RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The biological role of local and global fMRI BOLD signal variability in human brain organization
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2023.10.22.563476
DO 10.1101/2023.10.22.563476
A1 Baracchini, Giulia
A1 Zhou, Yigu
A1 Castanheira, Jason da Silva
A1 Hansen, Justine Y.
A1 Rieck, Jenny
A1 Turner, Gary R.
A1 Grady, Cheryl L.
A1 Misic, Bratislav
A1 Nomi, Jason
A1 Uddin, Lucina Q.
A1 Spreng, R. Nathan
YR 2023
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2023/10/23/2023.10.22.563476.abstract
AB Variability drives the organization and behavior of complex systems, including the human brain. Understanding the variability of brain signals is thus necessary to broaden our window into brain function and behavior. Few empirical investigations of macroscale brain signal variability have yet been undertaken, given the difficulty in separating biological sources of variance from artefactual noise. Here, we characterize the temporal variability of the most predominant macroscale brain signal, the fMRI BOLD signal, and systematically investigate its statistical, topographical and neurobiological properties. We contrast fMRI acquisition protocols, and integrate across histology, microstructure, transcriptomics, neurotransmitter receptor and metabolic data, fMRI static connectivity, and empirical and simulated magnetoencephalography data. We show that BOLD signal variability represents a spatially heterogeneous, central property of multi-scale multi-modal brain organization, distinct from noise. Our work establishes the biological relevance of BOLD signal variability and provides a lens on brain stochasticity across spatial and temporal scales.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.