Changwei Wesley Wu1,2, Hong Gu2, Hanbing Lu2, Elliot A. Stein2, Jyh-Horng Chen1, Yihong Yang2
1Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Baltimore, MD, USA
To better interpret the physiology underlying the functional connectivity, we examined spontaneous fluctuations at the level of CMRO2 using simultaneously acquired BOLD and perfusion signals under both resting state and visual-stimulation task. Results show that functional connectivity based on synchronized spontaneous fluctuations can be detected in BOLD, perfusion, and also CMRO2 level, while functional connectivity in different brain networks may be mediated by different conditions. This observation provides direct evidence supporting the hypothesis that spontaneous fMRI fluctuations have a metabolic origin.