Peter Kirk

Autonomic physiological coupling of the global fMRI signal - Nature Neuroscience The brain and body are necessarily connected. Here the authors show that brain blood flow and electrical activity are coupled with systemic physiological changes in the body.

This may be relevant? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Data only shows associations. Turning those into claims about mechanism or causation? That requires a Rosetta Stone of prior knowledge + theory. Resting-state fMRI is purely observational; correlation is its currency. From this, plenty of "theoretical toys" about brain function can be built...

This is amazing work Sarah, super interesting!

Predictive Modelling of Depression Treatment Response using Individual Symptoms and Latent Factors Machine learning models have increasingly been used to identify predictors of treatment response in depression, and it is hoped that they may eventually help with clinical decision making. However, th...

Excited to share this new preprint on the Predictive Modelling of Depression Treatment Response using Individual Symptoms and Latent Factors with @clairegillan.bsky.social fresh up on @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Agreed! I'm often excited about cool, emerging fMRI methods which promise a lot. I've preregistered their use with high hopes and things fall flat. Post-hoc, the old methods turn out more sensitive. Obviously there are lots of factors, but it's made me quite hesitant without repeated validation.

Altered basal forebrain regulation of intrinsic brain networks in depressive and anxiety disorders - Nature Mental Health Using 7T resting-state functional MRI data, the authors investigate the effective connectivity of basal forebrain areas in a transdiagnostic sample of patients with anxiety and depression and healthy ...

Our latest work is now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We examined the role of the basal forebrain and its influence on intrinsic brain networks in depressive and anxiety disorders.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

@psychunimelb.bsky.social, @mbciu.bsky.social, #UnimelbMDHS

The @cahbir.bsky.social and @rutgersbhi.bsky.social are hiring! Multiple open area and open rank faculty jobs, wonderful colleagues, amazing resources, and one of the largest communities of brain science research groups on the planet. Please apply and share widely.

jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/209...

Launched in 2023, Imaging Neuroscience is now firmly established, with full indexing (PubMed, etc.) and 700 papers to date.

We're very happy to announce that we are able to reduce the APC to $1400.

Huge thanks to all authors, reviewers, editorial team+board, and MIT Press.

We had two preprints approved in August (these were submitted in May & July). However, since approval, the web pages are no longer available (e.g., osf.io/byu7f_v1). Is this expected?

The entire brain, more or less, is at work: ‘Language regions’ are artefacts of averaging Models of the neurobiology of language suggest that a small number of anatomically fixed brain regions are responsible for language functioning. This derives from centuries of aphasia studies and deca...

Kind of relevant www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Could be worse: my citation count went down by 2 the other day. Didn't realize that was possible -_-

Excited to share that our work is now published in Imaging Neuroscience! 🧠🥳
We show how aging reshapes the brain’s language and memory networks, revealing striking shifts in hemispheric specialization across the lifespan.
Check it out @imagingneurosci.bsky.social

A great week of meetings and presenting in Melbourne, including a visit to @orygen.org.au hosted by @sidchop.bsky.social & Lianne Schmaal. Now off to Brisbane for #OHBM2025. I'll be presenting Tuesday and Wednesday, 9am in the Great Hall both days :)

Social anxiety may be related to physical avoidance of aversive stimuli in an interactive game. Our latest study, led by @purnimaqamar.bsky.social. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).

Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).

Would advise against wrist-worn wearables for heart rate, they're VERY prone to noise. Ideally ECG, but even finger pulseox would be superior. Done this stuff a lot with movies and am happy to chat more.

The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization Hemispheric specialization is a fundamental characteristic of human brain organization, where most individuals exhibit left-hemisphere dominance for language and right-hemisphere dominance for visuosp...

🚨 New #preprint: The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization

🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧠 We identify an acetylcholine-norepinephrine axis underlying functional lateralization, along with mitochondrial and cellular correlates. 🧵1/9👇

#neuroskyence

"To make a meaningful contribution to #neuroscience, #fMRI must break out of its silo."

My latest attempt to convince you of the importance of multi-scale approaches for the study of the human brain.

This looks awesome! The OSF link doesn't seem to be working at the moment though.

Is interoceptive sensing unified across internal organs? 🫀🫁 Our high-powered psychophysical study (N=241) suggests not. Bayesian evidence indicates interoceptive processes are largely modality-specific—challenging the idea of a unitary interoceptive sense.
🔗 Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps...

My impression is that this is especially problematic in the psychological therapy world, both public and private spheres. Many new therapies are just rebranded CBT but require a $15k training fee to be licensed.

Working link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Thanks Hugo!

Our report on "The Relations Among Anxiety, Movie-Watching, and In-Scanner Motion" is out now in Human Brain Mapping. In short: even anxiety-evoking movies reduce pediatric in-scanner movement compared to 'rest', highlighting its benefit for developmental neuroimaging. doi.org/10.1002/hbm....

The Holmes Lab is #hiring a full-time research assistant/predoc! Our work focuses on functional brain networks-- how they change, how they are impacted in psychiatric illness, and much more!
Unfortunately, we cannot sponsor visas for this position.
Please rt and reach out if you're interested👀

Maybe we should write one entitled 'fMRI studies don't require thousands of individuals, rather MILLIONS'

What are your opinions?

Interested in #MRI and #psychiatry? Our lab is hiring a research assistant (@holmeslab-bhi.bsky.social)! Please RT and share.

@geneticssociety.bsky.social
@ohbmofficial.bsky.social
@sfnjournals.bsky.social
@pgcgenetics.bsky.social
@hitop-system.bsky.social
@blackinneuro.bsky.social

My 3 fave ways to use: 1) optimizing my code that's already written; 2) going back and forth to understand stats concepts; and 3) mundane formatting stuff on office (e.g., I got it to write code to accept track changes in word and then underline said for a revision)