NeuroImage
July 1, 2022
Fran Hancock, Joana Cabral, Andrea I. Luppi et al.
40 citations
Dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) in resting-state fMRI is promising for clinical biomarkers, but its reliability and interpretability are debated. This study combined phase-based dFC metrics from dynamical systems, stochastic processes, and information dynamics to assess their interrelationships and reliability. Novel relationships between metrics allowed building a predictive model for integrated information. Global metastability, reflecting simultaneous coupling and decoupling tendencies, was the most representative and stable metric in brain parcellations including cerebellar regions. Spatiotemporal patterns of phase-locking changed slowly and continuously over time. The findings suggest that most resting-state fMRI dynamics reflect an interrelated complexity profile unique to each acquisition, challenging cross-sectional designs for neuromarker discovery and indicating individual life-trajectories may be more informative.
Preprints.org
July 21, 2023
Fran Hancock, Fernando E. Rosas, Mengsen Zhang et al.
16 citations
preprint
Healthy brain function requires a balance between stable integration across brain areas for coordinated activity and brief periods of desynchronization that allow subsystems to reconfigure and express specialized functions. Metastability, a concept from statistical physics and dynamical systems theory, has been proposed as a key signature of this balance. Neuroscience research has used markers of metastability to study cognitive performance, healthy aging, meditation, sleep, responses to drugs, and to characterize psychiatric conditions and disorders of consciousness. However, the term is often used heuristically or inaccurately, making the literature difficult to navigate. This paper provides a comprehensive review of metastability in neuroscience, covering its scientific and historical foundations, practical estimators, and a critical analysis of recent theoretical developments to clarify misconceptions.
NeuroImage
June 10, 2026
Fran Hancock, Rachael Kee, Fernando Rosas et al.
Flow—a state of effortless immersion often experienced during video games—shows a moderate inverse relationship with global brain entropy, meaning the brain is less disordered during flow than during boredom or frustration. Synchronization and metastability do not explain flow. Boredom and frustration each display distinct patterns of brain dynamics. These findings integrate earlier observations about prefrontal activity and network synchrony into a single dynamical-systems framework, identifying complexity-based markers that could help map the neural basis of media-related benefits.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 11, 2025
Fran Hancock, Rachael Kee, Fernando Rosas et al.
preprint
Flow—the experience of effortless immersion—shows an inverse relationship with global brain entropy during a video game task, meaning less disorderly brain activity corresponds with more flow. Boredom and frustration each display distinct patterns of brain dynamics. These findings bring together earlier observations about prefrontal activity and network synchrony into a single framework and suggest complexity-based measures could help map the neural basis of media-related benefits.