Searching across hundreds of databases

Our searching services are busy right now. Your search will reload in five seconds.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Competition between functional brain networks mediates behavioral variability.

NeuroImage | 2008

Increased intraindividual variability (IIV) is a hallmark of disorders of attention. Recent work has linked these disorders to abnormalities in a "default mode" network, comprising brain regions routinely deactivated during goal-directed cognitive tasks. Findings from a study of the neural basis of attentional lapses suggest that a competitive relationship between the "task-negative" default mode network and regions of a "task-positive" attentional network is a potential locus of dysfunction in individuals with increased IIV. Resting state studies have shown that this competitive relationship is intrinsically represented in the brain, in the form of a negative correlation or antiphase relationship between spontaneous activity occurring in the two networks. We quantified the negative correlation between these two networks in 26 subjects, during active (Eriksen flanker task) and resting state scans. We hypothesized that the strength of the negative correlation is an index of the degree of regulation of activity in the default mode and task-positive networks and would be positively related to consistent behavioral performance. We found that the strength of the correlation between the two networks varies across individuals. These individual differences appear to be behaviorally relevant, as interindividual variation in the strength of the correlation was significantly related to individual differences in response time variability: the stronger the negative correlation (i.e., the closer to 180 degrees antiphase), the less variable the behavioral performance. This relationship was moderately consistent across resting and task conditions, suggesting that the measure indexes moderately stable individual differences in the integrity of functional brain networks. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the behavioral significance of spontaneous brain activity, in both healthy and clinical populations.

Pubmed ID: 17919929 RIS Download

Research resources used in this publication

None found

Additional research tools detected in this publication

Antibodies used in this publication

None found

Associated grants

  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: 5R21MH066393
  • Agency: NIMH NIH HHS, United States
    Id: 5T32MH067763

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (tool)

RRID:SCR_005283

The FMRIB Centre is a multi-disciplinary neuroimaging research facility, which focuses on the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for neuroscience research, along with related technologies such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, transcranial Direct Cortical Stimulation and EEG. FMRIB is composed of research groups in all aspects of brain imaging research, including physics, analysis, basic science and clinical neuroscience. We were recently awarded 8 million pounds by the MRC, EPSRC, Wolfson Foundation and University of Oxford to purchase and install new 7T and 3T leading-edge MRI systems to enable us to image brain structure and function at even higher resolution than currently possible.

View all literature mentions