The Nature of the Task Influences Intrinsic Connectivity Networks: An Exploratory fMRI Study in Healthy Subjects

Task-induced variations in neural activity and their effects on the topological architecture of intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs) of the brain are still a matter of ongoing research. In this exploratory study, we used spatial independent component analysis (ICA) as a data-driven technique to characterize ICNs related to two different tasks in healthy subjects who underwent 3T blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The fMRI tasks consisted of (a) a viscerosensory stimulation of an internal organ (interoceptive task), and (b) passive viewing of emotionally expressive faces and pictures from the International Affective Picture System (exteroceptive emotion task). Comparison of the network volumes and peak activations during each task condition demonstrated that changes in ICN volume and corresponding peak activation differed between the interoceptive and exteroceptive emotion tasks when compared to the baseline rest. Further, salience network was the most task-activated ICN for both fMRI task conditions. However, different spatial characteristics were observed between the salience networks derived from the interoceptive task and the one derived from the exteroceptive emotion task. This study is a step in the direction of better understanding the influence of task condition on ICN topology. Future research with a larger sample size and task variations should delve deeper into what aspects of network topology really matter, with further investigations regarding the observed differences due to gender and age.