Chronic low back pain improves in a meaningful minority. What characterizes this fortunate subgroup, and what can we learn from it? #ChronicPain #LowBackPain www.michelecuratolomd.com/post/can-chr...

Chronic Low Back Pain: The 15% Who Improve

Studies show that chronic low back pain improves in about 15% of patients. Modifiable factors associated with improvement are sleep quality, low psychological distress, and high level of physical acti...

michelecuratolomd.com

This graph took me 3 years to make. It's perhaps the largest-ever #metaanalysis of #TMS #BrainStim data. It includes my first real scientific discovery 🧵: When you stimulate the hand with a brief electric pulse, your brain and spinal cord are momentarily less excitable: muscle output decreases 1/n

Endometriosis takes nine years to diagnose. That’s about to change. NICE has approved two tests: a saliva test reading microRNA markers, and a gut-sensor test returning results in 45 minutes, sparing women the keyhole surgery currently needed. buff.ly/QX3jHk8 #ShareGoodNewsToo

Rapid endometriosis tests to be made available on NHS in England and Wales

Saliva and gut sensor-based tests hailed as ‘gamechanger’ for millions of women who can wait years for diagnosis

buff.ly

here's how the claustrum might be involved in pain (short article!) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Pain in the claustrum

Pain arises from coordinated activity across distributed brain networks. The claustrum, a thin subcortical nucleus with extensive bidirectional connec…

sciencedirect.com

Major paper out: A heroic* demonstration that even acute stress increases drug intake in healthy people *4-session 2x2 RCT with ~4 oxycodone injections in 66 volunteers - with repeated blinded 2-panel stress/control inductions (ReSST) 1/🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Effects of psychosocial stress on opioid self-administration in healthy participants: a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial - Nature Mental Health

In this triple-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial, Eikemo et al. tested whether acute psychosocial stress increases opioid self-administration using controlled stress induction, oxy...

nature.com

Clinical 7T gradients can go fast — but peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) stops you at high-res fMRI. ⚡ Meet POPE 🌍: we reshape EPI pulses to dodge PNS exactly when it spikes → robust 0.3mm fMRI, seeing intracortical veins. 🧠 w/ @SiemensHealth 👉 doi.org/10.64898/202...

We're hiring! Postdoc position to study the neural control of reaching using high-density multi-area electrophysiology. 5 years of funding, great collaborative environment. Please share with anyone who may be interested. For details, see: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Pruszynski Postdoc 2026

Postdoctoral Researcher, Control Policies in the Primate Motor Circuit Pruszynski Lab @ Sensorimotor Superlab​ The Pruszynski Laboratory at Western University is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to j...

docs.google.com

"Pain may be what the brain makes of a signal, but somewhere, Basbaum insists, there is a signal" a fantastic article by Stephani Southerland about the remarkable career of Allan Basbaum aeon.co/essays/a-res...

www.jneurosci.org/content/46/2...

My Fifty Years Thinking about Emotional Consciousness in the Brain

This piece provides an overview of my fifty-year career as a neuroscientist. I spent much of this time trying to understand what emotions are and how they relate to human behavior and consciousness. I...

jneurosci.org

July’s Research Roundup: Intimate partner violence is the leading cause of assault-caused brain injuries in women. #ResearchRoundup #ENDGBV #IPVBI #SupportSurvivors

Official job posting coming when I get back from the cottage but if you're interested in a post-doc doing multi-area high-density electrophysiology in the cortico-thalamic circuit during reaching, feel free to reach out!

Andrew Pruszynski@andpru.bsky.social · 2w ago

Very happy to receive a CIHR Project Grant to continue our work on how sensory signals are organized in the thalamo-cortical motor circuit.

Our latest from our collaboration with @daspainbrain.bsky.social & @brianmathur.bsky.social We look at structural and functional connectivity of the human claustrum w/cognitive networks for externally (working memory) and internally (autobio memory) driven tasks journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

The human claustrum supports cognitive networks for externally and internally driven task demands

Cognitive control depends on dynamic interactions among large-scale brain networks, but the circuit mechanisms enabling task-dependent network coordination in humans remain unclear. This study shows t...

journals.plos.org

The 2026 fMRI Summer Course with @fmri-today.bsky.social has begun and the recordings and slides are shared here: fmrif.nimh.nih.gov/SummerCourse

“Pain can lead to disability.” — Why do women make up 70% of chronic pain cases? @namshine.bsky.social speaks with Dr. Di Renna (@canadianpain.bsky.social, @wchospital.bsky.social) and Jennifer Daly-Cyr on bias, invisible illness and what’s changing in Canada, on the season finale of (MIS)Treated.

The human claustrum supports cognitive networks for externally and internally driven task demands @PLOSBiology.org

The human claustrum supports cognitive networks for externally and internally driven task demands

by Brent W. Stewart, Matthew A. Cormie, Michael L. Keaser, Massieh Moayedi, Brian N. Mathur, David A. Seminowicz Cognitive control is believed to arise from task-dependent interactions among networks of brain regions. Although several debilitating neuropsychiatric disorders are characterized by cognitive network dysfunction, the neural circuit mechanisms supporting task-dependent network activity are largely unknown. External and internal task demands elicit opposing responses from key cognitive networks, and claustrum projections target regions associated with both network states. We tested if claustrum supports task-dependent network activity in humans using fMRI during tasks with externally and internally driven demands: working memory (n = 420) and autobiographical memory (n = 35). Claustrum activity increased in both tasks. Claustrum exhibited anatomical connectivity with regions representing all implicated networks, and claustrum effective connectivity suggested an excitatory influence on regions in multiple task-associated networks. Task response and connectivity measures differed between the claustrum and regions prominently implicated in directing network states—the anterior insula and pulvinar. These findings establish a role for the claustrum in supporting task-dependent network states subserving cognitive control.

dlvr.it

#CognitiveControl depends on interactions among large-scale #brain networks. @daspainbrain.bsky.social @brianmathur.bsky.social &co show that claustrum activity increases in memory tasks & has an excitatory influence on regions in multiple task-associated networks @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4aV5V3C

Predicting pain location from resting-state brain fMRI https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.14.732139v1

Excited to share the first of Abdalla Albeely’s work on characterizing a model of cannabis withdrawal after vaporized cannabis flower exposure! In addition to being the first study to look at cannabis vapor, this also is the first time behavioral network analyses are used to characterize withdrawal!

bioRxiv Neuroscience@biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Characterizing the Effects of Chronic Cannabis Vapour Exposure and Withdrawal on Cannabinoid Triad, Somatic Signs and Behavioural Network Reorganization Adult Male Rats https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.12.731896v1

In our 30th year, absolutely ticked pink to receive our third successive Platform Support Grant in support of Western's Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping. A testament to the amazing technical staff in this unique-in-Canada facility. Co-funded with @westernu.ca @schulichmeddent.bsky.social

Brain Canada@braincanada.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We are pleased to announce a $10.6M investment in four cutting-edge platforms across Ontario. 🧠 Un investissement clé pour accélérer la recherche et améliorer les soins en neurologie et en santé mentale. www.newswire.ca/news-release... @hollandbloorview.ca @researchstjoes.bsky.social

Happy to share that StimulEYE found its home at the TMS journal: doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Phivos Phylactou@phivph.com · last yr.

New preprint out, where we show that TMS-induced pupil dilations can be used as a measurable proxy of cortical excitability. With: @frasermacrae.bsky.social @freekvanede.bsky.social @daspainbrain.bsky.social @drsmschabrun.bsky.social et al. Details below 🧵 [1/n]

very cool. this nucleus has a role in nociception and pain

Violet Liu@vmliu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1/ A deep brain region known as the A13 plays a central role across a diverse range of behavioural functions (in rodents). To our knowledge, no human homologue has been identified to date. In this #preprint, we map the human A13!🎯 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Amazing job by @vmliu.bsky.social mapping the human A13, a dopaminergic cluster within the zona incerta. We would welcome comments and suggestions on this #preprint.

Violet Liu@vmliu.bsky.social · 2mo ago

1/ A deep brain region known as the A13 plays a central role across a diverse range of behavioural functions (in rodents). To our knowledge, no human homologue has been identified to date. In this #preprint, we map the human A13!🎯 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

In this week’s #PAIN Featured Image, Chowdhury et al. compare stimulation intensities on brain electrical fields and implications for 2 competing hypotheses. Learn more at bit.ly/4e0l4Tv

Postdoc position available at postlab.psych.wisc.edu. Pls send cv to postle@wisc.edu

Baal et al. find that [18F]FTC-146 PET/MRI of sigma-1 receptor identified peripheral pain generators of complex regional pain syndrome, subsequently guided targeted treatments, and achieved varying degrees of improvements. Learn more in #PAIN bit.ly/4ud9JEK

Natural behavior unfolds as a continuous stream of actions. Because these actions often occur in rapid succession, the brain must prepare multiple future actions while the current action is being executed. Our TICS piece explores how this works. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Really delighted to get copies of our new book, Elements of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. A labor of love over the past 10 years, along with @fmristats. Available for pre-order: mitpress.mit.edu/978026204504...

so 20 scientists share 2 awards that fund 2 postdocs. a bit of a stretch to say "their approach flipped the traditional grant application process on its head."

Pieter Hermans@pjeh.eurosky.social · 2mo ago

What happens when researchers stop competing for funding? Twenty Dutch metascientists replaced competition with collaboration for NWO grant applications, proving collective approaches can outperform individual ones. @sajedehra.bsky.social @lakens.bsky.social www.tue.nl/en/news-and-...

🚨PREPRINT ALERT!🚨 I’m delighted to share new work from Yau Lab @bcmneurosci.bsky.social addressing thermotactile interactions. What happens when your hands get cold? A common experience is for your sense of touch to be impaired by coldness. 1/n

Frozen Hands Close-Up

ALT: Frozen Hands Close-Up

static.klipy.com

Join us for the 7T Impulse Symposium at the Martinos Center, Nov. 5th, 2026. Program & Registration: education.martinos.org/impulse-symp... Location (in person): 114 16th street at Martinos Center Virtual access will be provided.