Peter Kirk

Our latest work on the neurobiology of subjective emotional experience in anxiety is out now in SCAN 🧠 Brief summary below 👇 doi.org/10.1093/scan...

🚨 Language is usually left-lateralized, while attention tends to favor the right hemisphere. But are these functions always on opposite sides of the brain?🧠 In our new @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social preprint, we explored hemispheric complementarity in 987 people. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Just published - what happens in the brain when people offload memories into external reminders? Using fMRI decoding, we found that the corresponding neural trace fades until it becomes statistically absent. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵...

Next AFNI Bootcamp: Oct 20-22, 2026! Classes cover: FMRI visualization, full subject-level processing, alignment, regression modeling, and quality control. Registration is free & open to both NIH and non-NIH researchers. Registration+details: afni.nimh.nih.gov/bootcamp Please share widely.

In our latest episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, we sit down with Dr. @sidchop.bsky.social from @orygen.org.au and the @unimelb.edu.au to discuss his latest work distinguishing the effects of psychotic illness and antipsychotic medication on the brain.

New paper alert! 📣📣 In this work, we investigated the origins of somatic symptoms – a common and debilitating feature of anxiety and depression. 'Anxiety is associated with the persistence of conditioned somatic sensations over time'

Sensing your body (‘Interoception’) is everywhere in theories of mental health. But when we tested how well hundreds of people sensed their heart and lungs, the link to symptoms was almost nowhere to be found. 💣 🚨New @natmentalhealth.nature.com paper 🚨🎉 asks why 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

🧠 New work showing prominent and widespread 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰 pre-synaptic terminal reductions in people with schizophrenia.🧠 nature.com/articles/s41... Strongest effects in left hemisphere, but synaptic loss didn't track with MRI grey matter alterations, but did align with..👇1/4

A recent paper by Epp et al. in NN claimed that ~40% of reported BOLD findings could be misinterpreted. In our reanalysis, we identified several statistical issues that, in our view, undermine these conclusions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 👇 1/11

🎉 Excited to share our publication in PNAS! 🎉 What happens when our stream of consciousness turns towards the body? Our fMRI study of 536 individuals finds that 'body-wandering' is associated with patterns of brain connectivity, physiology, affect, and mental health: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

🧠 Resting-state fMRI is often treated as the gold standard for studying the brain’s intrinsic organization. But is it actually the best way to estimate functional architecture? We tested this directly. 🧵1/8

Excited to share our new paper in Scientific Reports. Pre-scanning state anxiety was associated with reduced rs-FC in the DMN in a trait-anxious community sample, underscoring how children’s MRI scanning experiences may be associated with rs-FC. Grateful for mentorship from @UCRiverside and @NIH.

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

Controversial? Classic? What if rest is not best? 🤔 Congrats to @halleeshearer.bsky.social for this thoughtful commentary, and thanks to @ninetlab.bsky.social for the 🎬 movie x rTMS 🧲 collaboration. doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...

Want to learn about FMRI visualization, processing and group analysis? Join us for the next AFNI Bootcamp (Jan. 27-29, 2026) for a fun few days of theory and interactive practicals. Details+registration for this virtual course: afni.nimh.nih.gov/bootcamp

This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!

Our latest study led by @purnimaqamar.bsky.social on avoidance in pediatric anxiety is out now in Mental Health Science 🎉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)

Excited to share our manuscript about BrainEffeX, a tool for exploring fMRI effect sizes. Includes why we made it, how to use it + contribute, and how we made it. @sneuroble.bsky.social @psychonetrics.bsky.social @alexkfischbach.bsky.social @nichols.bsky.social @dscheinost.bsky.social & MINDS Lab

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...

Excited to share this new preprint on the Predictive Modelling of Depression Treatment Response using Individual Symptoms and Latent Factors with @clairegillan.bsky.social fresh up on @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our latest work is now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We examined the role of the basal forebrain and its influence on intrinsic brain networks in depressive and anxiety disorders. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s44... @psychunimelb.bsky.social, @mbciu.bsky.social, #UnimelbMDHS

The @cahbir.bsky.social and @rutgersbhi.bsky.social are hiring! Multiple open area and open rank faculty jobs, wonderful colleagues, amazing resources, and one of the largest communities of brain science research groups on the planet. Please apply and share widely. jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/209...

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.

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

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 :)

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...

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...).

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...).

🚨 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

"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.

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...

The Holmes Lab is #hiring a full-time research assistant/predoc! Our work focuses on functional brain networks-- how they change, how they are impacted in psychiatric illness, and much more! Unfortunately, we cannot sponsor visas for this position. Please rt and reach out if you're interested👀

Interested in #MRI and #psychiatry? Our lab is hiring a research assistant (@holmeslab-bhi.bsky.social)! Please RT and share. @geneticssociety.bsky.social @ohbmofficial.bsky.social @sfnjournals.bsky.social @pgcgenetics.bsky.social @hitop-system.bsky.social @blackinneuro.bsky.social

🧠 📌 FINAL CALL FOR POST-DOC IN NEUROIMAGING 🧠 📌 Do you have (or will have soon) a PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience or Neuroimaging? Are you looking for a post-doc in neuroimaging? Do you want to join a friendly lab in a fab Psychology department? Do you wish to live in gorgeous Norwich?

Come join us at the ICN. Were looking for an Associate or Full Professor: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... (these jobs aren't advertised very often!)

Interested in understanding what brain activity during movies means from the perspective of the viewer? Then you absolutely need check out this amazing study by @ravenwallace.bsky.social from THinC Lab out now in @elife.bsky.social A thread 🧵 elifesciences.org/articles/97731

I am looking for a post-doc on neuroimaging analysis. Come & join my team at UEA (Norwich, UK). The post is for 32 months starting from April. Norwich is a wonderful & affordable city. ➡Apply: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/13... ⏰Deadline: 13 February 2025 Questions: s.rossit@uea.ac.uk

Stats and ML

Great work by @halleeshearer.bsky.social in her first first-author paper. With 🎀 shiny app 🎀 to explore how FC reliability fares ACROSS DIFFERENT movies versus rest, region-by-region. Thanks @sneuroble.bsky.social @tingsterx.bsky.social @ninetlab.bsky.social for 👍 collab. doi.org/10.1162/imag...

Back in London for my birthday and celebrating with Chole Bhatura at The Tamil Prince 😋

I thought this was the conclusion of the original BWAS paper? Either way it's both imaging pipelines (specifically driving features from population average atlases) and noisy target phenotypes

Happy to share our latest paper on 'using movies to study subjective, clinically meaningful experiences in neuroscience' 🎞️🧠. doi.org/10.1093/cerc...

#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

Working on new film project (INSCAPES 2!!). 💥. Does anyone have an audio recording of a modern, commonly used EPI sequence they could share? The composer builds her score around the types of sounds that occur inside the scanner, so I'm trying to get a few for her to listen to...🎵