Jenna Merenstein

Abstract submission open, The 65th Annual Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance (RMCMR) August 2-6, 2026, the Snowbird Resort & Conference Center, Snowbird, Utah, featuring EPR Symposium and Solid-state NMR Symposium

Abstract submission open, The 65th Annual Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance (RMCMR) August 2-6, 2026, Snowbird, Utah, featuring EPR & Solid-state NMR Symposia, submission deadline is April 24 for oral abstracts & May 15 for posters rockychem.com/conference/c... #NMRchat #NMR 🧲

Next Stops for OHBM: Toronto, Canada in 2027 and Yokohama, Japan in 2028 — OHBM Communications We are thrilled to announce the locations for our next two upcoming Annual Meetings! The 2027 OHBM Annual Meeting will be held in Toronto, Canada, followed by the 2028 OHBM Annual Meeting in Yokohama,...

Future @ohbmofficial.bsky.social meeting dates just annouced:

* 2027 - Toronto, Canada
* 2028 - Yokohama, Japan

www.ohbm-com.com/blog/futurem...

The Brain Resilience Study protocol: Building a dataset of the biological and sociocultural factors affecting brain health in older adults Dementia arises from a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. However, previous large-scale studies have largely f…

Here is the link to our "The Brain Resilience Study protocol," an ongoing project through the @sfuneuro.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📚 NEW ISSUE 📚

Articles cover optimized atlases for tau-PET staging, depressive symptoms and MR spectroscopy biomarkers of early AD, and more.

www.sciencedirect.com/journal/neur...

Breathing in polluted air as we age may harm a part of the brain linked to memory and Alzheimer's disease. Scientists found that air pollution can lead to changes in the medial temporal lobe, a key area for memory. Learn more: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41482168/

For 15(!) years I’ve been teaching introductory #MRI to grad students, and struggled to find a textbook for a wide variety of backgrounds. I'm happy to share an online textbook I created, fully open source (including code for generating figures and plots shown):
larsonlab.github.io/MRI-educatio...

@nba-eic.bsky.social 🥳

Newest paper out now in Imaging Neuroscience 🤗

Rethinking the centrality of brain areas in understanding functional organization - Nature Neuroscience Parcellation of the cortex into functionally modular brain areas is foundational to neuroscience. Here, Hayden, Heilbronner and Yoo question the central status of brain areas in neuroscience from the ...

A must-read review. It argues that brain areas are only one of several organizing principles and are not especially central, given their weak correspondence to function. Cytoarchitecture and connectivity are a starting point, not the endpoint.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#neuroscience

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Hecheng Jin, Ting Xu, et al:

Is Pearson’s correlation coefficient enough for functional connectivity in fMRI?

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Just finished my last class of the semester🎉Reminded of how much I love teaching this academic writing class for grad students. We focus on improving our writing but also reducing anxiety and becoming a more consistent & productive writer

Some of the students favorite writing tips/learnings below:

Integrating plasma, MRI, and cognitive biomarkers for personalized prediction of decline across cognitive domains Plasma biomarkers are associated with cognitive performance and decline in Alzheimer’s disease, making them promising for early detection. This study …

✨ SHINY NEW PAPER ✨

MRI-derived regional volume and thickness are stronger predictors of cognitive decline, especially for memory, but plasma biomarkers do add predictive value

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458025001137

A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation - Nature NextBrain is an open source, probabilistic atlas of the entire human brain, assembled using artificial-intelligence-enabled registration and segmentation methods to reconstruct the multimodal serial h...

Very cool new work from the Iglesias group at MGH: A probabilistic histological atlas of the human brain for MRI segmentation (also available at OpenNeuro - openneuro.org/datasets/ds0...) : www.nature.com/articles/s41...

No more paylines at the NIH
grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Adam Kimbler & Craig E.L. Stark:

Advanced diffusion imaging in grey matter reflects individual differences in cognitive ability in older adults

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Merenstein et al show structural brain connectivity, measured by high-resolution diffusion-weighted MRI, improved predictions of age-related alterations in brain function and cognitive performance, relative to standard spatial resolution buff.ly/0IOgtRX @jmerenstein.bsky.social @nba-eic.bsky.social

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows

Diffusion MRI Microstructure Markers of Changes in the Human Brain Across the Lifespan Using Constrained Spherical Deconvolution and Fixel‐Based Techniques Diffusion microstructure compartment and subject age across the lifespan. Whole brain tissue has the highest proportion of ICI signal fraction early in the lifespan; as development occurs the ICA sig...

Diffusion MRI Microstructure Markers of Changes in the Human Brain Across the Lifespan Using Constrained Spherical Deconvolution and Fixel-Based Techniques
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Multivariate environmental exposures are reflected in whole-brain functional connectivity and cognition in youth | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We just published a paper in PNAS, showing microstructural changes to the hippocampus in aging and presymptomatic Alzheimer's disease - in humans, in vivo.

We continue to show the value of structural MRI beyond simply measuring large-scale atrophy!

Read here: ow.ly/1NvV50XkXnX

I am so excited to be a faculty mentor for the University of Utah's Summer Program for Undergraduate Research 2026! This is a nationally competitive, 10-week program providing undergraduates with an intensive paid research experience. Apps are due 01/25/2026! utah.infoready4.com#undergraduate

skiftiTools: An R package for reading, writing, analysing, and visualising, tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) derived diffusion MR images | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 We are seeking a Digital Presence Coordinator!

Open to psych/neuro grad students, postdocs & faculty who are passionate about improving fairness in peer review.

Job details:

💻 Managing website, socials, newsletters

🕒 4–8 hrs/month | 💵 $500 honorarium | 📅 1-year term

Apply 👉 go.iu.edu/8vxh

Ooooh! I love this idea! I have some projects that would make an excellent fit for a rotation student. Not sure what the formal process is since I'm not an affiliate neuro faculty member yet, but I'll look into that :) I'd be happy to chat more if any of the students are interested.

One last reminder that I’m recruiting a graduate student through the Cognition & Neural Science area @utah.edu this Fall! The lab uses MRI to study healthy cognitive aging across the adult lifespan and will start assessing factors that moderate cognitive aging (air pollution, cardiovascular health).

⭐ My lab is recruiting a grad student for fall 2026! ⭐

🧠 If you are interested in semantic learning & memory, and want to use fMRI + computational models to ask these questions, I'll be excited to hear from you. Come join us in Bing!

🔗 sites.google.com/view/spinslab

🆕 New open neuroimaging dataset released!

I’m happy to share that our Naturalistic Neuroimaging Database (NNDb3T+) is now publicly available! NNDb3T+ captures rich, multimodal brain activity in a naturalistic setting with 40 participants and over 160 hours of scanning!

Sharing our new paper in Brain Communications ➡️ doi.org/10.1093/brai...

We show that structural connectivity, as measured by high-resolution diffusion-weighted MRI, improved the ability to predict age-related alterations in brain function and cognition, relative to standard spatial resolution.

TWO more tenure-track positions posted @utah.edu 🙌

1) Assistant/Associate Professor Workforce Development and AI Literacy ➡️ utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/190...

2) Assistant/Associate Professor AI and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Learning ➡️ utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/189...

Sex differences in healthy brain aging are unlikely to explain higher Alzheimer’s disease prevalence in women | PNAS As Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is diagnosed more frequently in women, understanding the role of sex has become a key priority in AD research. However,...

@pnas.org: Small sex differences in brain aging, steeper decline in men in some regions. Does not explain why more women are diagnosed with AD. 12,638 longitudinal MRIs, 4,726 participants across 14 cohorts. Control for head-size, education, life-expectancy. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...