Dynamic changes of spatial functional network connectivity in healthy individuals and schizophrenia patients using independent vector analysis

Recent work on both task-induced and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data suggests that functional connectivity may fluctuate, rather than being stationary during an entire scan. Most dynamic studies are based on second-order statistics between fMRI time series or time courses derived from blind source separation, e.g., independent component analysis (ICA), to investigate changes of temporal interactions among brain regions. However, fluctuations related to spatial components over time are of interest as well. In this paper, we examine higher-order statistical dependence between pairs of spatial components, which we define as spatial functional network connectivity (sFNC), and changes of sFNC across a resting-state scan. We extract time-varying components from healthy controls and patients with schizophrenia to represent brain networks using independent vector analysis (IVA), which is an extension of ICA to multiple data sets and enables one to capture spatial variations. Based on mutual information among IVA components, we perform statistical analysis and Markov modeling to quantify the changes in spatial connectivity. Our experimental results suggest significantly more fluctuations in patient group and show that patients with schizophrenia have more variable patterns of spatial concordance primarily between the frontoparietal, cerebellar and temporal lobe regions. This study extends upon earlier studies showing temporal connectivity differences in similar areas on average by providing evidence that the dynamic spatial interplay between these regions is also impacted by schizophrenia.