Precision functional imaging in early development will allow us to uncover individual brain developmental trajectories and help tailor personalized interventions.

Is precision functional brain imaging in babies possible? YES! We show this in not one but two new preprints out of WashU and @umn-midb.bsky.social! 1️⃣: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 2️⃣: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🐣👶🧠

I've been thinking a lot about the preprint in terms of my own career. I grew up academically in computational labs. My papers were abstract early on and they only got more abstract as I progressed. The model was: find a new exciting mathematical tool. Apply it to brain imaging data. Write it up. 1/

👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾 … absolute star in the making!

JOY 💕

When nothing worked, this did. Precision functional mapping is here for treatment-resistant depression. This is what hope looks like. 💡

Personalized Adaptive Cortical Electro-stimulation (PACE) in Treatment-Resistant Depression Punchline: PERSONALIZED network neuroscience works. *Easily* the most important paper I’ve been part of. Read the manuscript for details. Watch the movies for *amazing* testimonial. 1/2

At home, we used Bayes Tuning, an optimization procedure to refine and personalize stimulation settings. @ 7 weeks → suicidal thoughts gone. @ 6 Months → depression in full remission. @ 30 months later → Mike is still well. As a bonus some of if cognitive skills improved!!

Here is a video showing his response when stimulating the fronto-parietal attention network: osf.io/8j4dp?view_o...

We validated the effects and engagement of the networks in the days after surgery and replicated them 3 weeks later. Here is a video replicating his emotional response when stimulating the default network: osf.io/vsc42?view_o...

Now with PFM, prior cortical stim work by @ziad-nahas.bsky.social for depression could be patient specific. We developed the end-to-end minimally invasive PACE used by @drdaviddarrow.bsky.social to place electrodes directly on Mike's salience, default, fronto-parietal, and action mode networks.

Using Precision Functional Mapping (PFM) we mapped Mike’s unique brain networks. We found his salience network was 4× larger than normal - it encroached on mood and attention systems.

what a privilege to have been a part of such meaningful work this early in my career! So excited for the future of personalized intervention! So inspired to continue the work standing on the shoulder of scientists who brought us here today! 🧠

Our proposed model: Pain is not a static signal. It’s a dynamic, modulated feedback loop for guiding behavior. Intervening at SCAN/AMN breaks the cycle — better than any one-size-fits-all cortical stimulation.

So, we examined it in our prior cortical stimulation patients. Two patients with central neuropathic pain. One had electrodes over both SCAN & AMN. One hit only SCAN. Pain relief tracked exactly with network engagement. Precision matters!!!!

Figure 1 (attached) shows how these networks: • Interdigitate with traditional motor areas • Align closely with pain activations (r=0.73) • Vary dramatically between individuals These are non-sensory pain networks. That’s why classic targeting misses.

Chronic pain affects 1 in 5 adults, yet current treatments — meds, DBS, SCS — often fail. Motor cortex stimulation sometimes works. 🤔 But why? We now have the answer: it’s not just the motor cortex. It’s how the brain integrates pain with action.

Alert!!!! “An Action Networks Model for Pain” We propose a new model for chronic pain — and highlight two functionally connected cortical networks that could revolutionize how we treat it. 👉 thread below 🧵 osf.io/preprints/ps...

Hello all fMRIPrep users! What if you could use the same pipeline for processing MRI data from all ages? 👶👩‍🦱👩‍🦳 Check out fMRIPrep Lifespan! Our workflow optimized for data from the first years of life and further upstream enhancements to the entire NiPreps suite www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I'm thrilled to share that my graduate school project was just published in Nature Mental Health! We found that resting-state functional network predictors are more similar within vs between categories of internalizing and externalizing behavior in children (ABCD), adolescents (HBN) and adults (HCP)

⭐⭐⭐

The brain’s action-mode network — a Perspective by Nico U. F. Dosenbach, Marcus E. Raichle & Evan M. Gordon @ndosenbach.bsky.social @gordonneuro.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Disappointing new study showing - once again - that women are leaving research careers at far higher levels than men If you're interested to read about strategies to reverse these types of curves, check out our recent #Cell perspective- link below ⤵️ #WomeninSTEM 👩‍🔬👩🏾‍🔬🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Finally out in its polished form 🤩 New methodological avenues that help facilitate looking at individual brain functional organization in developmental populations 👶🧠

hey -- i'm hiring a postdoc! the ad will be up shortly, but looking for someone with network neuroscience experience (very broadly). the position isn't tied to any specific project/grant, so lots of flexibility in terms of what you'd actually *do*. hmu if you might be interested/want to learn more!