The human brain has been documented to be spatially organized in a finite set of specific coherent patterns, namely resting state networks (RSNs). The interactions among RSNs, being potentially dynamic and directional, may not be adequately captured by simple correlation or anticorrelation. In order to evaluate the possible effective connectivity within those RSNs, we applied a conditional Granger causality analysis (CGCA) to the RSNs retrieved by independent component analysis (ICA) from resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Our analysis provided evidence for specific causal influences among the detected RSNs: default-mode, dorsal attention, core, central-executive, self-referential, somatosensory, visual, and auditory networks. In particular, we identified that self-referential and default-mode networks (DMNs) play distinct and crucial roles in the human brain functional architecture. Specifically, the former RSN exerted the strongest causal influence over the other RSNs, revealing a top-down modulation of self-referential mental activity (SRN) over sensory and cognitive processing. In quite contrast, the latter RSN was profoundly affected by the other RSNs, which may underlie an integration of information from primary function and higher level cognition networks, consistent with previous task-related studies. Overall, our results revealed the causal influences among these RSNs at different processing levels, and supplied information for a deeper understanding of the brain network dynamics.

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Modern ecohydrologic science will be critical for providing the best information to policy makers and society to address water resource challenges in the 21st century. Implicitly, ecohydrology involves understanding both the functional interactions among vegetation, soils, and hydrologic processes at multiple scales and the linkages among upland, riparian, and aquatic components. In this paper, we review historical and contemporary ecohydrologic science, focusing on watershed structure and function and the threats to watershed structure and function. Climate change, land use change, and invasive species are among the most critical contemporary issues that affect water quantity and quality, and a mechanistic understanding of watershed ecosystem structure and function is required to understand their impacts on water quantity and quality. Economic and social values of ecosystem services such as water supply from forested watersheds must be quantified in future research, as land use decisions that impact ecohydrologic function are driven by the interplay among economic, social, political, and biological constraints. Future forest ecohydrological research should focus on: (1) understanding watershed responses to climate change and variability, (2) understanding watershed responses to losses of native species or additions of non-native species, (3) developing integrated models that capitalize on long-term data, (4) linking ecohydrologic processes across scales, and (5) managing forested watersheds to adapt to climate change. We stress that this new ecohydrology research must also be integrated with socio-economic disciplines. Published in 2011. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.