These changes might be observable in functional connectivity (FC) networks under minimal experimental manipulation, for instance, during a resting-state condition. These daily life situations give us clues that, at the brain level, there must be some biological mechanisms that change and adapt when the attentional focus is externally or internally self-driven. By contrast, the majority of us tend to close our eyes when we are trying to think or remember something. Looking for someone in a crowd, driving to an unfamiliar location, or walking by a place where there could be a dangerous animal on the loose are situations where people keep their eyes wide open.
These results suggest that opening or closing the eyes may set brain functional connectivity in an interoceptive or exteroceptive state. All these findings were replicated using an open source shared dataset. This region showed higher connectivity with the default mode and sensorimotor networks in the eyes closed group, but higher connectivity with the salience network in the eyes open group. Seed-based voxel-wise functional connectivity whole-brain analyses were performed to study differences in the connectivity of the primary visual cortex. One group (nā=ā105) performed a resting state with eyes closed, and the other group (nā=ā63) performed a resting state with eyes open. Using the same scanner, fMRI data from two groups of participants similar in age, sex and educational level were acquired.
However, how the eye state influences the functional connectivity of the primary visual cortex has been poorly investigated. Current evidence suggests that volitional opening or closing of the eyes modulates brain activity and connectivity.