Fig. 4: Habenula effective connectivity in the replication sample.

a Intrinsic and task-induced modulation of habenula connectivity with strong evidence (posterior probability > .95) for a non-zero group effect are displayed on the MNI152 template brain using BrainNet Viewer¹¹⁹. Solid arrows represent intrinsic connectivity, while dashed arrows illustrate modulatory effects by the task conditions – the restructuring (CHAL condition) or repeating (REP condition) of negative self-cognitions. Red arrows show excitatory intrinsic connectivity or positive modulatory effects. Blue arrows indicate inhibitory intrinsic connectivity or negative task-induced modulation. b Changes in habenula effective connectivity are plotted for connectivity showing significant task-induced modulation. The first column quantifies the average effective connectivity throughout the task for each pathway (intrinsic connectivity; A-matrix), representing the context-independent influence from the habenula to the PCC (blue) and the pOFC (green). The second and third columns show the net effective connectivity of each pathway under the repeat (REP) and challenge (CHAL) conditions. As the experimental input is mean-centred in our model, this is calculated as the intrinsic connectivity parameter plus the modulatory effect of the corresponding task condition (A-matrix + B-matrix). All connectivity estimates are in units of Hz denoting the rate of change in neural activity in the input regions (e.g., PCC, pOFC) due to neural response of the output region (i.e., habenula). c The bar graph depicts modulatory connectivity of the discovery model (n = 45; grey) superimposed with the posterior expectation of the replication model (n = 56; orange). The bars represent the Bayesian model-averaged (BMA) connectivity strength estimates of the corresponding network connection in the models, and the whiskers show the 95% confidence interval (CI) centring the discovery model parameter estimates derived from the posterior covariance matrix (spm_plot_ci.m). An asterisk is placed above the bars for connectivity replicated across the models, which are identified based on the replication model connectivity with posterior expectations that are within the 95% CI of the discovery model estimate and surpass the posterior probability threshold (> .95). Source data are provided as a Source Data file. CHAL challenge condition, Hb habenula, HC hippocampus, Hz hertz, L left, PCC posterior cingulate cortex, pOFC posterior orbitofrontal cortex, R right, REP repeat condition.