Changes in global functional network properties predict individual differences in habit formation

Prior evidence suggests that sensorimotor regions play a crucial role in habit formation. Yet, whether and how their global functional network properties might contribute to a more comprehensive characterization of habit formation still remains unclear. Capitalizing on advances in Elastic Net regression and predictive modeling, we examined whether learning-related functional connectivity alterations distributed across the whole brain could predict individual habit strength. Using the leave-one-subject-out cross-validation strategy, we found that the habit strength score of the novel unseen subjects could be successfully predicted. We further characterized the contribution of both, individual large-scale networks and individual brain regions by calculating their predictive weights. This highlighted the pivotal role of functional connectivity changes involving the sensorimotor network and the cingulo-opercular network in subject-specific habit strength prediction. These results contribute to the understanding the neural basis of human habit formation by demonstrating the importance of global functional network properties especially also for predicting the observable behavioral expression of habits.

Automated summary

This study utilized advanced regression and predictive modeling techniques to demonstrate that learning-related functional connectivity alterations across the whole brain can predict individual habit strength. The functional connectivity changes involving the sensorimotor network and the cingulo-opercular network play a pivotal role in predicting individual habit strength.