Fine -Scale Functional Connectivity Network Revealed at High Field (9.4T) Within Somatosensory Cortices of Anesthetized New World Monkeys

Arabinda Mishra¹, Baxter P. Rogers¹, Barbara Dillenburger¹, Kevin Wilson¹, Feng Wang¹, John C. Gore¹, Li Min Chen¹

Correlations between resting state BOLD signals in widely distributed brain regions is a key signature of consciously driven mental activity in humans. In this work we attempted to explore if a fine scale functional connectivity can be detected within the anatomically well defined primary somatosensory cortex (SI) at high field and whether the functional connectivity reflects anatomical hierarchical relationships in anesthetized monkeys. We found that functional connectivity exists among anatomically interconnected cortical subregions (areas 3a, 3b, 1 and 2) within SI without the involvement of consciousness (or alertness), and the strengths of the correlation among these subregions reflect the strength of their underlying anatomical connections.