ArticleScience advances2021
Global waves synchronize the brain's functional systems with fluctuating arousal.
Article in Science advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 167 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
167 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Evidence for domain-general arousal from semantic and neuroimaging meta-analyses reconciles opposing views on arousal.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Pooled it
- Thalamic modulation of cortical linearity across arousal states.Science advances · 2026Article
- Sharp and smooth state transitions during resting state brain dynamics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Global brain activity links subcortical degeneration to cortical tau progressively across Braak regions over early Alzheimer's disease stages.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Arousal-driven critical roaming reproduces human functional connectivity dynamics.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Human cortex organizes dynamic co-fluctuations along the sensorimotor-association axis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Sub-second fluctuations between top-down and bottom-up modes distinguish diverse human brain states.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Categorization is 'baked' into the brain.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Spectral dependence as a framework for neural coordination.Current research in neurobiology · 2026Article
- Cortical synchrony is reduced in Alzheimer's disease and relates to arousal state.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Reorganization of Human Brain Waves Across Diverse States of Consciousness.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A hypothalamic-brainstem activity sequence underlies arousal fluctuations during daytime drowsiness.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Task-evoked deactivations: dissociation between BOLD fMRI and FDG.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Three parsimonious spatiotemporal patterns in cerebellum reveal individual traits in function and behavior.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Longitudinal Awake Mouse fMRI During Voluntary Locomotion Using Zero TE Imaging and a Novel Treadmill Training Protocol.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2026Article
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Signal Typically Viewed as "Noise" Has Clinical Relevance in Psychiatry.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- A geometry aware framework enhances noninvasive mapping of whole human brain dynamics.Nature biomedical engineering · 2026Article
- Parallel processing chains span cytoarchitectures to organize association cortex.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- System identification and surrogate data analyses imply approximate Gaussianity and non-stationarity of resting-brain dynamics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cognition emerges from phase dynamics of intrinsic coordination.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
107 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
We propose and empirically support a parsimonious account of intrinsic, brain-wide spatiotemporal organization arising from traveling waves linked to arousal. We hypothesize that these waves are the predominant physiological process reflected in spontaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signal fluctuations. The correlation structure ("functional connectivity") of these fluctuations recapitulates the large-scale functional organization of the brain. However, a unifying physiological account of this structure has so far been lacking. Here, using fMRI in humans, we show that ongoing arousal fluctuations are associated with global waves of activity that slowly propagate in parallel throughout the neocortex, thalamus, striatum, and cerebellum. We show that these waves can parsimoniously account for many features of spontaneous fMRI signal fluctuations, including topographically organized functional connectivity. Last, we demonstrate similar, cortex-wide propagation of neural activity measured with electrocorticography in macaques. These findings suggest that traveling waves spatiotemporally pattern brain-wide excitability in relation to arousal.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.