Some Brains Are More Strongly Functionally Connected Than Others: A Resting-State fMRI Study of Inter and Intra Network Coherence

Izabela Przezdzik¹, Andrew P. Bagshaw¹, Stephen D. Mayhew¹

We used group ICA to identify the brains major bilateral networks and seed-based functional connectivity (FC) to demonstrate that some individuals brains are more strongly connected than others. We observe that: 1) FC strength within a network is related to FC strength within other networks; 2) FC strength between networks can be predicted from the FC within the seed network; 3) FC within a cortical network is related to the strength of its connectivity with the thalamus. These results provide insight into the collaborative and antagonistic temporal relationships between the networks which form the functional architecture of the human brain.