How to Interpret Resting-State fMRI: Ask Your Participants.

Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) reveals brain dynamics in a task-unconstrained environment as subjects let their minds wander freely. Consequently, resting subjects navigate a rich space of cognitive and perceptual states (i.e., ongoing experience). How this ongoing experience shapes rsfMRI summary metrics (e.g., functional connectivity) is unknown, yet likely to contribute uniquely to within- and between-subject differences. Here we argue that understanding the role of ongoing experience in rsfMRI requires access to standardized, temporally resolved, scientifically validated first-person descriptions of those experiences. We suggest best practices for obtaining those descriptions via introspective methods appropriately adapted for use in fMRI research. We conclude with a set of guidelines for fusing these two data types to answer pressing questions about the etiology of rsfMRI. Copyright © 2021 the authors.

Citation

Javier Gonzalez-Castillo, Julia W Y Kam, Colin W Hoy, Peter A Bandettini. How to Interpret Resting-State fMRI: Ask Your Participants. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 2021 Feb 10;41(6):1130-1141

Mesh Tags

PMID: 33568446

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