wandering network-based statistic repeated measures

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Published on: April 15, 2015

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychiatric Research
Cognitive Science

Background:

Resting-state functional MRI (rsfMRI) is widely used in psychiatric research to assess functional connectivity (FC).
FC is assumed to reflect stable brain architecture and trait differences relevant to psychopathology.
However, the influence of spontaneous, self-generated thoughts (mind-wandering) on FC is not fully understood and may challenge these assumptions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between the content of self-generated thoughts and functional connectivity (FC) patterns in healthy individuals.
To determine if FC reflects thought patterns rather than solely the brain's intrinsic functional architecture.

Main Methods:

Multi-factor analysis (MFA) was employed to analyze self-reported thought content during 7 Tesla rsfMRI.
Network-based statistic (NBS) was used to compare individual thought dimensions with whole-brain connectivity.

Main Results:

Three dimensions of thought content were identified: self-referential thought, negative environmental thoughts, and imagery.
A significant negative correlation was found between connectivity in sensorimotor cortices and self-referential thoughts (p = .0081, .0486 FDR).

Conclusions:

The findings suggest that self-generated thoughts, particularly self-referential ones, can significantly influence and potentially confound functional connectivity (FC) measures.
This highlights the need to consider the impact of mind-wandering when interpreting rsfMRI-derived FC in psychiatric research.