The Task-Dependent Modular Covariance Networks Unveiled by Multiple-Way Fusion-Based Analysis

Cognitive processes induced by the specific task are underpinned by intrinsic anatomical structures with functional neural activation patterns. However, current covariance network analysis still pays much attention to brain morphologies or baseline activity due to the lack of an effective method for capturing the structural-functional covarying during tasks. Here, a multimodal covariance network (MCN) construction method was proposed to identify inter-regional covariations of the structural skeleton and functional activities by simultaneous magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram (EEG). Results from two independent cohorts confirmed that MCNs could capture cognition-specific hierarchical modules in joint comprehensive multimodal features well, especially when time-resolved EEG was further integrated. The quantitative evaluation further demonstrates significantly larger modularity of MCN integrating fine-grained features from EEG. The application to the discovery cohort identified prominent modular covarying across the default mode and salience networks at rest, while the visual oddball task was accomplished by synchronous structural-functional cooperation within networks associated with attention control and working memory updating. Strikingly, the results of an external validation cohort showed a different covariant pattern corresponding to decision-specific cognitive modules. Overall, the results suggested that multimodal covariance analysis provides a reliable definition of multistate neural cognitive networks, further discloses modular-specific structural and functional co-variation.