<p>Curiosity is regarded as an adaptive desire to explore novel stimuli, influenced by emotions. Previous studies have explored mainly the neural mechanisms of the curious state, ignoring the neural correlates of individual differences in curious inclination. In this study, resting- state functional connectivity (FC) was analyzed to investigate brain functional correlates of curiosity. As anxiety is thought to be aroused simultaneously with and may inhibit curiosity, whereas resilient individuals exhibit strong adaptation to support exploratory activities, we performed mediation analysis to examine the roles of anxiety and resilience in the links between brain connections and curiosity. We found that curiosity correlated negatively with FC between the left anterior cingulate cortex and right inferior parietal lobule (rIPL; in the postcentral gyrus and IPL) and middle cingulate and paracingulate gyri, and with FC between the right insula and left calcarine. This negative relationship was chain-mediated by anxiety and resilience, suggesting that curiosity-related FC was associated with lower curiosity through its links with higher anxiety and lower resilience. These results reveal the neural markers of curiosity and highlight the distinct roles of anxiety and resilience in their associations. They also imply that reward-related brain areas may play critical roles in driving curiosity.</p>