Functional Connectivity in Psychiatric Disorders
Summary
Functional connectivity refers to temporal correlations in brain activity across distinct regions and is typically assessed via resting-state functional MRI (fMRI). In psychiatric disorders, altered patterns of synchronisation within and between intrinsic networks—most notably the default mode, salience and central executive networks—underlie core symptoms such as rumination, attentional deficits and affective dysregulation. Advances in network science have elucidated how deviations in network modularity, hub integrity and long-range synchrony contribute to disease phenomenology and treatment response. For example, aberrant coupling between the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex has been linked to the intrusive self-referential thought processes characteristic of major depressive disorder, while dysconnectivity of fronto-striatal circuits correlates with executive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Contemporary research has expanded from static correlation measures to directed and dynamic models, revealing state-specific connectivity changes and plastic effects induced by neuromodulation. This growing body of work highlights the potential for connectivity biomarkers in patient stratification, prognostic assessment and precision intervention design.
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Functional Connectivity in Psychiatric Disorders publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in functional connectivity in psychiatric disorders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Functional connectivity: Statistical dependence between time series of neural signals in distinct brain regions, often measured by correlation or coherence.
Resting-state fMRI: A non-invasive imaging technique that captures spontaneous brain activity when a subject is not performing any explicit task.
Default mode network (DMN): A set of brain regions active during rest and internal mentation, implicated in self-referential processing.
Salience network (SN): A collection of regions that detect and filter salient stimuli, mediating dynamic switching between functional networks.
Effective connectivity: A directed measure of influence one neural element exerts over another, often modelled with techniques such as dynamic causal modelling.
References
- Whole brain network effects of subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression. Molecular Psychiatry (2023).
- Effective resting-state connectivity in severe unipolar depression before and after electroconvulsive therapy. Brain Stimulation (2023).
- Whole Brain Resting-State Analysis Reveals Decreased Functional Connectivity in Major Depression. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience (2010).
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