Role Of In-Scanner Conscious Experience In Resting-State

Resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) is widely used to identify altered functional connectivity (FC) in clinical populations, yet studies rarely consider how conscious experience during scanning influences FC. In this talk, I present evidence from over 400 annotated resting-state scans showing that differences in conscious experience systematically shape FC and can themselves be predicted from FC. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for in-scanner experience when interpreting rsfMRI data and demonstrate the value of annotating resting-state datasets with experiential information.