Giulia Baracchini

Wow!! Fantastic work Sofia et co :)))))

Thank you, Randy!! 😊

@theneuro.bsky.social
@fondsrechercheqc.bsky.social, Yigu Zhou, @jasondasilvac.bsky.social, Justine Hansen, Can Fenerci, Roni Setton, Jenny Rieck, Gary Turnern, Cheryl Grady, Jason Nomi, @misicbata.bsky.social, @lucinauddin.bsky.social, Nathan Spreng

Thank you so much to my supervisor and collaborators on this project, to the reviewers who really helped shape this paper, and to our sources of funding! Happy reading :)

Together, this work shows that BOLD signal variability preserves neurobiological precision, enabling more targeted questions across age, behaviour, disease, and supporting its use in computational modelling and multimodal, systems-level neuroscience!

These results are exciting because they show how fMRI BOLD, despite being a noisy signal, encapsulates spatially heterogeneous, multifactorial and multimodal properties of brain organisation through its temporal variability.

There's a lot in there but the crux of the paper lies in how, in both datasets, BOLD signal variability traced histology, microstructure, transcriptomics, neurotransmitter receptors, metabolism, fMRI static connectivity, and empirical and simulated MEG data.

We looked at both local (i.e., regional) and global (i.e., inter-regional) BOLD signal variability measures in different fMRI datasets that differed in their acquisition protocol (given the impact this has on many fMRI parameters, mostly spatial and temporal resolutions).

Now in press one of my last PhD projects! We traced the neurobiological profile of fMRI BOLD signal variability, a measure that has been related to age, behaviour, disease status, but had not yet been fully contextualised within the brain's multiscale architecture. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New preprint: "Identifying statistical indicators of temporal asymmetry using a data-driven approach"
arxiv.org/abs/2511.15991

_Can we statistically distinguish the forward- versus reverse-time dynamics of a system from a finite time series?_

🌅🌟!! Congrats friend!!

I once saw a (very interesting) talk about sleep in which the speaker started by saying that we don't really know how to define sleep, and then proceeded to operationalize sleep in flies as basically periods when they are still for a long time. This got me thinking...

Neuromorphic hierarchical modular reservoirs | doi.org/10.1101/2025...

How does hierarchical modularity shape computational function? ⤵️

Thrilled to share that our work is now published in Science! ✨

We found a preference for visual objects in the mouse spatial navigation system where they dynamically refine head-direction coding. In short, objects boost our inner compass! 🧭

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧵1/

🚨The first paper of my postdoc is out now in @elife.bsky.social! 🚨 We explored the role of attention in planning. Thank you 🙏 to the reviewers for their helpful comments & suggestions. Keep your 👀 peeled for additional analyses and our response. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

🔥ATTENTION!🔥

Registration for the 2026 Noosa Brain Workshop is now open!

Join us for some amazing science, sun, and surf in one of Australia's most beautiful beach towns.

Details:
tinyurl.com/arbc5pp6

Check out or incredible list of confirmed speakers. More to come...

A pika sits on a mossy rock.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

Adaptive learning is coordinated across behaviour, time and neurobiology (from synapses and dendrites, to astrocytes and the systems level).

If you’ve ever wondered how noradrenaline helps shape these multiscale learning processes, you might like this: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

Interested in Network hubs, cortical hierarchies, and gradients? Ever wonder where they come from? Check our latest review, where we cover different approaches to mapping hubs, models for their evolution, and mechanisms for how they develop:

osf.io/preprints/os...

Brain Surfaces of 70 primate species

1
To predict the behaviour of a primate, would you rather base your guess on a closely related species or one with a similar brain shape? We looked at brains & behaviours of 70 species, you’ll be surprised!

🧵Thread on our new preprint with @r3rt0.bsky.social , doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Biologist folk (especially in evolutionary biology and/or ecology, but it don’t matter):

Can you give me your favorite examples of trade offs in biology? Organism or system don’t matter. Primary literature or reviews preferred.

New preprint!

Why are long-range connectomic interactions in the cortex dominant in shaping dynamics in some experiments but apparently negligible in others?

We (w/ R Maran, @elimuller.bsky.social) address this question by studying a new hybrid model of cortical dynamics.

arxiv.org/abs/2506.19800

#ohbm2025 Early Career Investigator Award to @macshine.bsky.social - congratulations, super well deserved!

With my fantastic supervisor @macshine.bsky.social and @elimuller.bsky.social ☺️

The diversity of methods we use to probe the brain (epistemologies) naturally leads to clashes in our theories of how the brain works (ontologies). So how do we reconcile this divide and grow into a more unified neuroscience? Here is our take:
apertureneuro.org/article/1388...

1/ I'm excited to share recent results from my first collaboration with the amazing @anayebi.bsky.social
and @leokoz8.bsky.social !

We show how autonomous behavior and whole-brain dynamics emerge in embodied agents with intrinsic motivation driven by world models.

We are seeking a scientific coordinator for my research group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig 😊🧠🌈

Could be ideal for a gap year between MSc and PhD or PhD and postdoc!

Please out more here: recruitingapp-5218.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/43...?

New preprint modelling suppression depth in binocular rivalry and continuous flash suppression

with Hugh Wilson, @macshine.bsky.social,
& David Alais

The history and future of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging - Nature This Review provides an overview of the history of resting-state functional MRI research, which has helped to reveal the spatiotemporal organization of the brain, and discusses how it can contribute f...

When I first started working with resting state fMRI as a postdoc, there was a lot of skepticism about what we could learn from it. 20 years later, it's hard to imagine where the field of neuroscience would be without it. Here's a summary 🧠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Have recent changes led to uncertainty in your future scientific career?

Wonder it's like in Australia?

Good news!

Monash's is seeking to hire talented EMCRs from other countries.

Come join a wonderful community of brain mappers & modellers!

www.monash.edu/research/eme...