Causally informed activity flow models provide mechanistic insight into network-generated cognitive activations

Ruben Sanchez-Romero, Takuya Ito, Ravi D. Mill, Stephen José Hanson, Michael W. Cole

Abstract: Highlights•Activity flow models provide insight into how neurocognitive effects are generated from brain network interactions.•Functional connectivity methods grounded in statistical causal principles facilitate mechanistic interpretations of task activity flow models.•Mechanistic activity flow models accurately predict task-evoked neural effects across a wide variety of brain regions and cognitive tasks.