The Relationship of Functional Connectivity of the Sensorimotor and Visual Cortical Networks Between Resting and Task States

The intrinsic activity of the human brain maintains its general operation at rest, and this ongoing spontaneous activity exhibits a high level of spatiotemporally correlated activity among different cortical areas, showing intrinsically organized brain functional connectivity (FC) networks. Many functional network properties of the human brain have been investigated extensively for both rest and task states, but the relationship between these two states has been rarely investigated yet and remains unclear. Comparing well-defined task-specific networks with corresponding intrinsic FC networks may reveal their relationship and improve our understanding of the brain's operations at both rest and task states. This study investigated the relationship of the sensorimotor and visual cortical FC networks between the resting and task states. The sensorimotor task was to rub right-hand fingers, and the visual task was to open and close eyes, respectively. Our study demonstrated a general relationship of the task-evoked FC network with its corresponding intrinsic FC network, regardless of the tasks. For each task type, the study showed that (1) the intrinsic and task-evoked FC networks shared a common network and the task enhanced the coactivity within that common network compared to the intrinsic activity; (2) some areas within the intrinsic FC network were not activated by the task, and therefore, the task activated only partial but not whole of the intrinsic FC network; and (3) the task activated substantial additional areas outside the intrinsic FC network and therefore recruited more intrinsic FC networks to perform the task.

Automated summary

The human brain exhibits intrinsic organized functional connectivity networks during rest and task states. Tasks enhance coactivity within common networks, activate only partial intrinsic networks, and recruit additional intrinsic networks to perform the task.