Neurosalience

In this episode of the OHBM Neurosalience Podcast, host Peter Bandettini sits down with Dr. Simon Eickhoff, a leading clinician-scientist in brain mapping. As a panelist at the 2024 OHBM meeting in Seoul, Dr. Eickhoff brought fascinating insights—this conversation picks up where that discussion left off.Dr. Eickhoff, a professor and director at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf and Forschungszentrum Jülich, works at the crossroads of neuroanatomy, data science, and brain medicine. His research focuses on understanding individual differences in brain organization, aging, and psychiatric disorders using machine learning and large-scale neuroimaging analysis.Topics include: - The challenges of deriving biomarkers and using fMRI in clinical settings - His experience leading the journal Human Brain Mapping & the evolving publishing landscape - The role of AI in psychiatry and the future of precision medicineJoin us for a deep dive into the innovations and challenges shaping neuroscience and brain imaging today!Episode ProducersXuqian Michelle LiOmer Faruk Gulban

This episode features Dr. Sepideh Sadaghiani directing the CONNECTlab at Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Sadaghiani’s lab explores large-scale brain networks, focusing on cognitive control, attention, and spontaneous neural activity. Using fMRI, EEG, and genetics, they uncover how brain connectivity shapes perception and behavior. Tune in for cutting-edge insights into the brain’s dynamic communication.

Episode Producers

Omer Faruk Gulban

Karthik Sama

This episode features Prof. Mac Shine from the University of Sydney. Mac is a systems neurobiologist interested in understanding how neurobiology supports awareness and flexible, parallel behavior. This engaging conversation between Peter and Mac offers takeaways for neuroscience from the study of other complex systems, such as weather patterns. It further explores how principles from fluid dynamics could inspire ways to rethink brain states and interpret fMRI data. The discussion also highlights the inherently interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience and emphasizes the crucial role of communication between its subfields as the field navigates these exciting times. For more details check out the episode!

We hope you enjoy it!

Episode Producers

Alfie Wearn

Karthik Sama

Join Peter Bandettini as he sits down with Seiji Ogawa, the visionary scientist behind the discovery of BOLD (blood oxygenation level-dependent) contrast fMRI. In this insightful conversation, Dr. Ogawa reflects on his groundbreaking work, the evolution of neuroimaging, and the challenges of translating fMRI into clinical practice.

Our guest today is Dr. Vesa Kiviniemi, a radiologist and researcher at Oulu University in Finland.

Dr. Kiviniemi’s recent focus has been on using an extremely high-speed MRI technique called MREG. This technique allows for the collection of an entire volume of data with a TR of just 100 milliseconds, using a stack-of-spirals approach. The reason he values this technique so much is that it enables him to examine various types of brain pulsations, including cardiac and respiratory pulsations, as well as what he refers to as glymphatic or CSF pulsations.

In this episode, Dr. Kiviniemi explores how he has applied this technique in his research. He also discusses the history of our understanding of the glymphatic system, its potential functions, the many unknowns surrounding it, and the opportunities it presents for future research. Among other topics, he explains why using this high-speed technique might complement—or in some cases even be better than—slower approaches in certain ways.

We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Episode producers:

Xuqian Michelle Li

Omer Faruk Gulban

This episode is unique in the sense that it’s actually a talk Peter gave during the OHBM 2024 meeting, specifically during the education session on communicating science.

Peter wanted to share this talk because it focuses on the podcast and his own approach to creating it. He discusses his philosophy, heuristics, what he considers important about podcasting, and why he enjoys doing it. The talk emphasizes the value of conversation and explains how the podcast showcases the human side of scientific investigators and the stories behind their research.

We hope you enjoy it!

Episode producers:

Omer Faruk Gulban

Xuqian Michelle Li

In this episode, Peter Bandettini interviews Matthew Cobb (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Cobb), the author of the book “The idea of the brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience”.

Episode producers:

Omer Faruk Gulban

Alfie Wearn

Our guest is today is Dr. Alan Evans. He completed his Ph.D. (1979) and post-doctoral fellowship studying structure-function interaction of proteins at the Department of Biophysics at Leeds University in the U.K.  Subsequently he worked for five years as a PET physicist at Atomic Energy of Canada in Ottawa.

In 1984, he joined the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, where his research interests include multimodal brain imaging with PET and MRI, structural network modelling, and large scale neural informatics.

For the past 40 years, he has been an institution at McGill University. He is the co-director of the Ludmer Centre and He is currently Co-Director of both the Ludmer Centre for Neuroinformatics and Mental Health and the Helmholtz International BigBrain Analytics Learning Laboratory (HIBBALL). He is Scientific Director of McGill’s “Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives” (HBHL) , and Scientific Director of the Canadian Open Neuroscience Platform (CONP). The technical infrastructure underpinning CONP includes a multi-modal databasing system (LORIS)  and an international grid-processing portal (CBRAIN) both developed in Prof. Evan’s MCIN lab. These platforms also support international brain networks, notably the Canada-China-Cuba Axis and the Global Brain Consortium, both co-chaired by Prof. Evans. Furthermore, he was named the Victor Dahdaleh Chair in Neurosciences in October of 2022.

Episode producers

Xugian Michelle Li

Nagashree Thovinakere

Today our guest is Dr. Angie Laird, who trained as an imaging physicist, but has evolved into a cognitive neuroscientist and a true pioneer in meta-analysis of fMRI data. Dr. Laird has spent the bulk of her career developing novel data analysis algorithms, neuroscience informatics tools, and neuroimaging ontologies to yield analytic strategies for improving investigations into functional brain networks of healthy individuals as well as in populations with psychiatric and neurologic diseases and disorders. Early on she has seen the untapped value in meta-analysis, and has fostered growth in this fundamentally important area in functional brain imaging.

Dr. Laird received her B.S. in Physics from Florida State University in 1998, and her Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002. She was a faculty member at the Research Imaging Institute of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio from 2004-2012, and currently she is Professor and Director for Imaging Science at Florida International University in Miami. Along with her development of meta-analysis tools and her own research, she plays a central role in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) consortium which is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.

This was a great conversation that spanned the early culture of fMRI research, early efforts towards data sharing, to the current practices today where data sharing and analyzing data across studies and from large shared datasets is becoming the norm. We also spent time talking about the origin, logistics, and impact of the ABCD project.

We hope you enjoy it!

Episode producers:

Omer Faruk Gulban

Xuqian Michelle Li

In this special kickoff to the new season of Neurosalience, we turn the tables as Peter Bandettini, our host, joins us as the guest! We dive into highlights from last season and explore exciting plans for the episodes ahead. In addition, we had an insightful conversation on resting-state fMRI, computational modeling of the brain, and the importance of deep sampling in individuals. Plus, we discuss some news on the shifting landscape of scientific publishing. 

We hope that you enjoy the new season of Neurosalience.

Episode producers:

Omer Faruk Gulban