Local Spatial Flow Strengths in Bold FMRI are Strongly Impacted by Schizophrenia.

Although the analysis of temporal signal fluctuations and co-fluctuations has long been a fixture of blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research, the role of local directional flows in both signal propagation and healthy functional integration remains almost entirely neglected. We are introducing an extensible framework to capture and analyze spatially localized directional signal flow dynamics in fMRI. Novel features derived from this approach are validated in a large resting-state fMRI schizophrenia study where they reveal significant relationships between spatially directional flows, propagative patterns and subject diagnostic status.