diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/nilearn/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nilearn/default.nix
index c79ea52f558c..60e11ef1d12d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/nilearn/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/nilearn/default.nix
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   checkInputs = [ pytestCheckHook ];
   disabledTests = [ "test_clean_confounds" ];  # https://github.com/nilearn/nilearn/issues/2608
-  pytestFlagsArray = [ "nilearn" ];
+  # do subset of tests which don't fetch resources
+  pytestFlagsArray = [ "nilearn/connectome/tests" ];
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [
     joblib