๐ช๐ต๐ฎ๐'๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ป ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐ณ๐ผ๐น๐ฑ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป?
This looks like a must read (suppl material bursting with goodies).
#neuroskeyence
doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
Data-driven profiles of psychosis stages reveal distinct and overlapping clinical, cognitive, and neuroanatomical phenotypes | medRxiv www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
fMRI connectivity is dominated by recurring high-amplitude BOLD events (CAPs, QPPs)
But what originates these events? Many think neuromodulation is the culprit. Our new work offers a simpler take: cortico-cortical dynamics alone can generate CAP-like events! doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1013995
๐งต1/n
In case you missed it, I made a feed that uses a locally hosted LLM to sort through the entire Bluesky firehose to find great science. Topics span all cognitive science and neuroscience. Check it out! bsky.app/profile/did:...
Excited to share our new paper:
We uncover a locus coeruleusโamygdala circuit linking ฮฒ-adrenergic signaling to transcription regulation in defined amygdala cells during memory reconsolidationโ+ stress or elevated noradrenergic signaling at recall can strengthen memory.
www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...
Beyond delighted to see this awesome paper from superstar Audrey Luo now out. See her wonderful thread below re: two highly-replicable axes of white matter development in youth.
Peer review would be easier if we stopped treating it like combat with the authors. Results want to be free, and perfect is the enemy of good. Do the data support the conclusions? If so, thatโs enough. A paper isnโt a blank slate for projecting your own ideas.
Commentary has the full details: doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
Huge thanks to @mitulamehta.bsky.social for writing this fun piece with me and to Ruben and @coolscontrol.bsky.social for the thought provoking paper!
Feel free to reach out if you're interested in applying REACT to your own questions! :)
We additionally discuss:
- State dependence: do task x drug interactions reveal effects not visible at rest?
- Establishing causality: we need blocking studies and causal manipulations to meaningfully validate REACT
- From molecules to networks to symptoms: validity in clinical neuroscience
Our main take home was that while REACT does seem to have value for disentangling dopamine and noradrenaline, it is NOT valid for all use cases.
Spatial similarity of PET maps and collinearity in these models is central to the meaningful use of REACT (more on this problem coming soon ๐)
BUT not everything went to plan ๐ฅฒ.
When they tested a serotonin transporter (SERT) map as a control (no expected pharmacological effect), it was so spatially similar to DAT that the "serotonin" network showed basically the same drug effects.
Methylphenidate's effects on the DAT-enriched network (but NOT the NET network) covaried with individual striatal dopamine synthesis capacity. And DAT-network connectivity in lateral PFC tracked reward prediction error signaling. Molecule โ network โ function. That's the dream.
Van den Bosch & Cools looked at looked at 85 people with [18F]FDOPA PET (dopamine synthesis) AND pharmaco-fMRI under methylphenidate. This let them test whether REACT's dopamine-enriched networks actually track individual differences in dopamine function.
Spoiler: they do
doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
REACT uses PET maps of receptor distributions as spatial templates to generate molecular-related functional networks from fMRI data. Two-stage dual regression, one map per system.
Original methods paper doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
Methods review doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...
The BOLD signal from fMRI is inherently blind to the cellular and molecular mechanisms that give rise to it. As a method, REACT was developed to bridge this gap by "enriching" our connectivity analyses with molecular information from PET.
But does it actually work..?
๐จ New paper alert! ๐จ
We wrote a commentary in @imagingneurosci.bsky.social on a really nice recent paper from van den Bosch & Cools where they provide the first real attempt at validating REACT (molecular-enriched fMRI).
Here's what they found and what we think it means ๐
doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
The danger of superhuman AI is not what you think. This essay in @noemamag.com by @shannonvallor.bsky.social is brilliant. Well worth a read. www.noemamag.com/the-danger-o...
Inter-individual variability of neurotransmitter receptor and transporter density in the human brain | doi.org/10.1007/s004...
How do neuroreceptor distributions vary across people?
๐จ New preprint: Objective Quality Assessment for Precision fMRI
Precision functional mapping (PFM) enables individual-level brain network studies โ but demands more, and better, data.
We introduce an objective framework to determine when a dataset truly supports interpretable, replicable PFM.
The big questions facing psychedelic science:
1. Whatโs the biology of psychedelic experiences?
2. Is the experience necessary for clinical benefit?
3. How do we solve expectancy+unblinding in trials?
We synthesize what we know and the big Qs in a Nature Med Review:
nature.com/articles/s41...
๐ญ๐ง Can fUSI truly map canonical mouse resting-state networks โ and how does it compare to fMRI?
Iโm excited to share the work of my PhD in our new preprint!๐ doi.org/10.64898/202...
Go check it out โ itโs time to expand your neuroimaging toolkit ๐ง ๐
Despite decades of research there are still no reliable biomarkers for any of the major psychiatric diagnoses. In this now published perspective in Molecular Psychiatry we consolidate evidence from genetics, exposome and neuroimaging research on the potential reasons underlying these failures.
A social club โ started by Nico Dosenbach, MD, PhD and a colleague โ dubbed the "Midnight Scan Club," leveraged low-cost nighttime fMRI scans to provide unique insights into individual brain function.
Read all about the history of precision self-scanning: https://bit.ly/4qeuLjR
With a +64% increase in MSCA 2025 scholarship applications, funding cut-offs reached absurd levels. (e.g. a score of 96/100 remained unfunded, got news today from a candidate I sponsored). When rating is this compressed, a lottery among top-rated proposals deserves serious consideration I think.
A recently discovered brain network that links cognition (thinking) and actions may have an important role in Parkinsonโs disease and could improve its treatment, according to a study published in Nature: spklr.io/63320DMwOi
#Neuroscience #Neuroskyence #Parkinsons ๐ง ๐งช
Excited to share a new preprint, led by the inimitable @colleenhughes.bsky.social!
Individualized Mapping of Functional Brain Networks in Older Adulthood
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A short ๐งต 1/
Individualized Mapping of Functional Brain Networks in Older Adulthood https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702883v1
Luppi et al. identify transcriptomic and connectomic controllers of information integration and its breakdown induced by anaesthesia across species
Left: Pathways involved in brain energy metabolism. Energy metabolism refers to processes involved in energy production from nutrient molecules. Glucose is the main energy source in the brain under normal physiological conditions. Glucose entering brain cells can be utilized in three parallel pathways. It can be processed through glycolysis to produce 2 ATP and 2 pyruvate molecules (blue). Lactate dehydrogenases catalyze the interconversion of lactate and pyruvate (purple). Pyruvate is transported into mitochondria, where it enters the TCA cycle to generate high-energy electron carriers NADH and FADH2 (green), driving the complete oxidation of glucose through the mitochondrial electron transport chain (red). Glucose entering the brain can also enter the PPP. PPP is an anabolic pathway that uses glucose to produce 5-carbon sugars and NADPH, an essential co-factor used in nucleotide and lipid biosynthesis (yellow). Glucose can also be stored in the form of glycogen via glycogen synthase, a process mainly active in astrocytes. Right: Energy pathway maps. Colors show z-scored mean expression values across all genes in each pathway. ppp, pentose phosphate pathway; tca, tricarboxylic acid cycle; oxphos, oxidative phosphorylation; lactate, lactate metabolism and transport.
How are energy #metabolism pathways distributed across the #cortex? @alaindagher.bsky.social &co map five pathways in the human #brain, linking metabolic organization with brain structural & functional properties, as well as developmental dynamics @plosbiology.org ๐งช plos.io/4c1JVp8
Left: Pathways involved in brain energy metabolism. Energy metabolism refers to processes involved in energy production from nutrient molecules. Glucose is the main energy source in the brain under normal physiological conditions. Glucose entering brain cells can be utilized in three parallel pathways. It can be processed through glycolysis to produce 2 ATP and 2 pyruvate molecules (blue). Lactate dehydrogenases catalyze the interconversion of lactate and pyruvate (purple). Pyruvate is transported into mitochondria, where it enters the TCA cycle to generate high-energy electron carriers NADH and FADH2 (green), driving the complete oxidation of glucose through the mitochondrial electron transport chain (red). Glucose entering the brain can also enter the PPP. PPP is an anabolic pathway that uses glucose to produce 5-carbon sugars and NADPH, an essential co-factor used in nucleotide and lipid biosynthesis (yellow). Glucose can also be stored in the form of glycogen via glycogen synthase, a process mainly active in astrocytes. Right: Energy pathway maps. Colors show z-scored mean expression values across all genes in each pathway. ppp, pentose phosphate pathway; tca, tricarboxylic acid cycle; oxphos, oxidative phosphorylation; lactate, lactate metabolism and transport.
How are energy #metabolism pathways distributed across the #cortex? @alaindagher.bsky.social &co map five pathways in the human #brain, linking metabolic organization with brain structural & functional properties, as well as developmental dynamics @plosbiology.org ๐งช plos.io/4c1JVp8
