Thought contents during rest account for functional connectivity-behavior associations

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) is linked to behavior, but explanations are often indirect.
• Current models struggle to explain rsFC-behavior links during rest when mind-wandering is prevalent.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if resting-state thought content (rsTC) mediates the relationship between rsFC and behavioral phenotypes.
• To determine if rsTC can account for variability in rsFC and its association with behavior.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 765 resting-state fMRI runs from 164 subjects.
• Collected self-reported rsTC ratings (Short Version of the New York Cognition Questionnaire) and 63 behavioral phenotypes.
• Employed linear mixed-effect models and canonical correlation analysis.

Main Results:

• Similarity in rsTC predicted similarity in rsFC fingerprints, particularly vigilance-related content.
• Network-to-network connections predicted several rsTC dimensions.
• rsTC variates significantly mediated rsFC variate-behavior associations for 45 phenotypes.

Conclusions:

• rsTC is significantly related to both rsFC and behavior.
• rsTC partially explains most examined rsFC-behavior relationships.
• This provides a more direct link between brain activity, subjective experience, and behavior during rest.