Effective Connectivity Is A More Promising Biomarker for Brain Health in Middle‐Aged Adults Than Functional Connectivity: Bogalusa Heart Study

Effective connectivity, the causal influence that functional activity in a source brain location exerts over functional activity in a target brain location, has the potential to provide richer information about brain networks than functional connectivity, which only quantifies activity synchrony between regions. However, head‐to‐head comparisons of effective and functional connectivity from functional MRI data are rare, especially among diverse cognitively healthy middle aged and older adults.