PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Taylor Bolt
AU  - Shiyu Wang
AU  - Jason S. Nomi
AU  - Roni Setton
AU  - Benjamin P. Gold
AU  - Blaise deB.Frederick
AU  - R Nathan Spreng
AU  - Shella D. Keilholz
AU  - Lucina Q. Uddin
AU  - Catie Chang
TI  - A Unified Physiological Process Links Global Patterns of Functional MRI, Respiratory Activity, and Autonomic Signaling
AID  - 10.1101/2023.01.19.524818
DP  - 2023 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2023.01.19.524818
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/20/2023.01.19.524818.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/01/20/2023.01.19.524818.full
AB  - Global signal fluctuations are a dominant source of variance in spontaneous BOLD activity. These brain-wide signals co-occur with respiratory and other physiological changes. An often-overlooked possibility is that these physiological associations with global BOLD fluctuations are components of a unified physiological process. Here we combine analysis of multi-modal physiological recordings with simultaneous EEG-fMRI data to demonstrate that global BOLD fluctuations are embedded in a physiological network spanning neural, cardiovascular, pulmonary, exocrine (sweat glands) and smooth muscle (pupil dilator) systems. We further show that these co-fluctuations can be initiated by voluntary changes in respiratory rate and depth. We propose that respiratory variability and its concomitant physiological dynamics are essential explanatory ingredients in the origin of global BOLD fluctuations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.