Angela R. Laird

Predicting cognitive processes from brain activation maps remains a key challenge in neuroscience. Meta-analytic functional decoding provides an estimation of behavioral profiles associated with specific brain regions; however, existing methods fail to capture the full semantic content of the neuroimaging literature. To address this, we present NiCLIP, a contrastive language-image model trained on over 23,000 articles to predict cognitive tasks, concepts, and domains from brain activation patterns. NiCLIP achieves optimal performance when using full-text articles and a curated cognitive ontology with precise task-concept-domain mappings. Our results show that NiCLIP accurately predicts cognitive tasks from Human Connectome Project group-level maps across multiple domains (e.g., emotion, language, motor) and precisely characterizes the functional roles of specific brain regions, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and temporoparietal junction. However, NiCLIP showed limitations with noisy subject-level activation maps. NiCLIP represents a significant advancement in functional decoding, offering a powerful tool for hypothesis generation and scientific discovery.

Hispanic Americans face persistent health disparities rooted in complex sociocultural and bioecodevelopmental dynamics. Identifying early neurodevelopmental trajectories that confer risk or resilience during adolescence is critical for developing targeted health equity interventions. Grounded in the NIMHD Research Framework and bioecodevelopmental theory, data from 12- to 14-year-old Hispanic adolescents in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were analyzed (n=236). Partial least squares correlation (PLSC) was used to evaluate multivariate associations between sociocultural measures—spanning individual, family, and community levels—and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) networks. Post hoc linear mixed-effects models examined how derived sociocultural-rsFC patterns predicted measures of physical and mental health, linking bioecodevelopmental patterns to adolescent well-being. PLSC revealed dual community- and family-level neural pathways of biological embedding, diverging from traditional nested bioecodevelopmental assumptions. The community pathway linked child opportunity and neighborhood disadvantage to connectivity across Cingulo-Opercular, Default, Dorsal Attention, Visual Networks. This community-rsFC profile was associated with lower respiratory functioning, reflecting an allostatic load marker of environmental stress. The family pathway linked caregiver ethnic identity and heritage acculturation to Default, Ventral Attention, Sensorimotor-Mouth, and Visual Networks connectivity, suggesting that the family system shapes neural systems underlying social attunement and identity formation. Structural community factors and familial culture impose distinct neurobiological demands on the adolescent connectome among Hispanic youth. Findings highlight respiratory health as a biological marker of environmental adversity and underscore the necessity of structural and culturally sustaining interventions to promote health equity among Hispanic youth.

Background: Previous work has identified associations between maladaptive familial factors and risk for emotion regulation (ER) challenges among youth. Youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have been found to be particularly susceptible to ER challenges. Preadolescence is a key period during which changes in ER emerge, yet it remains understudied with respect to factors that impact ER among youth with ADHD, specifically. Methods: The current study leveraged Morris and colleagues’ (2007) tripartite model of parental influence on child ER to examine the salience of familial factors (i.e., parent ER, parental warmth, family conflict) on child ER as assessed via the Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile. Participants were 953 youth who met ADHD diagnostic criteria and their counterparts with fewer than four total ADHD symptoms (N=4,371) who completed the baseline visit of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development StudySM. Results: Youth with ADHD experienced lower ER compared to peers, consistent with extant literature. Across all youth, parent-reported family conflict was associated with lower child ER, while parental warmth was associated with greater child ER. Lower parent ER conferred the greatest risk for lower child ER, generally, and particularly among youth with ADHD. Significant associations between specific familial factors, ADHD, and subdomains of youth ER (i.e., anxious/depressed, attention, and aggression) were also identified. Conclusions: Results of the current study may offer guidance for prioritization of targets for universal prevention and family-focused ER-based interventions for youth with ADHD. Future studies should examine the effect of familial factors on youth ER throughout the transition to adolescence.

The reward-based theoretical framework of autism suggests that altered reward circuitry contributes to core symptoms. Recent prior research has revealed autism-related structural alterations in the habenula, a small epithalamic structure associated with motivation and emotion; however, potential alterations in functional connectivity (FC) remain unexplored. Anatomical and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data were accessed for 1,479 participants (N=661 autism; age_m: 16.68±8.23 years) in the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE). To investigate habenula alterations, we conducted a whole-brain resting state FC analysis using manually delineated subject-specific seeds, followed by regression analyses to explore age and brain-behavior interactions. Across the entire sample, extensive habenula connectivity was observed within the midbrain dopaminergic reward system. Compared to neurotypical (NT) controls, autistic participants exhibited significantly increased habenular connectivity with the bilateral middle and superior temporal gyri. From childhood to early adulthood, autistic adolescents displayed an accelerated developmental habenula FC trajectory than NTs with the cingulate gyrus. Between groups, habenula hyperconnectivity was inversely associated with behavioral scores for social motivation and communication. This study provides novel evidence of habenula connectivity alterations in autism, highlighting atypical FC with sensory processing regions. Further findings suggest that habenula circuitry develops differently among autistic adolescents, with links between habenula hyperconnectivity and social behaviors. Taken together, these results contribute to emerging evidence that the dopaminergic reward system may play a critical role in the pathophysiology of autism.

Purpose The purpose of the study is to characterize the practices of self-advocacy, as well as their impact on family life, among transition-age adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD; i.e., autism, intellectual disability) enrolled in an inclusive post-secondary education (IPSE) program. Researchers centered young adult voices, which in academic discourse have been traditionally marginalized in favor of centering voices of parents. Methods Focus groups with participants (n = 29) elicited perspectives on programmatic elements, practices of self-advocacy, and student-parent relationships. Results Findings highlighted student perspectives that: (1) caring for yourself and speaking up/standing up for yourself are both practices of self-advocacy; (2) understanding their own roles and context, self-confidence, and the openness of the person they were self-advocating to may serve as facilitators or barriers to self-advocacy; (3) parents have a role in introducing and reinforcing self-advocacy skills for young adults; and (4) relationships with their families changed during involvement in the IPSE program, with some reporting use of self-advocacy skills as a point of conflict with their parents. Conclusion Young adults with IDD report unique practices of self-advocacy such that they include caring for oneself as self-advocacy. Centering their voices may help inform how to best support their transition to independence and facilitate self-advocacy on small (e.g., with family and peers) and large (e.g., with organizations and policy) scales.

Image-based meta-analysis (IBMA) is a powerful method for synthesizing results from various fMRI studies. However, challenges related to data accessibility and the lack of available tools and methods have limited its widespread use. This study examined the current state of the NeuroVault repository and developed a comprehensive framework for selecting and analyzing neuroimaging statistical maps within it. By systematically assessing the quality of NeuroVault’s data and implementing novel selection and meta-analysis techniques, we demonstrated the repository’s potential for IBMA. We created a multi-stage selection framework that includes preliminary, heuristic, and manual image selection. We conducted meta-analyses for three distinct domains: working memory, motor, and emotion processing. The results from the three manual IBMA approaches closely resembled reference maps from the Human Connectome Project. Importantly, we found that while manual selection provides the most precise results, heuristic methods can serve as robust alternatives, especially for domains that include a heterogeneous set of fMRI tasks and contrasts, such as emotion processing. Additionally, we evaluated five different meta-analytic estimator methods to assess their effectiveness in handling spurious images. For domains characterized by heterogeneous tasks, employing a robust estimator (e.g., median) is essential. This study is the first to present a systematic approach for implementing IBMA using the NeuroVault repository. We introduce an accessible and reproducible methodology that allows researchers to make the most of NeuroVault’s extensive neuroimaging resources, potentially fostering greater interest in data sharing and future meta-analyses utilizing NeuroVault data.

Introductory university physics courses often face the dual challenge of introducing students to new physics concepts while also addressing their preconceived notions that conflict with scientific principles. Active learning pedagogical approaches, which employ constructivist principles and emphasize active participation in the learning process, have been shown to be effective in teaching complex physics concepts. However, while the behavioral effects of constructivist methodologies are largely understood, the neurobiological underpinnings that facilitate this process remain unclear. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we assessed students enrolled in either an active learning or lecture-based physics course before and after a 15-week semester of learning and examined changes in hippocampal whole-brain connectivity. We focused on the hippocampus given its critical role in learning and memory. Our findings revealed that hippocampal connectivity with brain regions in the frontal and parietal lobes decreased over time, regardless of instructional approach. Results also indicated that active learning students exhibited increased hippocampal connectivity with parietal, cerebellar, and frontal regions, reflecting experiential learning based on constructivist principles, whereas lecture-based students exhibited increased hippocampal connectivity with the fusiform gyrus, suggesting learning through passive observation. Our findings demonstrate that while some aspects of hippocampal functional connectivity may decrease over time, active vs. passive learning may preferentially enhance hippocampal connectivity during physics learning.