Stable Individual Differences from Dynamic Patterns of Function: Brain Network Flexibility Predicts Openness/Intellect and Intelligence

Abstract

Growing understanding of the nature of brain function has led to increased interest in interpreting the properties of large-scale brain networks. Methodological advances in network neuroscience provide means to decompose these networks into smaller functional communities and measure how they reconfigure over time as an index of their dynamic and flexible properties. Recent evidence has identified associations between flexibility and a variety of traits pertaining to complex cognition including creativity and working memory. The present study used measures of dynamic resting-state functional connectivity in data from the Human Connectome Project (N = 994) to test associations with Openness/Intellect and general intelligence, two traits that involve flexible cognition. Using a machine-learning cross-validation approach, we identified reliable associations of intelligence with cohesive flexibility of parcels in large communities across the cortex, and of Openness/Intellect with overall flexibility among parcels in smaller communities. These findings are reasonably consistent with previous theories of the neural correlates of intelligence and Openness/Intellect, and help to expand on previous associations of behavior and dynamic functional connectivity within the context of broader personality dimensions.