Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · 9d

⬇️ Check out this great paper by Jingnan Du et al. It shows you can use fMRI task data to estimate networks as reliably as with rest data! A game changer to increase statistical power in regions with low SNR and leverage datasets that may only have task data.

Jingnan Du @jingnandu.bsky.social · 12d

Our new paper is out now in Neuron! 🎉 With @vaibhavtripathi.bsky.social @maxwellelliott.bsky.social Joanna Ladopoulou, Wendy Sun, Mark Eldaief, and Randy Buckner

Paper link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

📸 Bonus: A snapshot of three Center for Brain Recovery alumni — each from a different era — all in one photo! With the wonderful Brandi BeCoats. (@swathikiran.bsky.social)

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

Special thanks to Sofia Vallila Rohter for being such a generous, thoughtful, and inspiring mentor.
💡For any student reading this: build your network of mentors early on by applying to the programs offered at your university/conferences/societies. It will be invaluable help in the future.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

Huge thanks to The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) for organizing such a thoughtful and practical career development program. I highly recommend the Pathways program to anyone at the PhD, postdoc, or early career investigator stage in CSD research!

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

The past two days were a powerful reminder of that — filled with insightful conversations with mentors, joyful reunions with old friends, and the excitement of meeting new inspiring colleagues.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

Amid the current challenges we’re all facing as scientists, one thing keeps me grounded and hopeful: the incredible humans who show up for each other.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Jun 14

Very excited to see this great team work on semantic therapy in a trilingual individual with aphasia published! Open access article available in the link below 👇

Claudia Peñaloza @claudiapenaloza.bsky.social · Jun 13

Proud of our recent work reporting on the effects of semantic therapy sequentially provided to a trilingual person with aphasia in her three languages (French, Spanish and English) #aphasia #multilingualism #linguistics #slpeeps 1/6

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cross-language interaction during sequential anomia treatment in three languages: Evidence from a trilingual person with aphasia

Language rehabilitation research has reported mixed evidence in bilinguals with aphasia suggesting that therapy can benefit the treated language alone…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Mar 30

At #CNS2025 and interested in whether and how we can dissociate higher-order cognitive functions within DLPFC at the individual level with precision fMRI? 🧐 Let’s chat at my poster B42 tomorrow from 8 to 10 am! 🧠
This work is also relevant for anyone doing TMS targeting the DLPFC in patients! 🧲⚡️

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Reposted by Anne Billot, PhD

Konrad Kording @kordinglab.bsky.social · Feb 5

I know this site only reaches a subset of neuro/ cog professors. If you know a young professor in the area who would benefit from a week of targeted learning about doing good science, good mentoring, networking etc, it would be great if you could forward them: compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...

Neuro4Pros summer school

NeUroscience Computational LEAdership Retreat (NUCLEAR): happiness and success

compneurosci.com

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Reposted by Anne Billot, PhD

Ev Fedorenko @evfedorenko.bsky.social · Feb 5

Our language neuroscience lab (evlab.mit.edu) is looking for a new lab manager/FT RA to start in the summer. Apply here: tinyurl.com/3r346k66 We'll start reviewing apps in early Mar. (Unfortunately, MIT does not sponsor visas for these positions, but OPT works.)

EvLab

Our research aims to understand how the language system works and how it fits into the broader landscape of the human mind and brain.

evlab.mit.edu

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Reposted by Anne Billot, PhD

Jeanne Gallée, PhD CCC-SLP @jgallee.bsky.social · Jan 31

A tremendous endeavor: sign up today! I am very much looking forward to being in the virtual audience!

Primary Progressive Aphasia Awareness @ppaphasiaawareness.bsky.social · Jan 31

Announcing the launch of the 1st ever Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) awareness day 4th April 2025!

Webinar sign up: speechtherapyppa.com/ppa-awarenes...

Follow for updates:
@ppaphasiaawareness.bsky.social
@annavolkmer.bsky.social
@rosemary-townsend.bsky.social

#PPAawareness

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Reposted by Anne Billot, PhD

Swathi Kiran@Center for Brain Recovery at BU @swathikiran.bsky.social · Jan 27

TODAY CBR Seminar Series featuring Sofia Vallila Rohter
WHEN: Monday, January 27th
4:00pm-5:00pm EST
WHERE: 111 Cummington Mall Suite 280 OR on Zoom: bostonu.zoom.us/meet...

#brainhealth #brainresearch #rehabilitation #aphasia 🧠

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 31

Thanks for sharing, Claudia!

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

7/ In sum, this study underscores the importance of individual-level functional localization in characterizing age-related differences among adjacent networks and highlights the need for more nuanced models of brain aging that consider the distinct trajectories of brain networks.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

6/ These findings challenge the idea of uniform brain aging, showing different networks age at different rates. Functions that decline with age show neural changes, while functions that are well preserved (e.g., language comprehension) show stable neural activity patterns.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

5/ In addition, the language-selective and MD networks remain robustly dissociated with age, maintain strong within-network synchronization and minimal between-network synchronization, and do not show increased overlap in their activation patterns.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

4/ In contrast, the language network remained remarkably stable in older adults. It responded to language as strongly and selectively as in younger adults, with no changes in lateralization or internal synchronization.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

3/ Results showed significant changes in the MD network: weaker activation during a working memory task and reduced within-network synchronization, consistent with the decline in executive functions in older adults.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

2/ Using precision fMRI and robust localizers, we compared two key networks in young adults (YA, n=470, 19-39 years old; average=27.8) and two cohorts of older adults (OA, n=77, age range: 40-80; average=57.9): the MD network & the language-selective network.

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

1/ In this study, we show #aging affects brain networks differently. While the Multiple Demand (MD) network, supporting executive functions, shows age-related decline, the language network (which supports comprehension and production) remains stable. Let’s dive into the findings! 🧠👇

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 25

[NEW PREPRINT!] The language network ages well!
biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Co-led with Niharika Jhingan, in collaboration with @evfedorenko.bsky.social, @swathikiran.bsky.social, Maria Varkanitsa, @ryskin.bsky.social & Idan Blank.
🧵 Details 👇

The language network ages well: Preserved selectivity, lateralization, and within-network functional synchronization in older brains

Healthy aging is associated with structural and functional brain changes. However, cognitive abilities differ from one another in how they change with age: whereas executive functions, like working me...

biorxiv.org

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 27

Thanks @claudiapenaloza.bsky.social !
Looking forward to interacting with scientists and clinicians here! It was great to reconnect with and meet new colleagues at SNL in Marseille! Let’s keep the fun and inspiring discussions going here 🧠🙌

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Anne Billot, PhD @annebillot.bsky.social · Oct 24

First post here 🚀 after the first day of #SNL2023 in Marseille! A dynamic blend of honoring the past’s breakthroughs that led us to better understand the neural basis of language processing + forging a visionary path forward inspired by different methods (e.g, LLM) + 🥐. Excited for what's next!

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Reposted by Anne Billot, PhD

Cory Shain @coryshain.bsky.social · Oct 19

👋Hi #bsky! Just wanted to let everyone know I'll be arriving at #Stanford in fall of 2024 and I'm looking for awesome people to help me figure out language. I'm new here my network is small, so RTs would be great! 🧵👇

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