title: Cerebral functional connectivity periodically (de)synchronizes with anatomical constraints.
abstract: This paper studies the link between resting-state functional connectivity (FC), measured by the correlations of fMRI BOLD time courses, and structural connectivity (SC), estimated through fiber tractography. Instead of a static analysis based on the correlation between SC and FC averaged over the entire fMRI time series, we propose a dynamic analysis, based on the time evolution of the correlation between SC and a suitably windowed FC. Assessing the statistical significance of the time series against random phase permutations, our data show a pronounced peak of significance for time window widths around 20-30 TR (40-60 s). Using the appropriate window width, we show that FC patterns oscillate between phases of high modularity, primarily shaped by anatomy, and phases of low modularity, primarily shaped by inter-network connectivity. Building upon recent results in dynamic FC, this emphasizes the potential role of SC as a transitory architecture between different highly connected resting-state FC patterns. Finally, we show that the regions contributing the most to these whole-brain level fluctuations of FC on the supporting anatomical architecture belong to the default mode and the executive control networks suggesting that they could be capturing consciousness-related processes such as mind wandering.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. R.Liegeois@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Raphaël
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liégeois
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|GIGA-R, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Geurts
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Computer Science Department, Universidad Central de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Mohamed Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bahri
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clinical Imaging Research Centre, Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology & Memory Networks Programme, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: B T Thomas
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Mind and Brain Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soddu
authors.affiliation: Department of Algology and Palliative Care, University Hospital of Liége, Liége, Belgium.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vanhaudenhuyse
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Laureys
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.|Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK.
authors.forename: Rodolphe
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sepulchre
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003344:Cortical Synchronization; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology
keywords: DWI; Dynamics; FMRI; Functional connectivity; Mind wandering; Multimodal imaging; Spontaneous activity; Structural connectivity; Windowing