After years of additional work, and many, many revisions this paper www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... has finally been accepted for publication in Journal of Comparative Neurology. The message remains the same, but lots of new data added. Excited for everyone to see it when the paper goes online soon.

Check out our latest paper: The Contribution of endocannabinoids to placebo analgesia www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This is an ongoing collaboration with David Finn & @laurenatlas.bsky.social Take away: beta-endorphins gate the contributions of endocannabinoids to placebo analgesia.

We love it when innovative collaborators challenge @cfmm.bsky.social staff with cool projects. At our imaging centre, we now have open source solutions for MRI in awake mice, rats and marmosets…and humans!

Nothing like Chili to spice up a 🇨🇦 winter.

New paper in Nature Neuroscience! We developed personalized fMRI-based predictive models tracking ongoing spontaneous pain in chronic pain patients—trained on 6+ months of densely sampled data. A true team effort. Deeply grateful to our participants! doi.org/10.1038/s41593-026-02221-3

Ultrasound gives our brain a nudge in the right direction 🧠 👀 Look to your left, look to your right! We used #ultrasound to stimulate the brain and it changed human choice behavior within a fraction of a second. No surgery, no implants. Link to paper ⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I presented my first poster in the Neuroscience Research Day 2026! While I was preparing it, I discovered a new type of poster design by @mikemorrison.bsky.social. I didn't like it at first, but then was intrigued on its ability to generate more interaction. Results? I was talking the whole hour!

Are you curious about the relationship between pain and alcohol use? Register now for our next #PRF webinar on 10 March from #PRF, featuring @zalephd.bsky.social, Dr. Lucía Hipólito-Cubedo, and Dr. Thomas Kash bit.ly/4rQzqdb

Alpha power distinguishes conditioned pain modulation subgroups. @karenddavis.bsky.social et al. find that associations between peak alpha frequency and inhibitory conditioned pain modulation strengths are sex- and paradigm-dependent in the sgACC #PAIN bit.ly/3Zk0F3q

Our next Meet the Team Talk is happening tomorrow from 12-1pm, with Dr. Dwight Moulin as the speaker! To join, click on the Zoom link on our website! www.knowpain.ca/eventschedule

There are many things that are excellent about this paper but my favorite is that every hDRG neuron seems to have its own capillary. We have had this impression but this paper really nails it in my view.

it’s so hard to tackle the pain topic in simple terms, it is such a congruent and integrated system that manages and links to the very essence of existence, or the will to do so. it is even efficient and secure, like a meticulously designed fire alarm system. from wiring to response. very elegant

finally some real data on this. nicely done. love the phantom.

This is why I chose to do medical research into neuropathic pain. The red line in the picture on the left is the approximate height my mother was in her prime. The picture on the right is an MRI of her spine. The vertebrae in the lower circle is L1; the radiologist note was 'dislocated spine.'

So I started a YouTube channel titled Professor Meeker's Science Ruins Everything: youtu.be/nxTMRGaOmMQ?...

Join us at the kNOw-PAIN Conference on March 26th! This one-day conference will feature engaging talks, fascinating speakers + networking opportunities in the dynamic and complex field of pain research, patient care +more. Stay tuned for more info. Register here: www.knowpain.ca/2026conference

saw some great pain science at yesterday's UofT Pain day including talks by @sarahnelsonphd.bsky.social @ghasemloulab.bsky.social @drmarianabueno.bsky.social Burel Goodin and incredible trainee talks. pain research is thriving in Toronto. utcsp.utoronto.ca

views from the office today at Western's new downtown Toronto space

Sex-dependent changes in insular cortex connectivity in a rat model of comorbid pain https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.07.704080v1

This is a catastrophic unforced error. It was quite something to hear @ohsunews.bsky.social President Shereef Elnahal equate the shambolic lies of fringe groups (“others”) with the heartfelt & credible testimony of the scientists & veterinarians in his employ. “Teammates” don’t support rivals.

Optogenetics so powerful it can relocate the primary visual cortex! www.cell.com/neuron/abstr...

MEG meets fMRI! Quantum Sensing MRI for Noninvasive Detection of Neuronal Electrical Activity in Human Brains arxiv.org/abs/2601.16423

we've got an outstanding lineup this year. join us!

Be sure to cast your vote for the next President-Elect of the @canadianpain.bsky.social!

Our latest preprint. More evidence that diabetic neuropathy is a neuro degenerative disease. Very proud of @ish1789.bsky.social and our whole PRECISION group who made this work possible. #HEALinitiative funded

I don't know if this was well known, but NMR/MRS icon and NAS fellow Bob Shulman (middle) passed away a couple of weeks ago at the age of 101. He was the mentor of my mentors (left and right), so I suppose my grand mentor. Scientists like him are unlikely to be found ever again in this day and age

this is an amazing resource - thanks, Peder!

Looking forward to giving a Perspectives in Neuroscience Talk tomorrow at University of Western Ontario! I’ll be speaking about the importance of studying sex differences & menopause effects on episodic memory & related brain function at midlife within the context of early detection of dementia.

One of Canadian science's greatest advocates. May she rest in peace.

EEG requires many neurons aligned so that their electric fields can positively sum to spread up to the scalp. I made a browser-based simulator for my EEG class to visualize how "open fields" contribute to EEG recordings. dbrang.github.io/Open-Closed-... Github: github.com/dbrang/Open-...

happening today

Anterior cingulate cortex activation of claustrum projection neuron subtypes is enhanced by alcohol https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.19.700421v1

Excited to give the Feindel Lecture at The Neuro on Monday 26th Jan in Montreal. Streamed and recorded too. Come hear about our new SASS MRI technique just out in print in @natmethods.nature.com @westernuwin.bsky.social @theneuro.bsky.social

Interpreting EEG requires understanding how the skull smears electrical fields as they propagate from the cortex. I made a browser-based simulator for my EEG class to visualize how dipole depth/orientation change the topomap. dbrang.github.io/EEG-Dipole-D... Github page: github.com/dbrang/EEG-D...

Happy 92nd Birthday to the father of BOLD fMRI, Seiji Ogawa.

Opportunity to move to Canada. 🍁 The Lifespan Institute @brocku.ca is looking to hire a Canada Excellence Research Chair In Healthy Development Across the Lifespan. More info in the job ad (salary negotiable). brocku.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/brocku_caree....

In this paper they created "synthetic" lesions using parcellations of resting-state networks, and then showed that they look like resting-state networks. Big whoop. They had access to real lesions and didn't use them?? Seems more likely that they tried it with real lesions and didn't report it.

Temporal Patterns of Brain Network Plasticity During the Onset and Maintenance of Neuropathic Pain in Male Mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.15.699728v1

It won't actually exist for another month or so, but because it now 'exists' on amazon, I'll humbly observe that, after working through this book, your student/trainee would be able to read and understand all but two or three papers in this week's J. Neurosci. Check it out:

main goal for this year: find a new job! 🙂 looking for a role with fun & complex technical challenges & within a great community. my main expertise is in signal processing/EEG/MEG, but topic-wise I am quite flexible. science/industry both great! starting mid-year. nschawor.github.io/cv

Yes, at Western’s Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping @cfmm.bsky.social , we have a lot of Tesla (34.6 T to be exact), but the most important equipment where the best ideas come from is a bit cheaper.

Have you seen Mørch et al.’s new sodium channel excitability nociceptor test, which can identify alterations in select subtypes of small fiber sodium channels of awake subjects? Check out Allan Basbaum’s #EditorsPick featured in @painthejournal.bsky.social bit.ly/4pylVNF #EditorsPick#PRF

And the Oscar goes to…

The Pain Research Forum is launching a new monthly Webinar Series. The first event is this Wednesday Jan 14th, 2026 at 12 PM ET. Register using the QR code or visit painresearchforum.org @usasp.bsky.social @dimacd.bsky.social @psalmotoxin.bsky.social @iasp.bsky.social @dimacd.bsky.social

Exciting new preprint on oxytocin neural circuits for massage led by Manon Bohic in Vicky Abraira’s lab. Sasha and I were glad to contribute imaging experiments to this collaborative effort, spanning mice to humans. Vicky is a master at bringing people together. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New results! Faster parietal alpha frequency tightens, and slower alpha widens, the temporal window for vision–touch integration for the sense of one’s own body. Causal and computational evidence. Nature Communications news.ki.se/how-brain-wa...

so much cool new stuff in here - LUPE, AMPS, p-lick... 🤯

what an achievement! this dataset is going to support some massive new discoveries in pain

This recent article published in Good Times highlights emerging research in chronic pain and features an interview from kNOw-PAIN Co-Director Dr. David Seminowicz (@daspainbrain.bsky.social)! goodtimes.ca/hope-for-chr...