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The Energy Landscape Underpinning Module Dynamics in the Human Brain Connectome

Human brain dynamics can be profitably viewed through the lens of statistical mechanics, where neurophysiological activity evolves around and between local attractors representing preferred mental states. Many physically-inspired models of these dynamics define the state of the brain based on instantaneous measurements of regional activity. Yet, recent work in network neuroscience has provided initial evidence that the brain might also be well-characterized by time-varying states composed of locally coherent activity or functional modules. Here we study this network-based notion of brain state to understand how functional modules dynamically interact with one another to perform cognitive functions. We estimate the functional relationships between regions of interest (ROIs) by fitting a pair-wise maximum entropy model to each ROI's pattern of allegiance to functional modules. Local minima in this model represent attractor states characterized by specific patterns of modular structure. The clustering of local minima highlights three classes of ROIs with similar patterns of allegiance to community states. Visual, attention, sensorimotor, and subcortical ROIs tend to form a single functional community. The remaining ROIs tend to form a putative executive control community or a putative default mode and salience community. We simulate the brain's dynamic transitions between these community states using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo random walk. We observe that simulated transition probabilities between basins resemble empirically observed transitions between community allegiance states in resting state fMRI data. These results collectively offer a view of the brain as a dynamical system that transitions between basins of attraction characterized by coherent activity in small groups of brain regions, and that the strength of these attractors depends on the cognitive computations being performed.