Qihong Zou1, 2, Thomas J. Ross2, Hong Gu2, Xiujuan Geng2, Xi-Nian Zuo3, Elliot L. Hong4, Jia-Hong Gao1, 5, Elliot A. Stein2, Yu-Feng Zang6, 7, Yihong Yang2
1MRI Research Center and Beijing City Key Lab for Medical Physics and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China; 2Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; 4Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 5Brain Research Imaging Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States; 6Center for Cognition and Brain Disorders and The Affiliated Hospital, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; 7State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing
There is no consensus whether spontaneous activity predicts task activation, and it is unknown whether rest-task relationship is dependent on task load. Here, we investigate these issues on forty subjects with a resting-state scan and following N-back verbal working memory task scans. We show that fALFF during resting state can predict activation during working memory task. We further demonstrate that such rest-task correlations are modulated by cognitive load of working memory task. These findings suggest that resting-state activity facilitate specific brain circuit engagement for performing a cognitive task, and that resting-state activity can load dependently predict task-induced brain responses.