Unified Neurocognitive-Network Framework for Brain Function, Dynamics, and Psychopathology

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Event details

Date 17.07.2025
Hour 10:0011:00
Speaker Prof. Vinod Menon, Stanford University
Location
Campus Biotech, H8-01-D
Category Conferences - Seminars
Event Language English
Abstract:
The human brain is a complex system capable of supporting a wide range of adaptive goal-relevant behaviours. These behaviours are thought to be supported by the intrinsic functional architecture of large-scale functional systems that constrain and support diverse cognitive processes in a stable, yet flexible, manner. In this talk, I discuss recent advances in our understanding of the dynamic spatiotemporal organization of the human brain and how this organization supports flexible cognitive control. A unifying triple network model of salience and network switching is proposed and its role in attention and cognitive control examined. I describe how such dynamic spatiotemporal provide a unified framework for understanding key features of several major developmental psychopathologies, including autism, ADHD, and schizophrenia, in which cognitive control is impaired. I discuss recent progress in characterizing brain network dynamics and transient dynamic functional networks using latent state space models and demonstrate that these models provide novel insights into i) how the brain switches flexibly between latent states to meet moment-by-moment changes in cognitive demands, and ii) how the inability to engage optimal brain states impairs cognition. I conclude by discussing complementary studies in rodents - leveraging cell-type-specific optogenetic manipulations of homologous salience and control circuits - which reveal causal links between network-switching dynamics and adaptive behaviour and offer a powerful translational platform for mechanistic discovery and therapeutic development.

Practical information

  • General public
  • Free

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