Peter Kirk
@peterakirk.bsky.social
740 followers 620 following 47 posts
Neuroscientist & Psychologist at the NIH | Emotional Disorders, Naturalistic Neuroimaging, Psychophysiology, Development | Dancehall & 🏂 | Disclaimer: all views/posts are my own.
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Reposted by Peter Kirk
gangchen6.bsky.social
Data only shows associations. Turning those into claims about mechanism or causation? That requires a Rosetta Stone of prior knowledge + theory. Resting-state fMRI is purely observational; correlation is its currency. From this, plenty of "theoretical toys" about brain function can be built...
biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social
Resting-State fMRI and the Risk of Overinterpretation: Noise, Mechanisms, and a Missing Rosetta Stone https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676611v1
peterakirk.bsky.social
This is amazing work Sarah, super interesting!
peterakirk.bsky.social
Agreed! I'm often excited about cool, emerging fMRI methods which promise a lot. I've preregistered their use with high hopes and things fall flat. Post-hoc, the old methods turn out more sensitive. Obviously there are lots of factors, but it's made me quite hesitant without repeated validation.
Reposted by Peter Kirk
imagingneurosci.bsky.social
Launched in 2023, Imaging Neuroscience is now firmly established, with full indexing (PubMed, etc.) and 700 papers to date.

We're very happy to announce that we are able to reduce the APC to $1400.

Huge thanks to all authors, reviewers, editorial team+board, and MIT Press.
peterakirk.bsky.social
We had two preprints approved in August (these were submitted in May & July). However, since approval, the web pages are no longer available (e.g., osf.io/byu7f_v1). Is this expected?
peterakirk.bsky.social
Could be worse: my citation count went down by 2 the other day. Didn't realize that was possible -_-
Reposted by Peter Kirk
loiclabache.bsky.social
Excited to share that our work is now published in Imaging Neuroscience! 🧠🥳
We show how aging reshapes the brain’s language and memory networks, revealing striking shifts in hemispheric specialization across the lifespan.
Check it out @imagingneurosci.bsky.social
imagingneurosci.bsky.social
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by Elise Roger, Gaelle E. Doucet, et al:

When age tips the balance: A dual mechanism affecting hemispheric specialization for language

doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
peterakirk.bsky.social
A great week of meetings and presenting in Melbourne, including a visit to @orygen.org.au hosted by @sidchop.bsky.social & Lianne Schmaal. Now off to Brisbane for #OHBM2025. I'll be presenting Tuesday and Wednesday, 9am in the Great Hall both days :)
peterakirk.bsky.social
Social anxiety may be related to physical avoidance of aversive stimuli in an interactive game. Our latest study, led by @purnimaqamar.bsky.social. osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Peter Kirk
peterakirk.bsky.social
Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).
peterakirk.bsky.social
Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).
peterakirk.bsky.social
Would advise against wrist-worn wearables for heart rate, they're VERY prone to noise. Ideally ECG, but even finger pulseox would be superior. Done this stuff a lot with movies and am happy to chat more.
Reposted by Peter Kirk
loiclabache.bsky.social
🚨 New #preprint: The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization

🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

🧠 We identify an acetylcholine-norepinephrine axis underlying functional lateralization, along with mitochondrial and cellular correlates. 🧵1/9👇

#neuroskyence
The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization
Hemispheric specialization is a fundamental characteristic of human brain organization, where most individuals exhibit left-hemisphere dominance for language and right-hemisphere dominance for visuosp...
doi.org
Reposted by Peter Kirk
avramholmes.bsky.social
"To make a meaningful contribution to #neuroscience, #fMRI must break out of its silo."

My latest attempt to convince you of the importance of multi-scale approaches for the study of the human brain.
thetransmitter.bsky.social
Until recently, in-vivo brain imaging has largely been absent from… integrative efforts, limiting the opportunities to contribute our discoveries, theories or vision toward a comprehensive view of brain function, writes @avramholmes.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/future-of-fm...
fMRI must break out of its silo
We need to develop research programs that link phenomena across levels, from genes and molecules to cells, circuits, networks and behavior.
www.thetransmitter.org
peterakirk.bsky.social
This looks awesome! The OSF link doesn't seem to be working at the moment though.
Reposted by Peter Kirk
leahbanellis.bsky.social
Is interoceptive sensing unified across internal organs? 🫀🫁 Our high-powered psychophysical study (N=241) suggests not. Bayesian evidence indicates interoceptive processes are largely modality-specific—challenging the idea of a unitary interoceptive sense.
🔗 Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
peterakirk.bsky.social
My impression is that this is especially problematic in the psychological therapy world, both public and private spheres. Many new therapies are just rebranded CBT but require a $15k training fee to be licensed.
peterakirk.bsky.social
Our report on "The Relations Among Anxiety, Movie-Watching, and In-Scanner Motion" is out now in Human Brain Mapping. In short: even anxiety-evoking movies reduce pediatric in-scanner movement compared to 'rest', highlighting its benefit for developmental neuroimaging. doi.org/10.1002/hbm....