Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive, in-vivo imaging technique essential for measuring brain activity. Functional connectivity is used to study associations between brain regions either at rest or while study participants perform tasks. This paper proposes a rigorous definition of task-evoked functional connectivity at the population level (ptFC). Importantly, our proposed ptFC is interpretable in the context of task-fMRI studies. Two algorithms for estimating ptFC are provided. We present the performance of the proposed algorithms compared to existing functional connectivity estimation approaches using simulations. Lastly, we apply the proposed framework to estimate functional connectivity in a motor-task study from the Human Connectome Project.

翻译：功能磁共振成像(fMRI)是测量大脑活动所必需的非侵入性、动态成像技术,功能连通用于研究大脑区域之间在休息时或研究参与者执行任务时的联系,本文件提议严格界定在人口一级的任务所支持的功能连通性。重要的是,我们提议的ptFC可以在任务所-磁共振研究中解释。提供了两种估算ptFC的算法。我们用模拟来介绍拟议算法与现有功能连通估计方法相比的绩效。最后,我们采用拟议框架在人类连接项目的一项运动任务研究中估计功能连通性。