A Chronnectogram-ICA Framework for Tracking Continuously Evolving and Overlapping Functional Brain States
- 1Georgia State University
Abstract
The discrete-state model of brain dynamics has become the dominant paradigm in functional connectivity analysis, representing network activity as transitions among a fixed set of transiently recurring states while generally assuming that the states themselves do not evolve. We introduce a multilevel chronnectogram framework that relaxes this assumption and explicitly represents the higher-order temporal structure of brain dynamics, how distinct states couple and co-evolve over time, alongside the persistence of each state. The method integrates spatially guided independent component analysis (ICA) with subject-specific, state-guided dynamic ICA to capture evolving and overlapping connectivity patterns in a shared representational space. Validation on simulations with known ground truth shows recovery of continuous overlap and higher-order coupling structure invisible to discrete-state methods. Applied to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from the FBIRN dataset (151 schizophrenia, 160 controls), the framework reveals that the same pair of brain states is shifted toward opposite extremes across patients, with strong synchrony in some and active anti-coupling in others, creating a redistribution of connectivity regimes invisible to conventional occupancy metrics, providing a substrate in which schizophrenia can appear both hyper- and hypo-volatile depending on the measure applied.
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BibTeX
@misc{soleimani2026chronnectogramica,
title = {{A Chronnectogram-ICA Framework for Tracking Continuously Evolving and Overlapping Functional Brain States}},
author = {N. Soleimani and S.-L. Wiafe and A. Iraji and A. Preda and G. Pearlson and T. Adali and V. Calhoun},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.14.759150},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759150v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Chronnectogram-ICA Framework for Tracking Continuously Evolving and Overlapping Functional Brain States
AU - N. Soleimani
AU - S.-L. Wiafe
AU - A. Iraji
AU - A. Preda
AU - G. Pearlson
AU - T. Adali
AU - V. Calhoun
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/14
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.14.759150
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.14.759150v1
AB - The discrete-state model of brain dynamics has become the dominant paradigm in functional connectivity analysis, representing network activity as transitions among a fixed set of transiently recurring states while generally assuming that the states themselves do not evolve. We introduce a multilevel chronnectogram framework that relaxes this assumption and explicitly represents the higher-order temporal structure of brain dynamics, how distinct states couple and co-evolve over time, alongside the persistence of each state. The method integrates spatially guided independent component analysis (ICA) with subject-specific, state-guided dynamic ICA to capture evolving and overlapping connectivity patterns in a shared representational space. Validation on simulations with known ground truth shows recovery of continuous overlap and higher-order coupling structure invisible to discrete-state methods. Applied to resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from the FBIRN dataset (151 schizophrenia, 160 controls), the framework reveals that the same pair of brain states is shifted toward opposite extremes across patients, with strong synchrony in some and active anti-coupling in others, creating a redistribution of connectivity regimes invisible to conventional occupancy metrics, providing a substrate in which schizophrenia can appear both hyper- and hypo-volatile depending on the measure applied.
ER -