Resting-state neural activity across face-selective cortical regions is behaviorally relevant

Interest has increased recently in correlations across brain regions in the resting-state fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response, but little is known about the functional significance of these correlations. Here we directly test the behavioral relevance of the resting-state correlation be...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of neuroscience 2011-07, Vol.31 (28), p.10323-10330
Main Authors: Zhu, Qi, Zhang, Jiedong, Luo, Yu L L, Dilks, Daniel D, Liu, Jia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Brain Mapping
Face
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neurons - physiology
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Photic Stimulation
Visual Cortex - physiology
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:Interest has increased recently in correlations across brain regions in the resting-state fMRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response, but little is known about the functional significance of these correlations. Here we directly test the behavioral relevance of the resting-state correlation between two face-selective regions in human brain, the occipital face area (OFA) and the fusiform face area (FFA). We found that the magnitude of the resting-state correlation, henceforth called functional connectivity (FC), between OFA and FFA correlates with an individual's performance on a number of face-processing tasks, not non-face tasks. Further, we found that the behavioral significance of the OFA/FFA FC is independent of the functional activation and the anatomical size of either the OFA or FFA, suggesting that face processing depends not only on the functionality of individual face-selective regions, but also on the synchronized spontaneous neural activity between them. Together, these findings provide strong evidence that the functional correlations in the BOLD response observed at rest reveal functionally significant properties of cortical processing.
ISSN:0270-6474
1529-2401
DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0873-11.2011