Figure 2

Impact of eye closure on resting brain activity (A), event-related BOLD activation (B) and resting state activity (C) in complete darkness. Resting brain activity was determined as difference between activity with eyes closed as compared to eyes open (A). Tactile stimulation was performed at the right hand with closed and open eyes (B). Changes in functional and effective connectivity were determined with eyes open and eyes closed (C). At the given thresholds (and corrections), no significant activations for closed < opened and stimulation closed < stimulation opened were observed. All fMRI experiments were performed in complete darkness. To ensure constant alertness, an EEG was continuously recorded while the participants (N = 16, 10 females, mean age 23.1 ± 1.54 years) were lying in the MRI scanner.