Neural activity and behavior manifest a dual nature of state and trait dynamics, exhibiting variations within and between individuals. However, the joint properties of neural state-trait variation and how they map onto individual behavior remain understudied. To address this gap, we quantify moment-to-moment changes in brain-wide co-activation patterns derived from resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. We identify reproducible spatio-temporal features of co-activation patterns at the single subject level. We demonstrate that a joint analysis of state-trait neural variations and feature reduction reveal general motifs of individual differences, encompassing state-specific and state-general neural features that exhibit day-to-day variability. The principal neural variations co-vary with the principal variations of behavioral phenotypes, highlighting cognitive function, emotion regulation, alcohol and substance use. Person-specific probability of occupying a particular co-activation pattern is reproducible and associated with neural and behavioral features. This combined analysis of state-trait variations holds promise for developing reproducible neuroimaging markers of individual life functional outcome.

Human brain state dynamics reflect individual neuro-phenotypes