Layer-dependent fMRI allows measurements of information flow in cortical circuits, as afferent and efferent connections terminate in different cortical layers. However, it is unknown to what level human fMRI is specific and sensitive enough to reveal directional functional activity across layers. To answer this question, we developed acquisition and analysis methods for blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) and cerebral-blood-volume (CBV)-based laminar fMRI and used these to discriminate four different tasks in the human motor cortex (M1). In agreement with anatomical data from animal studies, we found evidence for somatosensory and premotor input in superficial layers of M1 and for cortico-spinal motor output in deep layers. Laminar resting-state fMRI showed directional functional connectivity of M1 with somatosensory and premotor areas. Our findings demonstrate that CBV-fMRI can be used to investigate cortical activity in humans with unprecedented detail, allowing investigations of information flow between brain regions and outperforming conventional BOLD results that are often buried under vascular biases.

Little is known about how our brains dynamically adapt for efficient functioning. Most previous work has focused on analyzing changes in co-fluctuations between a set of brain regions over several temporal segments of the data. We argue that by collapsing data in space or time, we stand to lose useful information about the brain’s dynamical organization. Here we use Topological Data Analysis to reveal the overall organization of whole-brain activity maps at a single-participant level—as an interactive representation—without arbitrarily collapsing data in space or time. Using existing multitask fMRI datasets, with the known ground truth about the timing of transitions from one task-block to next, our approach tracks both within- and between-task transitions at a much faster time scale (~4–9 s) than before. The individual differences in the revealed dynamical organization predict task performance. In summary, our approach distills complex brain dynamics into interactive and behaviorally relevant representations.

The temporal evolution of functional connectivity (FC) within the confines of individual scans is nowadays often explored with functional neuroimaging. This is particularly true for resting-state; yet, FC-dynamics have also been investigated as subjects engage on numerous tasks. It is these research efforts that constitute the core of this survey. First, empirical observations on how FC differs between task and rest-independent of temporal scale-are reviewed, as they underscore how, despite overall preservation of network topography, the brain's FC does reconfigure in systematic ways to accommodate task demands. Next, reports on the relationships between instantaneous FC and perception/performance in subsequent trials are discussed. Similarly, research where different aspects of task-concurrent FC-dynamics are explored or utilized to predict ongoing mental states are also examined. The manuscript finishes with an incomplete list of challenges that hopefully fuels future work in this vibrant area of neuroscientific research. Overall, this review concludes that task-concurrent FC-dynamics, when properly characterized, are relevant to behavior, and that their translational value holds considerable promise.

Functional connectivity (FC) has been widely used to study the functional organization of temporally correlated and spatially distributed brain regions. Recent studies of FC dynamics, quantified by windowed correlations, provide new insights to analyze dynamic, context-dependent reconfiguration of brain networks. A set of reoccurring whole-brain connectivity patterns at rest, referred to as FC states, have been identified, hypothetically reflecting underlying cognitive processes or mental states. We posit that the mean FC information for a given subject represents a significant contribution to the group-level FC dynamics. We show that the subject-specific FC profile, termed as FC individuality, can be removed to increase sensitivity to cognitively relevant FC states. To assess the impact of the FC individuality and task-specific FC modulation on the group-level FC dynamics analysis, we generate and analyze group studies of four subjects engaging in four cognitive conditions (rest, simple math, two-back memory, and visual attention task). We also propose a model to quantitatively evaluate the effect of two factors, namely, subject-specific and task-specific modulation on FC dynamics. We show that FC individuality is a predominant factor in group-level FC variability, and the embedded cognitively relevant FC states are clearly visible after removing the individual's connectivity profile. Our results challenge the current understanding of FC states and emphasize the importance of individual heterogeneity in connectivity dynamics analysis.