Origin of slow spontaneous resting-state neuronal fluctuations in brain networks

Significance Resting-state infra-slow brain activity fluctuations are observed across various cognitive and disease brain states. Although resting-state fluctuations have received a great deal of interest over the past few years, the underlying biophysical mechanisms are not known. Using computational modeling, we show that spontaneous resting-state fluctuations arise from dynamic ion concentrations and are influenced by the Na + /K + pump, glial K + buffering, and AMPA/GABA synaptic currents. These findings provide insights into the biophysical mechanisms underlying generation of this phenomenon and may lead to better understanding of how different cognitive or disease states influence resting-state activity.