Amar Ojha

The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes Neuropsychopharmacology - The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes

Absolutely thrilled to share the 🌟 FIRST PAPER 🌟 from ACORN Lab! 🐿️ I’m beyond proud of all-star grad student @heatherarobinson.bsky.social for this review of “exposome” effects on neurodevelopment & cognition! Paper here rdcu.be/ezUqx & thread below 👇 /1

#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #devsky #cogdev

Brain Surfaces of 70 primate species

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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...

How does the human brain coordinate hierarchical cortical development? Our work in Nature Neuroscience identifies a role for thalamocortical structural connectivity in the expression of hierarchical periods of cortical plasticity & environmental receptivity in youth 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

We polled Nature readers to ask if they were thinking of leaving the US for jobs abroad. Three-quarters of them (who said they were US-based scientists) said yes. 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations with mental health Major mental disorders are increasingly understood as disorders of brain development. Large and heterogeneous samples are required to define generalizable links between brain development and psychopat...

(1/18) Now out on BioRxiv‼️ Reproducible Brain Charts: An open data resource for mapping brain development and its associations with mental health | doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Funded by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Cortical maturation unfolds hierarchically, endowing the PFC with extended plasticity. But do timeframes of plasticity vary across PFC layers?

With 7T quantitative myelin imaging, EEG, and cognitive data, we uncover heterochronous laminar maturation in the PFC 1/n. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

SNAAP is an awesome resource for anyone interested in applying to PhD programs in neuro! They’re currently hosting mock interviews, info below👇

#neuroskyence @stanfordnapp.bsky.social

We're hiring a lab manager to start this summer in the @logicemotionlab.bsky.social! Submit CV, cover letter, and reference contact info by Feb 17th for priority review. Description of the lab's research focus, mission, and values are on our website! research-princeton.icims.com/jobs/20420/r...

This is a fantastic tool if you’re looking for people with overlapping interests (as judged by networks) to follow:

bsky-follow-finder.theo.io

Super excited to share our official ACORN Lab website!! 🍁🧠

appliedcognitionlab.psychology.uconn.edu

We are recruiting new team members at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels - join us!

#Neuroskyence #neuroimaging #PsychSciSky #CogPsyc #ClinPsych #CogDev #devpsy #CogSci

Report: Every dollar of NIH research funding doubles in economic returns Research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) generated $2.46 in economic activity for every $1 of funding in 2023, a total of $92.9 billion, according to an

NIH funding generated $2.46 for every $1 funded in 2023.

Important info for scientific advocacy in the years ahead- science is a quantifiable investment, not just a cost.

H/t to @nicolecrust.bsky.social for sharing!

#AcademicSky
#PsychSciSky
#NeuroSkyence

www.fiercebiotech.com/research/rep...

How do DA and 5HT drugs alter reinforcement learning? Join us next Wednesday for talks by @anahitm.bsky.social, Diego Pizzagalli, Michael Browning, Roshan Cools, Emma Robinson, Yael Niv, Cath Harmer, Isabel Berwian, @nathanieldaw.bsky.social and Anne Collins. Links etc: acplab.org/2024/11/15/r...

Grant-funded labs are incentivized to admit students who already know how to do research to serve as cheap labor. That puts students who’ve had the most access and resources at a major advantage. This shapes admissions practices more than people are willing to admit but yelling about testing is easy

Conducting Developmental Research Online vs. In-Person: A Meta-Analysis Abstract. An increasing number of psychological experiments with children are being conducted using online platforms, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual replications have compared the fi...

Thinking about pros and cons of collecting data from kids online? Our meta-analysis is out today. Effects from online testing were slightly but not significantly smaller than matched in-lab effects: d = −.05 [−.17, .07]. By Aaron Chuey, Veronica Boyce, and Anjie Cao.

direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

This project was a major undertaking that wouldn't have come to fruition without Cecile Ladouceur, Brooke Molina, Teague Henry, Neil Jones, Amelia Versace, Neil Jones, Heather Joseph, & Elizabeth Gnagy. Thank you for all of your help!

This study is an important first step towards better understanding the neural etiology of emotional symptoms in ADHD in adults but we need large longitudinal RCTs in diverse samples to further tap into underlying mechanisms to ultimately inform potential therapeutic targets for intervention.

An exploratory mediation analysis revealed that dlPFC function mediated the association between affect lability and task performance, implicating this structure as a potential marker of risk for problems related to emotional dysregulation.

We examined ROIs related to two aspects of emo reg: affective salience detection and top-down cog control. Heightened activation in the lateral PFC during these trials was associated w/ better performance and reduced activation was associated w/ greater affect lability in those with persisting ADHD.

As expected, participants w/o any ADHD history performed better (faster, more accurately) than those w/ ADHD diagnoses on trials characterized by high cog load w/ emotional distractors. In participants with persisting ADHD symptoms, more severe emotional sx were associated w/ worse performance.

We focused our analyses on trial conditions where participants were presented with task-irrelevant distractors (emotional faces) while engaging in high cognitive load (2-back) memory trials (vs no face, 0-back).

Here, we leverage the Emotional Faces N-back task while adult participants with persisting, desisting, or no history of ADHD symptoms underwent fMRI scanning.

Emotional problems (e.g., affect lability, anger-irritability) are common in ADHD, esp when symptoms persist into adulthood (30-70%!); however, limited research exists investigating the neural correlates of emotional dysregulation in this population.

Very excited to share some new work now out in @BiologicalPsyc1 CNNI examining emotion regulation circuitry in adults w/ varying levels of ADHD symptom persistence: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How scuba diving helped me embrace open science Our lab adopted practices to make data- and code-sharing feel safer, including having the coding equivalent of a dive buddy. Trainees call the buddy system a welcome safety net.

How scuba diving helped me embrace open science

By @pennlinc.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/open-neurosc...

Amazing new work from @isabellakahhale.bsky.social!!!! "Associations Between Subtypes of Empathy and Aggression in High-Risk Adolescents" link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🚨We're hiring a lab manager!🚨We're looking for a stellar post-bacc interested in studying emotions, supporting lab infrastructure, and building community. Please spread the word! See links in 1st comment for our mission and culture. Review starts 3/1! research-princeton.icims.com/jobs/18407/r...

New paper from my post-doc now out in Nature Communications! 👩🏻‍🔬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In thousands of children from the ABCD Study, we identify personalized functional brain networks with topography patterns that are reliably related to cognition!

#Neuroskyence #neuroimaging #PsychSciSky

flyer for the Neuroprep Postbacc Program at Washington University with a fluorescent red and green brain image at the top. flyer text: Recent graduates and undergraduates who will be finishing this year are invited to apply for this exciting opportunity to receive scientific and professional skills training at one of the best neuroscience institutions globally. Neuroprep Scholars receive: • Two years of research experience guided by dedicated mentors expert in clinical and basic neuroscience • Competitive salary ($35,000+), plus generous benefits and travel costs • An inclusive community that values diversity of thought, background, and ability • Opportunities to present at research symposia and travel to scientific conferences Applications due February 15, 2024. neuroprep.wustle.edu Washington University in St. Louis logo at the bottom.

WashU Neuroprep is now accepting applications! this 2yr postbacc program is geared toward individuals who had limited opportunity for research experience as undergrads to prepare for graduate training in neuroscience. apps due 2/16/24! neuroprep.wustl.edu

Now available at Nature Communications!

When do adolescents reach adult levels of executive function? We used FOUR independent datasets (N>10,000), behavioral data from 17 distinct EF tasks, and nonlinear modeling to address this and related questions.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Brainnetome provides an atlas for this sort of striatal parcellation (not sure how good it is as I haven’t used it yet)