We consider between-subject variance in brain function as data rather than noise. We
describe variability as a natural output of a noisy plastic system (the brain) where each …

This Perspective reviews recent findings in placebo hypoalgesia and provides a conceptual
account of how expectations and experience can lead to placebo hypoalgesia. In particular …

How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such as ourselves can think, dream, feel,
create and understand ideas, theories and concepts? How does mere matter give rise to all …

Spontaneous fluctuations are a hallmark of recordings of neural signals, emergent over time
scales spanning milliseconds and tens of minutes. However, investigations of intrinsic brain …

Spontaneous infra‐slow fluctuations (ISFs) in both neuronal firing rates and membrane
potentials are a defining characteristic of fast (< 1 Hz) mammalian brain activity both in vitro …

Most brain activity occurs in an ongoing manner not directly locked to external events or
stimuli. Regional ongoing activity fluctuates in unison with some brain regions but not others …

Sensory inputs enter a constantly active brain, whose state is always changing from one
moment to the next. Currently, little is known about how ongoing, spontaneous brain activity …

The functional MRI (fMRI) community has zealously embraced resting state or intrinsic
functional connectivity approaches to mapping brain organization. Having demonstrated …

Previous investigations of alertness have confounded it with selective attention because
targets were highly predictable. To truly isolate alertness we devised a sparse event-related …

Converging electrophysiological and neuroimaging data show that mammalian brain
dynamics are governed by spontaneous modulations of neuronal activity levels in cortical …