Biology subjects

Dinstein, I.

Publications and source records attributed to Dinstein, I..

16 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Sleep initiation difficulties involve weaker neural and physiological sleep transitions, particularly in children with neurodevelopmental conditions

The transition from wake to stable sleep is characterized by multiple neural, physiological, and behavioral changes. How these changes may differ in individuals with difficulties falling asleep such as children with neurodevelopmental conditions is poorly understood. Here, we studied sleep initiation in >2000 nights recorded from 186 children who participated in the Simons Sleep Project (SSP). Data included simultaneous, synchronized recordings of actigraphy, electroencephalography (EEG), photoplethysmography (PPG), and skin temperature. We extracted multiple neural, physiological, and behavioral measures that are known to increase/decrease during the sleep initiation period including EEG delta (1-4Hz) power, movement counts, heart rate (HR), and skin temperature. Transitions from 20 minutes before sleep onset to 40 minutes after sleep onset were modeled with a sigmoid function enabling the quantification of transition timing, speed, and magnitude per measure. Individuals with longer sleep onset latencies (SOL) exhibited smaller increases in EEG delta power and skin temperature as well as smaller decreases in HR and activity counts. These findings indicate that difficulties falling asleep are associated with multiple forms of cortical, physiological, and behavioral hyperarousal that can be measured at home with wearable devices. Importantly, transition magnitudes were key to explaining differences in SOL across participants (26% explained variance) in contrast to transition speed or timing within the sleep initiation period (<13% explained variance). Longer SOL and weaker transitions were particularly prominent in children diagnosed with autism and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Using computer vision to quantify facial expressions of children with autism during naturalistic social interactions

BackgroundDifficulties with non-verbal communication, including atypical use of facial expressions, are a core feature of autism. Quantifying atypical use of facial expressions during naturalistic social interactions in a reliable, objective, and direct manner is difficult, but potentially possible with facial analysis computer vision algorithms that identify facial expressions in video recordings. MethodsWe analyzed >5 million video frames from 100 verbal children, 2-7-years-old (72 with autism and 28 controls), who were recorded during a [~]45-minute ADOS-2 assessment using modules 2 or 3, where they interacted with a clinician. Three different facial analysis algorithms (iMotions, FaceReader, and Py-Feat) were used to identify the presence of six facial expressions (anger, fear, sadness, surprise, disgust, and happiness) in each video frame. We then compared results across algorithms and across autism and control groups using ANCOVA analyses while controlling for the age and sex of participating children. ResultsThere were significant differences in the performance of the three facial analysis algorithms including differences in the proportion of frames identified as containing a face and frames classified as containing each of the examined facial expressions. Nevertheless, analyses across all three algorithms demonstrated that there were no significant differences in the quantity of facial expressions produced by children with autism and controls. LimitationsOur study was limited to verbal children with autism who completed ADOS-2 assessments using modules 2 and 3 and were able to sit in a stable manner while facing a wall mounted camera. In addition, this study focused on comparing the quantity of facial expressions across groups rather than their quality, timing, or social context. ConclusionsCommonly used automated facial analysis algorithms exhibit large variability in their output when identifying facial expressions of young children during naturalistic social interactions. Nonetheless, all three algorithms did not identify differences in the quantity of facial expressions across groups, suggesting that atypical production of facial expressions in verbal children with autism is likely related to their quality, timing, and social context rather than their quantity during natural social interaction.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2025

Simons Sleep Project (SSP): An open science resource for accelerating scalable digital health research in autism and other psychiatric conditions

Wearable and nearable devices offer a novel opportunity to measure extensive behavioral and neurophysiological data directly from participants in their home environment. The Simons Sleep Project (SSP) was designed to accelerate research into sleep and daily behaviors in individuals with autism using such techniques. This open-science resource contains raw and processed data from Dreem3 EEG headbands, multi-sensor EmbracePlus smartwatches, and Withings Sleep mats, as well as parent questionnaires and daily sleep diaries. Data were collected successfully for >3600 days/nights from 102 adolescents (10-17 years old) with idiopathic autism and 98 of their non-autistic siblings. Whole-exome sequencing data is also available for all participants and their parents. To demonstrate the utility of this extensive dataset, we first present the breadth of synchronized high-resolution data available across multiple sensors/devices. We then demonstrate that objective sleep measures (e.g., total sleep time) from the three devices are more accurate and reliable than parent reported measures and reveal that sleep onset latency (SOL) was the only objectively defined sleep measure that differed significantly between autistic children and their siblings (of those examined in the study). Moreover, SOL was reliably associated with the severity of multiple behavioral difficulties in all children, regardless of autism diagnosis. These results highlight the importance of measuring sleep directly from participants using objective measures and demonstrate the extensive opportunities afforded by the SSP to further study autism and develop new digital phenotyping techniques for multiple research domains.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Automated identification and quantification of stereotypical movements from video recordings of children with ASD

ImportanceStereotypical motor movements (SMMs) are a form of restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB), which is a core symptom of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Current quantification of SMM severity is extremely limited, with studies relying on coarse and subjective caregiver reports or laborious manual annotation of short video recordings. ObjectiveTo demonstrate the utility of a new open-source AI algorithm that can analyze extensive video recordings of children and automatically identify segments with heterogeneous SMMs, thereby enabling their direct and objective quantification. Design, setting, and participantsThis retrospective cohort study analyzed video recordings from 319 behavioral assessments of 241 children with ASD, 1.4 to 8 years old, who participated in research at the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research in Israel. Behavioral assessments included cognitive, language, and autism diagnostic observation schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2) assessments. ExposuresEach assessment was recorded with 2-4 cameras, yielding 580 hours of video footage. We manually annotated 7,352 video segments containing heterogeneous SMMs performed by different children (21.14 hours of video). Main outcomes and measuresWe used a pose-estimation algorithm (OpenPose) to extract skeletal representations of all individuals in each video frame and trained an object-detection algorithm (YOLOv5) to identify and track the child in each movie. We then used the skeletal representation of the child to train an SMM recognition algorithm using a PoseConv3D model. We used data from 220 children for training and data from the remaining 21 children for testing. ResultsThe algorithm accurately detected 92.53% of manually annotated SMMs in our test data with 66.82% precision. Overall number and duration of algorithm identified SMMs per child were highly correlated with manually annotated number and duration of SMMs (r=0.8 and r=0.88, p<0.001 respectively). Conclusion and relevanceThese findings demonstrate the ability of the algorithm to capture a highly diverse range of SMMs and quantify them with high accuracy, enabling objective and direct estimation of SMM severity in individual children with ASD. We openly share the "ASDPose" dataset and "ASDMotion" algorithm for further use by the research community. Key PointsO_ST_ABSQuestionC_ST_ABSIs it possible to train a deep learning algorithm to accurately identify and quantify stereotypical motor movements (SMMs) in video recordings of children with autism? FindingsThe ASDMotion algorithm was trained and tested with the largest video dataset of ASD children curated to date, comprised of 319 behavioral assessment recordings from 241 ASD children. The algorithm successfully detected 92.53% of manually identified SMMs with 66.82% precision, achieving highly accurate quantification of SMMs per child that were strongly correlated (r[≥]0.8) with quantification by manual annotation. MeaningThis study demonstrates the utility of ASDMotion for objective and direct quantification of SMM severity in children with ASD, offering a new freely available, open-source algorithm and dataset that enable transformative basic and clinical ASD research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Idiosyncratic pupil regulation in autistic children

Recent neuroimaging and eye tracking studies have suggested that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may exhibit more variable and idiosyncratic brain responses and eye movements than typically developing (TD) children. Here we extended this research for the first time to pupillometry recordings. We successfully completed pupillometry recordings with 103 children (66 with ASD), 4.5-years-old on average, who viewed three 90 second movies, twice. We extracted their pupillary time-course for each movie, capturing their stimulus evoked pupillary responses. We then computed the correlation between the time-course of each child and those of all others in their group. This yielded an average inter-subject correlation value per child, representing how similar their pupillary responses were to all others in their group. ASD participants exhibited significantly weaker inter-subject correlations than TD participants, reliably across all three movies. Differences across groups were largest in responses to a naturalistic movie containing footage of a social interaction between two TD children. This measure enabled classification of ASD and TD children with a sensitivity of 0.82 and specificity of 0.73 when trained and tested on independent datasets. Using the largest ASD pupillometry dataset to date, we demonstrate the utility of a new technique for measuring the idiosyncrasy of pupil regulation, which can be completed even by young children with co-occurring intellectual disability. These findings reveal that a considerable subgroup of ASD children have significantly more unstable, idiosyncratic pupil regulation than TD children, indicative of more variable, weakly regulated, underlying neural activity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Increased extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid and benign external hydrocephalus in early autism

Previous studies have reported that some children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) below the age of 3-years-old exhibit increased extra-axial cerebrospinal fluid (EA-CSF) volumes, suggesting that transient early CSF circulation abnormalities may characterize a unique etiology in a sub-group of ASD children. Specifically, this sub-group was proposed to exhibit an EA-CSF to total brain volume (TBV) ratio >0.14. It is unknown whether such findings may correspond to an early radiological diagnosis of Benign external hydrocephalus (BEH), which is defined as an enlargement of CSF volumes within the subarachnoid space (SAS) during the first two years of life. Here we examined a retrospective clinical sample extracted from the National Autism Database of Israel. In 2020, [~]14% of ASD children in the database (n= 102) had completed clinical brain MRI scans at different ages before or after ASD diagnosis. Scans of 83 ASD children fulfilled quality control criteria and were compared to those of 53 age and sex matched typicality developing (TD) children who were referred to the same clinical center for similar clinical reasons. EA-CSF volume and total brain volume (TBV) were quantified from T2-weighted scans using manual labeling and compared across groups. The results revealed that ASD children scanned before the age of 2-years-old (i.e., before ASD diagnosis) exhibited significantly larger EA-CSF volumes when compared to controls (t(49)=2.89, p=0.006, Cohens d=0.82). No significant differences were apparent across groups at older ages. Of those scanned before the age of 2-years-old, [~]16% of the ASD children, and none of the control children, exhibited EA-CSF/TBV ratios >0.14, thereby replicating previous findings from prospective research samples. In addition, retrospective examination of the neuroradiology assessments revealed a BEH prevalence of 33% in the ASD children scanned before the age of 2-years-old, with 80% of these children exhibiting EA-CSF/TBV ratios >0.11. These findings reveal a clear relationship between quantitative EA-CSF volume analyses and qualitative BEH radiological findings, which characterize a considerable sub-group of ASD children. Accumulating evidence, therefore, suggests that BEH diagnosis in conjunction with a high EA-CSF/TBV ratio by the age of 2-years-old may be indicative of a specific ASD etiology that warrants further research and may offer unique opportunities for intervention.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Children with autism observe social interactions in an idiosyncratic manner

Previous eye tracking studies have reported that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) fixate less on faces in comparison to controls. To properly understand social interactions, however, children must gaze not only at faces, but also at actions, gestures, body movements, contextual details, and objects, thereby creating specific gaze patterns when observing specific interactions. We presented three different movies of social interactions to 111 children (71 with ASD) who watched each of the movies twice. Typically developing children viewed the movies in a remarkably predictable and reproducible manner, exhibiting gaze patterns that were similar to the mean gaze pattern of other controls, with strong correlations across individuals (inter-subject correlations) and across movie presentations (intra-subject correlations). In contrast, children with ASD exhibited significantly more variable/idiosyncratic gaze patterns that differed from the mean gaze pattern of controls and were weakly correlated across individuals and presentations. Most importantly, quantification of gaze idiosyncrasy in individual children, enabled separation of ASD and control children with higher sensitivity and specificity than traditional measures such as time gazing at faces. Individual magnitudes of gaze idiosyncrasy were also significantly correlated with ASD severity and significantly correlated across movies and movie presentations, demonstrating their clinical sensitivity and reliability. These results suggest that gaze idiosyncrasy is a potent behavioral abnormality that characterizes many children with ASD and may contribute to their impaired social development. Quantification of gaze idiosyncrasy in individual children may aid in assessing their ASD severity over time and in response to treatments.\n\nLay SummaryTypically developing children watch movies of social interactions in a reliable and predictable manner, attending faces, gestures, body movements, and objects that are relevant to the social interaction and its narrative. Here, we demonstrate that children with ASD watch such movies with significantly more variable/idiosyncratic gaze patterns that differ across individuals and across movie presentations. We demonstrate that quantifying this variability is a very potent way of identifying children with ASD and determining the severity of their social ASD symptoms.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Reduced sleep pressure in young children with autism

Study ObjectivesSleep disturbances and insomnia are highly prevalent in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Sleep homeostasis, a fundamental mechanism of sleep regulation that generates pressure to sleep as a function of wakefulness, has not been studied in children with ASD so far, and its potential contribution to their sleep disturbances remains unknown. Here, we examined whether slow wave activity (SWA), a measure that is indicative of sleep pressure, differs in children with ASD. MethodsIn this case-control study, we compared overnight electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings that were performed during Polysomnography (PSG) evaluations of 29 children with ASD and 23 typically developing children. ResultsChildren with ASD exhibited significantly weaker SWA power, shallower SWA slopes, and a decreased proportion of slow wave sleep in comparison to controls. This difference was largest during the first two hours following sleep onset and decreased gradually thereafter. Furthermore, SWA power of children with ASD was significantly, negatively correlated with the time of their sleep onset in the lab and at home, as reported by parents. ConclusionsThese results suggest that children with ASD may have a dysregulation of sleep homeostasis that is manifested in reduced sleep pressure. The extent of this dysregulation in individual children was apparent in the amplitude of their SWA power, which was indicative of the severity of their individual sleep disturbances. We, therefore, suggest that disrupted homeostatic sleep regulation may contribute to sleep disturbances in children with ASD. Statement of significanceSleep disturbances are apparent in 40-80% of children with autism. Homeostatic sleep regulation, a mechanism that increases the pressure to sleep as a function of prior wakefulness, has not been studied in children with autism. Here, we compared Polysomnography exams of 29 children with autism and 23 matched controls. We found that children with autism exhibited reduced slow-wave-activity power and shallower slopes, particularly during the first two hours of sleep. This suggests that they develop less pressure to sleep. Furthermore, the reduction in slow-wave-activity was associated with the severity of sleep disturbances as observed in the laboratory and as reported by parents. We, therefore, suggest that disrupted homeostatic sleep regulation may contribute to sleep disturbances of children with autism.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder: large-scale analysis via the ENIGMA Consortium

BackgroundLeft-right asymmetry is an important organizing feature of the healthy brain. Various studies have reported altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, findings have been inconsistent, likely due to limited sample sizes and low statistical power.\n\nMethodsWe investigated 1,774 subjects with ASD and 1,809 controls, from 54 datasets, for differences in the asymmetry of thickness and surface area of 34 cerebral cortical regions. We also examined global hemispheric measures of cortical thickness and area asymmetry, and volumetric asymmetries of subcortical structures. Data were obtained via the ASD Working Group of the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis) consortium. T1-weighted MRI data were processed with a single protocol using FreeSurfer and the Desikan-Killiany atlas.\n\nResultsASD was significantly associated with reduced leftward asymmetry of total hemispheric average cortical thickness, compared to controls. Eight regional thickness asymmetries, distributed over the cortex, also showed significant associations with diagnosis after correction for multiple comparisons, for which asymmetry was again generally lower in ASD versus controls. In addition, the medial orbitofrontal surface area was less rightward asymmetric in ASD than controls, and the putamen volume was more leftward asymmetric in ASD than controls. The largest effect size had Cohens d = 0.15. Most effects did not depend on age, sex, IQ, or disorder severity.\n\nConclusionAltered lateralized neurodevelopment is suggested in ASD, affecting widespread cortical regions with diverse functions. Large-scale analysis was necessary to reliably detect, and accurately describe, subtle alterations of structural brain asymmetry in this disorder.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

The relationship between neural variability and neural oscillations

Neural activity fluctuates over time, creating considerable variability across trials. This trial-by-trial neural variability is dramatically reduced ("quenched") after the presentation of sensory stimuli. Likewise, the power of neural oscillations, primarily in the alpha-beta band, is also reduced. Despite their similarity, these phenomena have been discussed independently. We hypothesized that the two phenomena are tightly coupled. To test this, we examined magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings of healthy subjects viewing repeated presentations of a visual stimulus. The timing, amplitude, and spatial topography of variability-quenching and power suppression were remarkably similar. Neural variability quenching was eliminated by excluding the alpha-beta band from the recordings, but not by excluding other frequency-bands. Moreover, individual magnitudes of alpha-beta band power explained 86% of between-subject differences in variability quenching. In contrast, inter-trial-phase-coherence (ITPC) was not correlated with variability quenching. These results reveal that neural variability quenching reflects stimulus-induced changes in the power of alpha-beta band oscillations.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Sleep problems are associated with hypersensitivity to touch in children with autism

BackgroundSensory abnormalities and sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in children with autism, but the potential relationship between these two domains has rarely been explored. Understanding such relationships is important for identifying children with autism who exhibit more homogeneous symptoms.\n\nMethodsHere we examined this relationship using the Caregiver Sensory Profile and the childrens sleep habit questionnaires, which were completed by parents of 69 children with autism and 62 frequency age-matched controls.\n\nResultsIn line with previous studies, children with autism exhibited more severe sensory abnormalities and sleep disturbances than age-matched controls. The sleep disturbance scores were strongly associated with touch and oral sensitivities in the autism group and with touch and vestibular sensitivities in the control group. Hyper sensitivity towards touch, in particular, exhibited the strongest relationship with sleep disturbances in the autism group and single-handedly explained 24% of the variance in sleep disturbance scores. In contrast, sensitivity in other sensory domains such as vision and audition was not associated with sleep quality in either group.\n\nConclusionsWhile it is often assumed that sensitivities in all sensory domains are similarly associated with sleep problems, our results suggest that hyper sensitivity towards touch exhibits the strongest relationship to sleep disturbances when examining children autism. We speculate that hyper sensitivity towards touch interferes with sleep onset and maintenance in a considerable number of children with autism who exhibit severe sleep disturbances. Studies that examine the effects of tactile sensory therapies/aids on sleep quality and behavioral improvement in these children are, therefore, highly warranted.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

The Negev hospital-university-based (HUB) autism database

Elucidating the heterogeneous etiologies of autism will require investment in comprehensive longitudinal data acquisition from large community based cohorts. With this in mind, we have established a hospital-university-based (HUB) database of autism which incorporates prospective and retrospective data from a large and ethnically diverse population. Here we present initial findings from 188 children who were diagnosed with autism during the first eighteen months of the study. The unique characteristics of this cohort included: significant differences between Bedouin and Jewish children in different risk factors and clinical characteristics; complete birth records for >90% of the children; and a high frequency of consanguineous marriages. Thus, the Negev HUB autism database comprises a remarkably unique resource to study different aspects of autism.

epidemiology↗

bioRxiv2017

No evidence of early head circumference enlargements in children later diagnosed with autism in Israel

BackgroundLarge controversy exists regarding the potential existence and clinical significance of larger brain volumes in toddlers who later develop autism. Assessing this relationship is important for determining the clinical utility of early head circumference (HC) measures and for assessing the validity of the early overgrowth hypothesis of autism, which suggests that early accelerated brain development may be a hallmark of the disorder\n\nMethodWe performed a retrospective comparison of HC, height, and weight measurements between 66 toddlers who were later diagnosed with autism and 66 matched controls. These toddlers represent an unbiased regional sample from a single health service provider in the southern district of Israel. Using 4-12 measurements between birth and the age of two, we were able to characterize individual HC, height, and weight development with high precision and fit a negative exponential growth model to the data of each toddler with exceptional accuracy\n\nResultsThe analyses revealed that HC sizes and growth rates were not significantly larger in toddlers with autism even when stratifying the autism group based on verbal capabilities at the time of diagnosis. In addition, there were no significant correlations between ADOS scores at the time of diagnosis and HC at any time-point during the first two years of life\n\nConclusionsThese negative results add to accumulating evidence, which suggest that brain volume is not necessarily larger in toddlers who develop autism. While early brain overgrowth may characterize specific individuals with autism, it is not likely to represent a common etiology of the entire autism population

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Toddlers later diagnosed with autism exhibit multiple structural abnormalities in temporal corpus callosum fibers

Interhemispheric functional connectivity abnormalities are often reported in autism and it is thus not surprising that structural defects of the corpus callosum (CC) are consistently found using both traditional MRI and DTI techniques. Past DTI studies however, have subdivided the CC into 2 or 3 segments without regard for where fibers may project to within the cortex, thus placing limitations on our ability to understand the nature, timing and neurobehavioral impact of early CC abnormalities in autism. Leveraging a unique cohort of 97 toddlers (68 autism; 29 typical) we utilized a novel technique that identified seven CC tracts according to their cortical projections. Results revealed that younger (<2.5 years old), but not older toddlers with autism exhibited abnormally low mean, radial, and axial diffusivity values in the CC tracts connecting the occipital lobes and the temporal lobes. Fractional anisotropy and the cross sectional area of the temporal CC tract were significantly larger in young toddlers with autism. These findings indicate that water diffusion is more restricted and unidirectional in the temporal CC tract of young toddlers who develop autism. Such results may be explained by a potential overabundance of small caliber axons generated by excessive prenatal neural proliferation as proposed by previous genetic, animal model, and postmortem studies of autism. Furthermore, early diffusion measures in the temporal CC tract of the young toddlers were correlated with outcome measures of autism severity at later ages. These findings regarding the potential nature, timing, and location of early CC abnormalities in autism add to accumulating evidence, which suggests that altered inter-hemispheric connectivity, particularly across the temporal lobes, is a hallmark of the disorder.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Individual movement variability magnitudes are predicted by cortical neural variability

Humans exhibit considerable motor variability even across trivial reaching movements. This variability can be separated into specific kinematic components such as extent and direction, which are thought to be governed by distinct neural processes. Here, we report that individual subjects exhibit different magnitudes of kinematic variability, which are consistent (within individual) across movements to different targets and regardless of which arm (right or left) was used to perform the movements. Simultaneous fMRI recordings revealed that the same subjects also exhibited different magnitudes of fMRI variability across movements in a variety of motor system areas. These fMRI variability magnitudes were also consistent across movements to different targets when performed with either arm. Cortical fMRI variability in the posterior-parietal cortex of individual subjects predicted their movement-extent variability. This relationship was apparent only in posterior-parietal cortex and not in other motor system areas, thereby suggesting that individuals with more variable movement preparation exhibit larger kinematic variability. We, therefore, propose that neural and kinematic variability are reliable and interrelated individual characteristics that may predispose individual subjects to exhibit distinct motor capabilities.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2016

Trial-by-trial neural variability is a stable individual trait of adult humans

Numerous studies have shown that neural activity in sensory cortices is remarkably variable over time and across trials even when subjects are presented with an identical repeating stimulus or task. This trial-by-trial neural variability is relatively large in the pre-stimulus period and considerably smaller (quenched) following stimulus presentation. Previous studies have suggested that the magnitude of neural variability affects behavior such that perceptual performance is better on trials and in individuals where variability quenching is larger. To what degree are neural variability magnitudes of individual subjects flexible or static? Here, we used EEG recordings from adult humans to demonstrate that neural variability magnitudes in visual cortex are remarkably consistent across different tasks and recording sessions. While magnitudes of neural variability differed dramatically across individual subjects, they were surprisingly stable across four tasks with different stimuli, temporal structures, and attentional/cognitive demands as well as across experimental sessions separated by one year. These experiments reveal that, in adults, neural variability magnitudes are mostly solidified individual characteristics that change little with task or time, and are likely to predispose individual subjects to exhibit distinct behavioral capabilities.\n\nSignificance statementBrain activity varies dramatically from one moment to the next. Recent research has revealed that humans exhibit different magnitudes of trial-by-trial neural variability, which explain differences in their perceptual performance. How stable are neural variability magnitudes over time and across tasks? Here, subjects performed four different experiments in two experimental sessions separated by one year. The results revealed that neural variability magnitudes were remarkably consistent over time and across tasks, suggesting that the magnitude of neural variability is a solidified neural characteristic that may predispose individual subjects to exhibit different behavioral capabilities.

neuroscience↗