Abstract
Our behavior entails a flexible and context-sensitive interplay between brain areas to integrate information according to goal-directed requirements. However, the neural mechanisms governing the entrainment of functionally specialized brain areas remain poorly understood. In particular, the question arises whether observed changes in the regional activity for different cognitive conditions are explained by modifications of the inputs or recurrent connectivity? We observe that fMRI transitions over successive time points convey information about the task performed by 19 subjects, namely watching a movie as opposed to a black screen (rest). We use a theoretical framework that decomposes this spatiotemporal functional connectivity pattern into local variability received by the 66 cortical regions and recurrent effective connectivity between them. We find that, among the estimated model parameters, movie viewing affects to a larger extent the local excitabilities, which we interpret as extrinsic changes related to the increased stimulus load. However, detailed changes in the effective connectivity preserve a balance in the propagating activity and select specific pathways so as to integrate visual and auditory information to high-level brain regions and across the two brain hemispheres. These findings speak to a dynamic coordination underlying the functional integration in the brain.