Metastability is currently considered a fundamental property of the functional configuration of brain networks. The present study sought to generate a normative reference framework for the metastability of the major resting-state networks (RSNs) (resting-state metastability dataset) and discover their association with demographic, behavioral, physical and cognitive features (non-imaging dataset) from 818 participants of the Human Connectome Project. Using sparse canonical correlation analysis, we found that the metastability and non-imaging datasets showed significant but modest interdependency. Notable associations between the metastability variate and the non-imaging features were observed for higher-order cognitive ability and indicators of physical well-being. The intra-class correlation coefficient between the sibling pairs in the sample was very low which argues against a significant familial influence on RSN metastability.
Keywords: Body mass index; Canonical correlation analysis; Human Connectome Project; Metastability; Resting-state fMRI.