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Yuchao Wang

@itsyuchao.bsky.social

88 followers 380 following 17 posts

PhD-ing @Duke | motor control, cortico-subcortical dynamics, pathophysiology | open science | DPT @MGHInstitute | BA @Haverford

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

🚨 New paper alert!
Excited to share our latest work in Movement Disorders:
“Somato-Cognitive Action Network in Focal Dystonia”
👉 doi.org/10.1002/mds....

We found asynchrony between SCAN and cerebellum in different dystonia subtypes. Thread below.
#dystonia #fMRI #PrecisionFunctionalMapping #neuro

Somato‐Cognitive Action Network in Focal Dystonia

Background The central pathology causing idiopathic focal dystonia remains unclear. The recently identified somato-cognitive action network (SCAN) has been implicated. Objective We tested whether ...

doi.org

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Marcus Kaiser @connectomelab.bsky.social · 1d

Join us as PhD student using noninvasive ultrasound neuromodulation on the project 'Reducing pain reactivity for children in the Emergency Department using non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation'

Find more information at midlandsmhndtp.ac.uk/applications...

#ultrasound #neuromodulation #Zenbud

2026 Projects - Midlands Mental Health and Neurosciences PhD Programme

midlandsmhndtp.ac.uk

Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · 13d

wow what a location 🇪🇸

Andreas Horn @andreashorn.org · 13d

Still a bit but save the date!
I am excited to be co-organizing so will certainly be there, as well!

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Wolf-Julian Neumann @julianneumann.bsky.social · 14d

New paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering by @timonmerk.bsky.social !

We built a platform that unites AI-based brain signal decoding with connectomics across 123 hours of recordings from 73 patients. A step toward adaptive, network-level neurotechnology.

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

Invasive neurophysiology and whole brain connectomics for neural decoding in patients with brain implants - Nature Biomedical Engineering

A modularized open-source pipeline for invasive brain signal decoding bridges the gap between closed-loop neuromodulation and clinical brain–computer interface approaches in a large patient cohort.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Michael Okun @michaelokun.bsky.social · 14d

Check out this paper that unlocked the human brain networks behind tics. The research team recorded signals during tic and tic-free states revealing the rhythms that seem to drive tic generation. What was cool was that all participants had brain leads placed into two different regions.

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Cogan Lab @coganlab.bsky.social · 28d

Coming to DC for SNL later this week?

Come check out our posters on speech decoding and verbal working memory using intracranial recordings!

@snlmtg.bsky.social
#SNL2025

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · 26d

That’s me! See y’all there!

Cogan Lab @coganlab.bsky.social · 28d

Friday Sept 12 4:30pm-6:00pm, Poster Session B

B70: Yuchao Wang (Rotation CNAP PhD Student) will be presenting his work on auditory pseudoword decoding in the hippocampus.

Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

tagging a few on bluesky who might be interested - hope that's alright!
@michaelokun.bsky.social @andreashorn.org @bttyeo.bsky.social @julianneumann.bsky.social @ndosenbach.bsky.social

Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

Huge thanks to my amazing co-authors, my DPT mentor Teresa Kimberley, and to the participants who made this research possible. 🙏
(4/4)

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

In short:
🔹 SCAN appears central to focal dystonia, beyond affected body parts
🔹 Inspires a network-level target for new therapies
🔹 May help explain “task specificity” in dystonia symptoms
(3/4)

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

We tested #SCAN - a recently identified M1 subregion linking cognitive intention to motor execution.

By individualizing cortical networks using both task and rest fMRI, we found shared functional connectivity changes that may inform #pathophysiology and #treatment targeting.
(2/4)

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

Focal dystonia disrupts skilled tasks like speaking, writing, playing music.

But the central pathology has been unclear: is it effector-specific (hand vs larynx) or is there a shared brain network mechanism?
(1/4)

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 28

Somato‐Cognitive Action Network in Focal Dystonia

Background The central pathology causing idiopathic focal dystonia remains unclear. The recently identified somato-cognitive action network (SCAN) has been implicated. Objective We tested whether ...

doi.org

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 21

fascinating!

Hunter Schone @hunterschone.bsky.social · Aug 21

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 12

Cool! Really interesting contrast with PD and between cervical vs focal hand dystonia. Task specificity may play a role?

Kara Johnson, PhD @karaannjohnson.bsky.social · Aug 11

Preprint 🚨 Could ERNA be a potential biomarker to guide pallidal DBS for dystonia? We investigated in a small cohort (N=8 patients) and found ERNA predicted the therapeutic contact with ~90% accuracy, and ERNA frequency may be related to alpha power + cervical dystonia severity. Read more here:

Pallidal evoked resonant neural activity as a biomarker for deep brain stimulation in dystonia

Background Deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeted to the globus pallidus (GP) can effectively alleviate dystonia symptoms. However, identifying optimal therapeutic stimulation parameters is challenging...

www.medrxiv.org

Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Aug 5

impressive work!

Rodrigo Braga @rodbraga.bsky.social · Aug 5

🚨 New Preprint 🚨

Targeting intracranial electrical stimulation (ES) to network regions defined within individuals causes network-level effects

By Cyr et al.

***
Q: Can we use individualized network maps from precision fMRI to modulate a targeted network via intracranial ES?

A: Yes!

🧵:

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Juan Gallego @juangallego.bsky.social · Aug 1

🚨New paper🚨

Neural manifolds went from a niche-y word to an ubiquitous term in systems neuro thanks to many interesting findings across fields. But like with any emerging term, people use it very differently.

Here, we clarify our take on the term, and review key findings & challenges rdcu.be/ex8hW

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Alexander Huth @alexanderhuth.bsky.social · Aug 1

New paper with @mujianing.bsky.social & @prestonlab.bsky.social! We propose a simple model for human memory of narratives: we uniformly sample incoming information at a constant rate. This explains behavioral data much better than variable-rate sampling triggered by event segmentation or surprisal.

bioRxiv Neuroscience @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · Aug 1

Efficient uniform sampling explains non-uniform memory of narrative stories https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.31.667952v1

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Apr 13

been looking forward to this since the initial paper - seems to nicely cover the CB-thalamo-cortical pathway with fMRI. congrats!

Roselyne Chauvin @roselynechauvin.bsky.social · Apr 12

In our newly published article at @cp-cellreports.bsky.social
we now show massive motor plasticity effects in subcortex.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Disuse-driven plasticity in the human thalamus and putamen

Subcortical plasticity has mainly been studied using invasive electrophysiology in animals. Here, we leverage precision functional mapping (PFM) to st…

www.sciencedirect.com

Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Apr 4

this looks so cool 📍

Hugo Spiers @hugospiers.bsky.social · Apr 4

Wow!

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

Human high-order thalamic nuclei gate conscious perception through the thalamofrontal loop

Human high-order thalamic nuclei activity is known to closely correlate with conscious states. However, it is not clear how those thalamic nuclei and thalamocortical interactions directly contribute t...

www.science.org

Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Simon W Davis @woodforbrains.bsky.social · Mar 27

Hey everybody! #CNS2025 bleepstorm incoming! 9 POSTERS!

I work with an amazing group of scientists, celebrating them this weekend in Boston is makes me so excited and hopeful (and I usually abhor the use exclamation points!)

(All posters available on the lab website): mnemology.org/conferences/...

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Thomas Yeo @bttyeo.bsky.social · Mar 26

Updated preprint for those who might be interested: doi.org/10.1101/2024...

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

The Viking (Gunnar Blohm) @gunnarblohm.bsky.social · Feb 24

📢 LAST WEEK TO APPLY FOR THIS! Don't miss out
👇👇👇

Konrad Kording @kordinglab.bsky.social · Jan 21

Announcing a new week-long program for young computational neuroscience/ behavior professors to talk about rigorous science, mentoring, lab management, and networking in a stunning retreat setting. Do great science as a community and have fun doing so.

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Reposted by Yuchao Wang

Grace Lindsay @neurograce.bsky.social · Feb 24

If you're a good school applicant who has been impacted by the funding freezes, you can fill out this form to help publicize your story: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Yuchao Wang @itsyuchao.bsky.social · Feb 24

For the first time to our knowledge, we tested the role of SCAN in focal dystonia, which can affect different body parts (see Gordon et al, 2023; Butenko et al, 2025).
I'd like to thank all the co-authors, especially Dr. Teresa Kimberley for her mentorship!
🗒️Comments welcome!