title: Signature of consciousness in the dynamics of resting-state brain activity.
abstract: At rest, the brain is traversed by spontaneous functional connectivity patterns. Two hypotheses have been proposed for their origins: they may reflect a continuous stream of ongoing cognitive processes as well as random fluctuations shaped by a fixed anatomical connectivity matrix. Here we show that both sources contribute to the shaping of resting-state networks, yet with distinct contributions during consciousness and anesthesia. We measured dynamical functional connectivity with functional MRI during the resting state in awake and anesthetized monkeys. Under anesthesia, the more frequent functional connectivity patterns inherit the structure of anatomical connectivity, exhibit fewer small-world properties, and lack negative correlations. Conversely, wakefulness is characterized by the sequential exploration of a richer repertoire of functional configurations, often dissimilar to anatomical structure, and comprising positive and negative correlations among brain regions. These results reconcile theories of consciousness with observations of long-range correlation in the anesthetized brain and show that a rich functional dynamics might constitute a signature of consciousness, with potential clinical implications for the detection of awareness in anesthesia and brain-lesioned patients.
authors.affiliation: NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, U992, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; pablo.barttfeld@cea.fr bechir.jarraya@cea.fr stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barttfeld
authors.affiliation: NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, U992, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Avenir-Bettencourt-Schueller Team, INSERM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France;
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Uhrig
authors.affiliation: NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; INSERM, U1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06 UMR S 1127, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, F-75013 Paris, France;
authors.forename: Jacobo D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Sitt
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Integrativa, Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires, Universidad de Buenos Aires, C1428EGA Buenos Aires, Argentina; Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, C1428BIJ Buenos Aires, Argentina;
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman
authors.affiliation: NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Avenir-Bettencourt-Schueller Team, INSERM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France; Université Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 78000 Versailles, France; Neuromodulation Unit, Department of Neurosurgery, Foch Hospital, 92150 Suresnes, France; pablo.barttfeld@cea.fr bechir.jarraya@cea.fr stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr.
authors.forename: Béchir
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0878-763X
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jarraya
authors.affiliation: NeuroSpin Center, Institute of BioImaging Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, INSERM, U992, 91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Université Paris 11, 91405 Orsay, France; and Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France pablo.barttfeld@cea.fr bechir.jarraya@cea.fr stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr.
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003243:Consciousness; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging
keywords: anesthesia; consciousness; dynamics; functional connectivity; structural connectivity