In-scanner thoughts contribute to resting-state functional connectivity

Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) scans-acquired in the absence of experimentally controlled stimuli or task demands-are widely used to identify aberrant patterns of functional connectivity (FC) in clinical populations. To minimize interpretational uncertainty, researchers routinely control for across-cohort disparities in age, gender, comorbidities, and head motion. Yet, studies rarely consider the possibility that systematic differences in inner experience (i.e., how subjects think and feel during the scan) directly affect FC measures. Here, using an rsfMRI dataset comprising 469 scans with retrospective experiential annotations, we show that summary descriptors of in-scanner experience are reproducible across visits and subject-specific, consistent with trait-like characteristics. We further show that widespread significant differences in FC are observed between scans that are associated with different reported experiential profiles, and that FC can predict specific experiential dimensions with performance comparable to that reported for demographic, cognitive, and clinical variables. Together, these findings highlight the key role that in-scanner experience should play when interpreting FC in the context of rsfMRI. Given that the available experiential measures are retrospective summaries, these results speak to stable experiential tendencies rather than potential moment-to-moment, state-dependent relationships between ongoing experience and concurrent brain activity.