The emergence of doing “nothing” as a viable paradigm design

Resting state fMRI has become widely accepted as a viable technique for investigating functional connectivity of the human brain. I review from a personal perspective the events of the first 8-10 years after the initial report of resting state functional connectivity, focusing on the events that led to eventual acceptance of the method. During this time there were important studies, both in MRI and other modalities, that were critical to the eventual acceptance of the resting state as a viable research tool in fMRI.