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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

Agreed! Which is why choosing appropriate control cohorts and comparison groups is such an important step to do before declaring that any finding a specific to your “syndrome/symptom” of interest.

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

8️⃣ Shout-out to our first author Juliana Wall, whose outstanding work brings clarity and rigor to complex neuroimaging data! 👏

9️⃣ We’re grateful to our colleagues, the many patients we partner with, and the Child Neurology Society community—advancing research together to develop new therapies!

Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

7️⃣ So what’s next?
We're looking for clues in how stimulant medications used in ADHD alter brain networks in individual patients to generate new focused neuromodulatory therapies!

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

6️⃣ Yet, amidst uncertainty, the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) robustly stood out as a region implicated beyond chance and converging with parallel evidence of anatomical changes. This may hint at a critical neural target.

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

5️⃣ BUT—crucially—our analyses also found this network pattern was similar to that seen across psychiatric disorders, and that these patterns are similar to what you’d see with randomly chosen brain coordinates!
Meaning: Caution is needed before concluding specificity in coordinate mapping studies.

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

4️⃣ Indeed, we found scattered locations consistently mapped onto brain networks associated with reward processing and cognitive control (Cingulo-Opercular network).

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

3️⃣ Using Coordinate Network Mapping, we asked a new question: could these scattered brain locations converge on common brain networks—even if exact coordinates differ?

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

2️⃣ Why this study?
Do brain imaging studies on anatomical changes in ADHD consistently identify the same brain regions? Surprisingly, our meta-analysis of 38 studies found minimal spatial agreement across studies.

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jun 17

Thrilled our ADHD network mapping work is now out in Annals of the Child Neurology Society, and honored to be featured on the cover!
🔗 Full article: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@childneurosoc.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @simonwarfield.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social

Coordinate Network Mapping of Focal Brain Volume Differences in ADHD Reveals Common Patterns That Lack Specificity: A Systematic Review

Objective Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with decreased regional brain volume, yet no consistent localization has emerged across studies. This discrepancy has be...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Susanne Ahmari @ahmarilab.bsky.social · May 21

🗣️Non-federal funding alert!!! Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) has a new RFA to join their IMPACT Network, a clinical-translational research effort to accelerate care for people across the spectrum by enabling rapid therapeutic development. Up to $15 million over 5 years.

bit.ly/3YRYMv3

Innovative Medicine and Precision Approaches to Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Network - GMMB-Aria: Production

bit.ly

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Apr 24

Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA) aims to speed up the route from basic research to treatments for profound autism. Scientific director Matthew State shared more about the initiative’s goals and upcoming RFAs in a Q&A with @lauschenk.bsky.social.

www.thetransmitter.org/spectrum/exp...

Expediting clinical trials for profound autism: Q&A with Matthew State

Aligning Research to Impact Autism, a new initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, wants to bring basic science discoveries to the clinic faster.

www.thetransmitter.org

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Apr 30

We are looking to hire a Senior Data Manager for a new initiative focused on neurodevelopmental conditions for which @bostonchildrens.bsky.social will serve as the admin hub. Please feel free to share!

jobs.bostonchildrens.org/job/21859461...

Computational Health Informatics Data Manager II-Neuro

Careers at Boston Children’s Hospital will help you reach your goals – both in and out of the workplace.

jobs.bostonchildrens.org

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Mar 4

The Cohen Lab of Translational Neuroimaging is looking to hire a bioinformatics and research data scientist to help accelerate our research and develop new analysis tools! @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @braincircuits.bsky.social

Please consider applying or sharing!
jobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...

Biomedical Informatics Research Data Scientist I- - Boston Childrens Hospital - Job Details

Job Details: Our mission is to identify the brain circuits responsible for symptoms common in autism and other neurodevelop

jobs.brassring.com

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Isaiah Kletenik @isaiahneuro.bsky.social · Feb 13

Amazing work by Julian Kutsche and the many other collaborators. @drdrxanderli.bsky.social
@andreashorn.org @harvardmed.bsky.social

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Isaiah Kletenik @isaiahneuro.bsky.social · Feb 13

Reduced function or injury to the frontal pole may increase creativity by disengaging the self-monitoring & cognitive control actions of the frontal pole to allow novelty seeking & creativity to be unleashed. @braincircuits.bsky.social @foxmdphd.bsky.social @julianneumann.bsky.social

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Isaiah Kletenik @isaiahneuro.bsky.social · Feb 13

How can a brain disease increase creativity? We derive a brain circuit from creative tasks demonstrating they share reduced activity in the right frontal pole. Then we show that brain lesions & neurodegeneration that increase creativity are connected to this location
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Mapping Neuroimaging Findings of Creativity and Brain Disease

This study using network mapping of meta-analytic data investigates whether creativity maps to a specific brain circuit and whether damage to that circuit aligns with creativity changes observed in pe...

jamanetwork.com

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jan 31

Great article on how methods ALWAYS frame the question more than you think…

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

The LAB Lab 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @thelablab.bsky.social · Jan 31

🗣️ Language is widely distributed throughout the brain 🧠

In a recent correspondence in @natrevneurosci.bsky.social, we suggest that there is no 'language network' in the brain. What appears as such is an inevitable illusion created in part by the methods we use.

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

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Jan 7

Excellent resource!!!

Only In Boston @onlyinbos.bsky.social · Jan 7

MIT's Career Advising and Professional Development Office has created a Career Handbook, a guide for developing the knowledge and skills you’ll need throughout your career.

Download the handbook in the link below.

capd.mit.edu/resources/ca...

Career Handbook

Here it is: your starter guide for developing the knowledge and skills you’ll need throughout your career. Compiled by our expert staff, here’s what this handbook covers:Overview of the…

capd.mit.edu

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Dec 5

I would have titled this: “Shining a light on the black hole: Look you can see activations in orbitofrontal cortex now!”

Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · Dec 4

New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Ludwig Sichen Zhao, Jay A. Gottfried, et al:

Leveraging multi-echo EPI to enhance BOLD sensitivity in task-based olfactory fMRI

doi.org/10.1162/imag...

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Alexander Li Cohen @drdrxanderli.bsky.social · Dec 4

Completely agree.

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Dec 3

It’s really heart breaking to realize just how much our short horizon, outcome focused funding cycles hurt science. We could do so much more if we could invest in people long term. Staff scientist positions and an ecosystem to support them are direly needed.

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Arielle Keller @ariellekeller.bsky.social · Dec 2

This is wild! What a cool idea and set of approaches.

#neuroimaging #neuroskyence

Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · Dec 2

#Neuroimaging crowd, hear me out! 👀
Did you ever want to add #EyeTracking to your #fMRI study but found it too much hassle? Got existing data you’d love to add eye tracking to?

Consider trying out *MR-based eye tracking* (i.e. inferring gaze from eye voxels)!

Here is a 🧵 with a few options!👇 1/9

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · Nov 29

I think there is a way to do exploratory research very rigorously. Just use full transparency. Publish the entire github history for the analysis chain, nits, zits, and all. And of course, focus more on the strength of evidence than posthoc narrative building.

Mary Elizabeth Sutherland @meharpist.bsky.social · Nov 28

I really enjoyed reading this world view in Nature about the importance of exploratory research in the social sciences by @balazsaczel.bsky.social and am wondering what people think. Do you generally agree with his point? 🧪@natureportfolio.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Let the data talk: embrace exploratory research

Open-ended research is essential to building solid hypotheses in the social sciences — without it, even the best-planned analyses can fail.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Robert leech @leechbrain.bsky.social · Nov 29

The work incorporating optimisation to guide experiment design/analysis is also a way to do rigorous exploratory research. E.g.,

www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

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

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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Reposted by Alexander Li Cohen

Prof. Feynman @proffeynman.bsky.social · Nov 29

Students don't need a perfect teacher. Students need a happy teacher, who's gonna make them excited to come to school and grow a love for learning.

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