David Seminowicz
@daspainbrain.bsky.social
Brain imaging pain researcher.
Professor, Medical Biophysics at University of Western Ontario.
https://www.daslab.org/
https://www.knowpain.ca/
Professor, Medical Biophysics at University of Western Ontario.
https://www.daslab.org/
https://www.knowpain.ca/
Pinned
Predicting Individual Pain Sensitivity Using a Novel Cortical Biomarker Signature
This cohort study analyzes electroencephalography data from healthy participants to analyze and validate a cortical biomarker signature for pain, which comprised the measures sensorimotor peak alpha f...
jamanetwork.com
our NIH HEAL initiative funded biomarkers study now out @jama.com JAMA Neurology
open access, open data and code
w/ @drsmschabrun.bsky.social
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
open access, open data and code
w/ @drsmschabrun.bsky.social
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Reposted by David Seminowicz
🚨 New Job Alert in Our Lab!
We’re hiring a full-time Research Assistant/Technician with experience in rodent stereotaxic surgery 🧠 and behavioral testing 🐁.
Please help us spread the word!
🔗 Apply: umb.taleo.net/careersectio...
@umsomneurosci.bsky.social @um-mind.bsky.social
We’re hiring a full-time Research Assistant/Technician with experience in rodent stereotaxic surgery 🧠 and behavioral testing 🐁.
Please help us spread the word!
🔗 Apply: umb.taleo.net/careersectio...
@umsomneurosci.bsky.social @um-mind.bsky.social
CII - Laboratory Animal Research Assistant
Click the link provided to see the complete job description.
umb.taleo.net
November 28, 2025 at 11:43 PM
🚨 New Job Alert in Our Lab!
We’re hiring a full-time Research Assistant/Technician with experience in rodent stereotaxic surgery 🧠 and behavioral testing 🐁.
Please help us spread the word!
🔗 Apply: umb.taleo.net/careersectio...
@umsomneurosci.bsky.social @um-mind.bsky.social
We’re hiring a full-time Research Assistant/Technician with experience in rodent stereotaxic surgery 🧠 and behavioral testing 🐁.
Please help us spread the word!
🔗 Apply: umb.taleo.net/careersectio...
@umsomneurosci.bsky.social @um-mind.bsky.social
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Making history as the first nurse-clinician scientist honoured with a Gairdner Award, Jennifer Stinson used her acceptance speech to inspire the next generation.
“Don’t just study science. Find a problem that connects your unique skills to a greater human need.”
“Don’t just study science. Find a problem that connects your unique skills to a greater human need.”
November 28, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Making history as the first nurse-clinician scientist honoured with a Gairdner Award, Jennifer Stinson used her acceptance speech to inspire the next generation.
“Don’t just study science. Find a problem that connects your unique skills to a greater human need.”
“Don’t just study science. Find a problem that connects your unique skills to a greater human need.”
Reposted by David Seminowicz
The role of the #SpinalCord in relaying brain-body signals has been hard to study noninvasively. @giuliog.bsky.social &co develop Electrical Spinal Imaging (ESI), enabling high-resolution, noninvasive recordings, revealing how #attention modulates spinal activity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3MswZOf
November 28, 2025 at 5:25 PM
The role of the #SpinalCord in relaying brain-body signals has been hard to study noninvasively. @giuliog.bsky.social &co develop Electrical Spinal Imaging (ESI), enabling high-resolution, noninvasive recordings, revealing how #attention modulates spinal activity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3MswZOf
Reposted by David Seminowicz
@massih.bsky.social et al. assert that identifying pain-specific processes requires salience-matching noxious and control stimuli. Salience ratings fully mediate stimulus intensity and physiological arousal relationship, demonstrating adequacy for matching. #PAIN bit.ly/3LuWKgq
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 PM
@massih.bsky.social et al. assert that identifying pain-specific processes requires salience-matching noxious and control stimuli. Salience ratings fully mediate stimulus intensity and physiological arousal relationship, demonstrating adequacy for matching. #PAIN bit.ly/3LuWKgq
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Today on the #projectEPIC blog Veronica de Souza Campos and Daniel De Luca-Noronha discuss the Case of Chronic Pain Reports #philsky #epistemicinjustice epistemicinjusticeinhealthcareproject.blogspot.com/2025/11/epis...
Epistemic Injustice and Chronic Pain Reports
epistemicinjusticeinhealthcareproject.blogspot.com
November 26, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Today on the #projectEPIC blog Veronica de Souza Campos and Daniel De Luca-Noronha discuss the Case of Chronic Pain Reports #philsky #epistemicinjustice epistemicinjusticeinhealthcareproject.blogspot.com/2025/11/epis...
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Have you been wondering what the role is of non-neuronal cells in modulating sensory neuron activity? Check out this review from @psalmotoxin.bsky.social et al. in @sfnjournals.bsky.social’s #JNeurosci, one of this week’s #EditorsPick papers chosen by @rpseal.bsky.social bit.ly/3XEp2rE #PRF
November 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Have you been wondering what the role is of non-neuronal cells in modulating sensory neuron activity? Check out this review from @psalmotoxin.bsky.social et al. in @sfnjournals.bsky.social’s #JNeurosci, one of this week’s #EditorsPick papers chosen by @rpseal.bsky.social bit.ly/3XEp2rE #PRF
Reposted by David Seminowicz
humanfactors.jmir.org/2025/1/e80269 Check out our latest paper using natural language processing to study chronic pain narratives
Turning Patients’ Open-Ended Narratives of Chronic Pain Into Quantitative Measures: Natural Language Processing Study
Background: Subjective report of pain remains the gold standard for assessing symptoms in patients with chronic pain and their response to analgesics. This subjectivity underscores the importance of u...
humanfactors.jmir.org
November 26, 2025 at 1:45 AM
humanfactors.jmir.org/2025/1/e80269 Check out our latest paper using natural language processing to study chronic pain narratives
Reposted by David Seminowicz
🎙️Episode 2, Part 2: Why Do We Need an EDID Lens in Pain Research?
Inclusive Language, Structural Violence, and the Power of Community
Check it out and subscribe to #LivingProofPodcast on your favourite platform:
🔗YOUTUBE: shorturl.at/TnwVC
🔗SPOTIFY: shorturl.at/ovpHX
🔗APPLE: shorturl.at/S0P8v
Inclusive Language, Structural Violence, and the Power of Community
Check it out and subscribe to #LivingProofPodcast on your favourite platform:
🔗YOUTUBE: shorturl.at/TnwVC
🔗SPOTIFY: shorturl.at/ovpHX
🔗APPLE: shorturl.at/S0P8v
November 21, 2025 at 6:47 PM
🎙️Episode 2, Part 2: Why Do We Need an EDID Lens in Pain Research?
Inclusive Language, Structural Violence, and the Power of Community
Check it out and subscribe to #LivingProofPodcast on your favourite platform:
🔗YOUTUBE: shorturl.at/TnwVC
🔗SPOTIFY: shorturl.at/ovpHX
🔗APPLE: shorturl.at/S0P8v
Inclusive Language, Structural Violence, and the Power of Community
Check it out and subscribe to #LivingProofPodcast on your favourite platform:
🔗YOUTUBE: shorturl.at/TnwVC
🔗SPOTIFY: shorturl.at/ovpHX
🔗APPLE: shorturl.at/S0P8v
Reposted by David Seminowicz
November 21, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Reposted by David Seminowicz
And the next step? Full voxel-level modeling.
Recent numerical advances cracked the scalability barrier. Voxel-level hierarchical modeling is now feasible, revealing just how punishing traditional multiple-comparison adjustments really are.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.12825
Recent numerical advances cracked the scalability barrier. Voxel-level hierarchical modeling is now feasible, revealing just how punishing traditional multiple-comparison adjustments really are.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.12825
SIMBA: Scalable Image Modeling using a Bayesian Approach, A Consistent Framework for Including Spatial Dependencies in fMRI Studies
Bayesian spatial modeling provides a flexible framework for whole-brain fMRI analysis by explicitly incorporating spatial dependencies, overcoming the limitations of traditional massive univariate app...
arxiv.org
November 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
And the next step? Full voxel-level modeling.
Recent numerical advances cracked the scalability barrier. Voxel-level hierarchical modeling is now feasible, revealing just how punishing traditional multiple-comparison adjustments really are.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.12825
Recent numerical advances cracked the scalability barrier. Voxel-level hierarchical modeling is now feasible, revealing just how punishing traditional multiple-comparison adjustments really are.
arxiv.org/abs/2511.12825
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Opioid receptor distribution in the claustrum-dorsal endopiriform complex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.18.687877v1
November 18, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Opioid receptor distribution in the claustrum-dorsal endopiriform complex https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.18.687877v1
Reposted by David Seminowicz
The second study, led by @matthewcormie.bsky.social shows, for the first time, that the thermal grill can drive peripheral and central sensitization, but not tactile allodynia.
journals.lww.com/pain/abstrac...
Let us know what you think of this work!!
journals.lww.com/pain/abstrac...
Let us know what you think of this work!!
journals.lww.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
The second study, led by @matthewcormie.bsky.social shows, for the first time, that the thermal grill can drive peripheral and central sensitization, but not tactile allodynia.
journals.lww.com/pain/abstrac...
Let us know what you think of this work!!
journals.lww.com/pain/abstrac...
Let us know what you think of this work!!
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Our lab has 2 new papers in the current issue of @painthejournal.bsky.social:
The first study, by Georgia Hadjis, shows that motivational conflict, rather than resource competition, determines priority assignment when pain is concurrent to competing demands.
journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...
The first study, by Georgia Hadjis, shows that motivational conflict, rather than resource competition, determines priority assignment when pain is concurrent to competing demands.
journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...
journals.lww.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Our lab has 2 new papers in the current issue of @painthejournal.bsky.social:
The first study, by Georgia Hadjis, shows that motivational conflict, rather than resource competition, determines priority assignment when pain is concurrent to competing demands.
journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...
The first study, by Georgia Hadjis, shows that motivational conflict, rather than resource competition, determines priority assignment when pain is concurrent to competing demands.
journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...
Reposted by David Seminowicz
#WesternU researchers have unlocked the hidden potential in discarded MRI data, developing a new technique transforming how scientists study the brain. @schulichmeddent.bsky.social
Signal in the silence: Western researchers uncover hidden potential in discarded MRI data - Western News
Western University researchers have uncovered hidden potential in the historically discarded MRI data that is recorded in start-up period of scans.
buff.ly
November 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
#WesternU researchers have unlocked the hidden potential in discarded MRI data, developing a new technique transforming how scientists study the brain. @schulichmeddent.bsky.social
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Interested in paediatric pain? Come and follow the Pediatric Pain Letter, an open access international publication which hears from researchers, clinicians, individuals with lived experience and other non academic voices. We would love to hear from you. Follow us here bsky.app/profile/pedi...
bsky.app
November 14, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Interested in paediatric pain? Come and follow the Pediatric Pain Letter, an open access international publication which hears from researchers, clinicians, individuals with lived experience and other non academic voices. We would love to hear from you. Follow us here bsky.app/profile/pedi...
excited to be hosting Marco Loggia today as our @westernknowpain.bsky.social guest
November 13, 2025 at 6:13 PM
excited to be hosting Marco Loggia today as our @westernknowpain.bsky.social guest
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Our lab is hiring! We're lookgin for an MSc trainee and a PhD trainee to investigate the neural underpinnings of pain. If you are interested in pain and brain imaging, please reach out!
Informal enquiries are encouraged.
Informal enquiries are encouraged.
November 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Our lab is hiring! We're lookgin for an MSc trainee and a PhD trainee to investigate the neural underpinnings of pain. If you are interested in pain and brain imaging, please reach out!
Informal enquiries are encouraged.
Informal enquiries are encouraged.
it's nice having smart colleagues who develop new tools. this one will be fun to use.
pain in the SASS, here we come!
pain in the SASS, here we come!
14 months after submission, our article “Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS): a flexible paradigm for event-related fMRI" is now out in @natmethods.nature.com . You can read it here rdcu.be/ePJo6
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS): a flexible paradigm for event-related fMRI
Nature Methods - Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS) is an acquisition scheme for event-related fMRI that generates data with high temporal signal-to-noise ratios interspaced with...
rdcu.be
November 13, 2025 at 3:59 PM
it's nice having smart colleagues who develop new tools. this one will be fun to use.
pain in the SASS, here we come!
pain in the SASS, here we come!
Reposted by David Seminowicz
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
@sneuroble.bsky.social @psychonetrics.bsky.social
@alexkfischbach.bsky.social
@nichols.bsky.social
@dscheinost.bsky.social & MINDS Lab
Shearer et al. introduce an interactive web application for exploring fMRI effect maps:
doi.org/10.52294/001...
@halleeshearer.bsky.social @sneuroble.bsky.social @ohbmossig.bsky.social
#OpenDatasets #SpecialIssue
doi.org/10.52294/001...
@halleeshearer.bsky.social @sneuroble.bsky.social @ohbmossig.bsky.social
#OpenDatasets #SpecialIssue
November 12, 2025 at 7:46 PM
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
@sneuroble.bsky.social @psychonetrics.bsky.social
@alexkfischbach.bsky.social
@nichols.bsky.social
@dscheinost.bsky.social & MINDS Lab
Reposted by David Seminowicz
14 months after submission, our article “Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS): a flexible paradigm for event-related fMRI" is now out in @natmethods.nature.com . You can read it here rdcu.be/ePJo6
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS): a flexible paradigm for event-related fMRI
Nature Methods - Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS) is an acquisition scheme for event-related fMRI that generates data with high temporal signal-to-noise ratios interspaced with...
rdcu.be
November 13, 2025 at 12:23 PM
14 months after submission, our article “Stimulus-modulated approach to steady state (SASS): a flexible paradigm for event-related fMRI" is now out in @natmethods.nature.com . You can read it here rdcu.be/ePJo6
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
It is the first first author paper from my student @renilmathew.bsky.social 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 …1/N
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Come join us @westernu.ca @schulichmeddent.bsky.social as Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 2 in Cancer Biotherapeutics: uwo.ca/facultyrelat... DM me with questions. As a CRC 2 recruit to ACB, I highly recommend it!
uwo.ca
November 11, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Come join us @westernu.ca @schulichmeddent.bsky.social as Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 2 in Cancer Biotherapeutics: uwo.ca/facultyrelat... DM me with questions. As a CRC 2 recruit to ACB, I highly recommend it!
Reposted by David Seminowicz
In 1956, Jim Watson told my father, a brown man, that he would never get a job at Harvard and it was a miracle he had been admitted . Harvard's Board of Trustees saw it differently & appointed dad as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Harvard Agassiz Observatory BEFORE he finished his Ph.D!
James Watson, infamous racist and sexist who try to deny Rosalind Franklin credit for her role in discovering the structure of DNA, has died at age 97.
apnews.com/article/jame...
apnews.com/article/jame...
James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix shape of DNA, has died at age 97
Scientist James Watson, who shared a Nobel prize for helping discover the double-helix shape of the DNA molecule, has died. He was 97.
apnews.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:20 PM
In 1956, Jim Watson told my father, a brown man, that he would never get a job at Harvard and it was a miracle he had been admitted . Harvard's Board of Trustees saw it differently & appointed dad as an Assistant Professor and Director of the Harvard Agassiz Observatory BEFORE he finished his Ph.D!
Reposted by David Seminowicz
Check out our newest demonstrating feasabilty of sub-mm whole brain EEG-fMRI at 7T.
Happy to have been part of this amazing collaboration and thank you so much to Cristina and João for leading this project 😊👍.
Happy to have been part of this amazing collaboration and thank you so much to Cristina and João for leading this project 😊👍.
New paper in Imaging Neuroscience by C. Sainz Martinez, J. Jorge, et al:
An optimized framework for simultaneous EEG-fMRI at 7T enabling safe, high-quality human brain imaging with millisecond temporal resolution and sub-millimeter spatial resolution
doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
An optimized framework for simultaneous EEG-fMRI at 7T enabling safe, high-quality human brain imaging with millisecond temporal resolution and sub-millimeter spatial resolution
doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
November 7, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Check out our newest demonstrating feasabilty of sub-mm whole brain EEG-fMRI at 7T.
Happy to have been part of this amazing collaboration and thank you so much to Cristina and João for leading this project 😊👍.
Happy to have been part of this amazing collaboration and thank you so much to Cristina and João for leading this project 😊👍.
Reposted by David Seminowicz
The BIG DRG paper is now up on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... so many people worked so hard to make this happen. Props to the whole PRECISION Human Pain Network.
A Reference Atlas of the Human Dorsal Root Ganglion
Somatosensory perception largely emerges from diverse peripheral sensory neurons whose cell bodies reside in dorsal root ganglia (DRG). Damage or dysfunction of DRG neurons is a major cause of chronic...
www.biorxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:16 AM
The BIG DRG paper is now up on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... so many people worked so hard to make this happen. Props to the whole PRECISION Human Pain Network.