Network-wise analysis of movie-specific information in dynamic functional connectivity using COBE

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Background:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a powerful tool for studying brain activity.
• Movie watching provides a naturalistic stimulus to investigate complex brain responses.
• Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) captures time-varying brain network interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To differentiate between group-level (movie-specific) and individual-specific dFC patterns during movie watching.
• To enhance the analysis of movie-evoked dFC by reducing subject-specific variability.
• To quantify similarities and differences in dFC temporal sequences across participants and stimuli.

Main Methods:

• Utilized dynamic time warping (DTW) distance to compare temporal sequences of dFC.
• Applied common and orthogonal basis extraction to suppress subject-specific dFC components.
• Employed F-ratio measure for quantitative analysis of dFC differences within and between brain networks.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the similarity of dFC temporal sequences for identical movie stimuli across subjects.
• Showed that suppressing subject-specific components enhances movie-related dFC patterns.
• Identified significant dFC differences within the somatomotor and default mode networks, and between occipital and somatomotor networks.

Conclusions:

• Movie watching in fMRI allows for the study of reproducible, group-level brain connectivity dynamics.
• A novel method effectively isolates stimulus-specific dFC, improving the reliability of fMRI studies.
• The findings highlight distinct dynamic connectivity patterns across major brain networks during naturalistic viewing.