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Valerie Jill Sydnor

@valeriejsydnor.bsky.social

1.1K followers 780 following 59 posts

Postdoctoral Scholar in the Pitt Lab of Neurocognitive Development 🧠 she/her brain development | plasticity | environment | multi-modal MRI trying to fall down rabbit holes to recreate Alice in Wonderland

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · Jul 8

How does the human brain coordinate hierarchical cortical development? Our work in Nature Neuroscience identifies a role for thalamocortical structural connectivity in the expression of hierarchical periods of cortical plasticity & environmental receptivity in youth 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Divyangana Rakesh @divyangana.bsky.social · 11d

New paper in Nature Mental Health where we show that macroeconomic income inequality is associated with brain structure and function over and above individual-level SES and other state-level factors. These alterations may serve as pathways to mental health problems.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Macroeconomic income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health - Nature Mental Health

Rakesh et al. used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development cohort study to evaluate the relationship between state-level income inequality, brain structure and function, and mental health in young people.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Valerie Jill Sydnor

Boris Bernhardt @borismontreal.bsky.social · 12d

🚨 New paper in Nature Methods:
HippoMaps: multiscale cartography of the human hippocampus

Open-source tools & data to explore structure and function of the 🍤🧠 (histology, in/ex vivo MRI, iEEG)

Led by @jordandekraker.bsky.social

docs: hippomaps.readthedocs.io
paper: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · 18d

Yes!!!! This would be amazing. Open to chatting and brainstorming at any time! 😃

Reposted by Valerie Jill Sydnor

Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · 18d

🚨BREAKING NEWS: Congresswoman files articles of impeachment against RFK Jr. We've been sounding the alarm for months, sending 3k+ quack-o-grams, and collecting 25k petition signatures calling on our reps to impeach & remove RFK Jr.

We’re closing in on him. Help us WIN the fight. 🦆 zurl.co/vkZQV

Poster-style graphic with bold text reading “TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES: THE QUACK RFK Jr. HAS TO GO!” A large photo of RFK Jr. is overlaid with a yellow biohazard sign, while a man’s shoe is about to kick him out. At the bottom, logos and text say “Stand Up For Science” and “Fuel the fight: standupforscience.net.”

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · 22d

CONGRATULATIONS! I am so excited to see all of the amazing developmental neuroscience discoveries that will emerge from the Chini Lab!!!!

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Mattia Chini @mattiachini.bsky.social · 27d

🚨 2 Postdoc openings in Neuroscience – Liège, Belgium 🚨

We are recruiting for a project on brain development & autism that includes:

⚡ Neuropixels recordings
⚡ Opto/chemo
⚡ Behavior
⚡ Neural network modeling

If you know someone, tag them or RT for visibility! 🙏
www.fens.org/careers/job-...

2 Postdoc Positions in Systems Neuroscience - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

www.fens.org

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katie b, phd @62442katieb.bsky.social · 28d

I'm officially recruiting grad students in FIU's Cognitive Neuroscience PhD program! 🧠✨

The @bottenlab.bsky.social uses precision and population approaches to study neurodevelopmental variability. Reach out if interested! (contact info on bottenlab.github.io) Apps due 12/1! cn.fiu.edu

(pls share)

The BottenLab

Endocrine & environmental influences on teen brain development

bottenlab.github.io

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amar ojha @amarojha.bsky.social · Sep 13

How does human amygdala circuitry develop through adolescence to support affective and cognitive control processes? Excited to share recent work from my dissertation, now out in Cell Reports, that uses longitudinal, multimodal neuroimaging at 7 Tesla to answer this question! A 🧵 tinyurl.com/5aaf9fpv

Human amygdala nuclei show distinct developmental trajectories from adolescence to adulthood in functional integration with prefrontal circuitry

Ojha et al. use longitudinal 7 T neuroimaging to characterize distinct developmental trajectories of fronto-amygdala connectivity across nuclei through adolescence. They identify how age-related conne...

www.cell.com

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DrBreaky @drbreaky.bsky.social · Sep 14

Interested in hippocampal dynamics and their interactions with cortical rhythms?

Our physically constrained model of cortico-hippocampal interactions - complete with fast geometrically informed numerical simulation (available at embedded github repo)

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · Sep 14

Science that makes you love science from @gozziale.bsky.social and team. An intellectual and methodological tour de force!

Alessandro Gozzi @gozziale.bsky.social · Sep 10

🚨 Excited to share the latest preprint form the lab ➡️https://tinyurl.com/32d3be9f

Here we tackle a long-standing chicken-or-egg 🐣🥚question in #autism and developmental neuroscience

➡️ Is excitation–inhibition (E:I) imbalance a "cause" or a "consequence" of #autism?

Check out what we found!
🧵1/n

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · Sep 13

This looks so fantastic!!!!

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Sofie Valk @sofievalk.bsky.social · Sep 12

Another social cerebellar dream team effort: Cerebellar growth is associated with domain-specific cerebral maturation and socio-linguistic behavioural outcomes - thanks Katerina Manoli and co for wonderful work! Thanks also to @imprsconi.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cerebellar growth is associated with domain-specific cerebral maturation and socio-linguistic behavioral outcomes

The cerebellum's involvement in cognitive functions is increasingly recognized, yet its developmental contribution to cognition remains poorly understood. The cerebellum undergoes rapid development in...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Valerie Jill Sydnor

layerfmri.bsky.social @layerfmri.bsky.social · Aug 24

New layer-fMRI preprint looking at laminar response differences of across (very) early development in newborns.
Exciting new directions in the field.
By Moore et al.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Reposted by Valerie Jill Sydnor

Carina Heller, Ph.D. @carinaheller.bsky.social · Aug 13

We wrote a piece for @naturemedicine.bsky.social 🧠

Menstrual cycle irregularities can be both cause and consequence of wide-ranging health issues.
Embracing this complexity could reveal novel brain–body interactions and advance neuroscience.

Check out our commentary www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why menstrual cycle irregularities belong in brain research - Nature Medicine

The menstrual cycle requires tight orchestration between the brain and body, and irregularities can be both the cause and the consequence of wide-ranging health issues. Embracing this complexity, inst...

www.nature.com

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Science X / Phys.org @sciencex.bsky.social · Aug 10

New evidence indicates the thalamus actively influences the timing and pattern of brain development, shaping plasticity in cortical regions throughout childhood and adolescence. doi.org/g9vd4x

More than a simple relay station: Thalamus may guide timing of brain development and plasticity

The brain is known to develop gradually throughout the human lifespan, following a hierarchical pattern. First, it adapts to support basic functions, such as movement and sensory perception, then it moves onto more advanced human abilities, such as decision-making.

medicalxpress.com

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Damien Fair @drdamienfair.bsky.social · Aug 10

I still get chills

Meet Mike
*30+ years severe depression
*first hospitalized @ 13y
*20 meds
*3 rounds of ECT
*2 near-fatal suicide attempts

Mike felt joy for the first time in decades after we turned on his new brain pacemaker or PACE

see videos, read paper, follow thread
doi.org/10.31234/osf...

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Arielle Keller @ariellekeller.bsky.social · Aug 8

Absolutely thrilled to share the 🌟 FIRST PAPER 🌟 from ACORN Lab! 🐿️ I’m beyond proud of all-star grad student @heatherarobinson.bsky.social for this review of “exposome” effects on neurodevelopment & cognition! Paper here rdcu.be/ezUqx & thread below 👇 /1

#neuroskyence #PsychSciSky #devsky #cogdev

The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes

Neuropsychopharmacology - The effect of the “exposome” on developmental brain health and cognitive outcomes

rdcu.be

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Dr. Cate Peña @cate-cholamine.bsky.social · Aug 6

Review now out in @npp-journal.bsky.social!
Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early life stress
rdcu.be/ezzYq

Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress

Neuropsychopharmacology - Epigenetic regulation of brain development, plasticity, and response to early-life stress

rdcu.be

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Cedric Boeckx @cedricboeckx.bsky.social · Aug 2

Beautiful work from the Raimondo lab documenting the protracted maturation of human neurons (h/t @lancasterlab.bsky.social)
For #neoteny fans 🧪🧠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Human neurons undergo protracted functional maturation into adulthood

Human cognitive development is uniquely prolonged, reflecting the extended postnatal maturation of the cerebral cortex where cell-type differentiation, synaptogenesis, myelination8 and transcriptional...

www.biorxiv.org

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Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam @laurelgd.bsky.social · Jul 29

thrilled to share this project over a decade in the making out now in @pnas.org! We show that precocious GABA boosting in neonates by early sevoflurane/propofol anesthetic exposure accelerates visual cortical maturation in human infants
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Eiko Fried @eikofried.bsky.social · Jul 25

🇩🇪 3-year universal basic income (UBI) study, in which n=120 received UBI, n=1500 did not. Website is pretty neat, check it out for core findings.

www.pilotprojekt-grundeinkommen.de/en

Basic Income Pilot Project / Study results

What does a universal basic income really achieve? Find the results of the first long-term German study here.

www.pilotprojekt-grundeinkommen.de

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Ola Demkowicz @olademk.bsky.social · Jul 25

NEW PAPER!

Thrilled to share this piece on early career perspectives on the future of child and youth mental health research, envisioning a field that continues strides in embracing complexity, centring diverse voices, and facilitating sustainable environments and systems

bit.ly/455VxCv

Meeting of minds: imagining the future of child and youth mental health research from an early career perspective | BJPsych Bulletin | Cambridge Core

Meeting of minds: imagining the future of child and youth mental health research from an early career perspective

bit.ly

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Sergio Menchero @sermenchero.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thrilled to share that our latest work on marsupial heterochrony is now online at @cp-devcell.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social @lab-turner.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk We used scRNAseq to understand the asynchronous progression of developmental programmes in marsupials www.cell.com/developmenta...

Marsupial single-cell transcriptomics identifies temporal diversity in mammalian developmental programs

Menchero et al. generate a single-cell transcriptomic atlas in the opossum and show rapid progression of transcriptional programs in specific tissues relative to morphological landmarks. This shift in...

www.cell.com

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Valerie Jill Sydnor @valeriejsydnor.bsky.social · Jul 24

Thank you, Cedric!!!! We are excited that it is out 😁 More plasticity work in the works!

Reposted by Valerie Jill Sydnor

Aperture Neuro @apertureohbm.bsky.social · Jul 15

Alam et al. develop a canonical time-series feature set for characterizing biologically informative dynamical patterns in fMRI: doi.org/10.52294/001...

@bendfulcher.bsky.social @fmri-today.bsky.social @mallarchak.bsky.social @ohbmofficial.bsky.social

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