Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · 19d

Oxford is great

2

Reposted by Austin Benn

Matt Kirkcaldie @matttkk.bsky.social · Aug 22

This delights me for some reason - a comparative anatomical framework for the brains of 26 carnivore species!

Marc L Seal @parkvillegeek.bsky.social · Aug 22

Comparative neuroimaging of the carnivoran brain: Neocortical sulcal anatomy | bioRxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

2 2 9

Reposted by Austin Benn

katja heuer @k4tj4.bsky.social · Jul 27

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...

15 230 500

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jul 10

Fitting title for tonight 🥵

Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · Jul 10

Hot Summer Nights the new album by the Natural Philosophers is out now.
If you would like to help:

Stream it a few times
Post reply mentioning a track you like by name.

Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/0Tju52...
Apple Music
music.apple.com/us/album/hot...
Soundcloud
soundcloud.com/npwa/sets/ho...

1 2

Reposted by Austin Benn

Marc L Seal @parkvillegeek.bsky.social · Jul 10

ping @r3rt0.bsky.social

Cross-species neuroanatomy in primates using tractography | Brain Structure and Function link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cross-species neuroanatomy in primates using tractography - Brain Structure and Function

Due to their integrative role in brain function, long-range white matter connections exhibit high individual variability, giving rise to personalised brain circuits. This neurovariability is more evid...

link.springer.com

2 4

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jul 2

No no. That’s perfect

1

Reposted by Austin Benn

Nature @nature.com · Jun 16

A US judge has ordered hundreds of terminated research projects at the US National Institutes of Health to be reinstated, calling the processes that led to their cancellation “bereft of reasoning”.

https://go.nature.com/4kOmXDy

Judge rules against NIH grant cuts — and calls them discriminatory

The decision means that the US biomedical agency has to restore funding to hundreds of research projects, but the government will likely appeal.

go.nature.com

2 100 320

Reposted by Austin Benn

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · Jun 16

Explore our Mentorship Directory to discover mentorship opportunities from prominent organizations, and build your neuroscience network: www.thetransmitter.org/mentorship-d...

#neuroskyence

Neuroscience Mentorship Program Directory

Discover neuroscience mentorship opportunities through this living directory, connecting mentors and mentees at all stages of their careers.

www.thetransmitter.org

1 4 6

Reposted by Austin Benn

Zejin Lu @zejinlu.bsky.social · Jun 6

Now out in Nature Human Behaviour @nathumbehav.nature.com : “End-to-end topographic networks as models of cortical map formation and human visual behaviour”. Please check our NHB link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

4 21 52

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 7

I forgot for a half second we had raccoons in there 😅. either way have fun with making non-standard surfaces!

2

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 7

Let me know if you run into any problems on the way! Happy to help get things set up or debugged at any stage!

1

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 7

Oooh sounds fun! Do reach out if you run into any trouble running anything! Happy to provide precon_all support and possibly just very interested in also seeing a raccoon brain!

1

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Special shout out to those not on bluesky including Eugene Duff, Borja Ibañez, and where it all started with 🐷's at the Centro Nacional Investigaciones Cardiovascualres in Madrid. And finally if you made it this far I'll confess... no it doesn't work in 🐭... yet 10/10

2

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Finally, this project couldn’t have been done without the support and help of my amazing collaborators including @tingsterx.bsky.social @neuroecologylab.bsky.social @magdalenaboch.bsky.social @josepemanzano.bsky.social @k4tj4.bsky.social @r3rt0.bsky.social. 9/10

1 5

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

For all the details check out our preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... , or better yet, run it yourself, the code is here: github.com/neurabenn/pr.... 8/10

GitHub - neurabenn/precon_all: precon_all surface pipline

precon_all surface pipline. Contribute to neurabenn/precon_all development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

1 1 3

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Then use precon_all to automate the cortical surface reconstruction for you! Better yet, create a surface template for spatial normalization using your unique species data 7/10

1 3

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

All of this means that precon_all can give you a cortical surface in a semi-automated manner for a species you’ve never seen before. But what if you’ve seen one species a lot… too much perhaps? 6/10

1 3

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

What if it fails though (And let's be honest, it might sometimes)? Then you edit as if it were a human brain in Freesurfer and rerun the filling and tessellation steps. 5/10

1 3

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

What do you need to run precon_all? First you need a T1, or an image with T1 like contrast. Then you need to provide a user defined brain mask, two hemisphere masks, a “noncortical” mask which removes anything you don’t want included, and a “subcortical” mask which fills in the subcortex. 4/10

1 2

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Its design models Freesurfer, including built in modularity for separated brain extraction, segmentation, and filling and tessellation. If you've run Freesurfer for your human data then the output and interface should hopefully be a seamless experience 3/10

1 1 2

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Precon_all simplifies the creation of cortical surfaces for comparative neuroanatomy. But how? We created a unified processing pipeline from image to cortical surface combining FSL, Connectome Workbench, Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTS), and of course… Freesurfer! 2/10

1 2

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Precon_all is finally citeable! I’m relieved, pleased, thrilled and all other superlatives to present to you our preprint describing the inner workings of the precon_all pipeline for semi-automated non-human cortical surface reconstruction! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/10

4 19 57

Austin Benn @neurabenn.bsky.social · Jun 6

Reread the preprint yesterday and can’t help but think I prefer the original title! Congrats to the team though this is a really fantastic approach

Nature Methods @natmethods.nature.com · Jun 5

Introducing the Krakencoder: a tool to translate between structural and functional connectivity in the brain, as applied to data from the Human Connectome Project.

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

Reposted by Austin Benn

Oxford University Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (OxCIN) @oxcin.bsky.social · May 26

The OxCIN Global Scholars programme offers a year of remote MRI training and collaboration for early-career researchers from the Global South. Apply by June 30th to join the 2025/26 cohort. Please repost!
www.oxcin.ox.ac.uk/about/traini...

5 7

Reposted by Austin Benn

Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · May 20

When a Decision on Manuscript email arrives a minute before you go out to celebrate your birthday

3 12 95