Protect Academic Life in Iran We, the undersigned academics and researchers from around the world, express our profound concern over recent military strikes on Iran, the retaliatory responses, and the reported impact on civilian l...

Academic friends,
It's beyond heartbreaking to watch what's unfolding in Iran & the region.
A few of us drafted an open letter calling for protection of civilians & of educational, research, medical & cultural institutions.

Please read & sign if you agree:
sites.google.com/view/protect...

#IranWar

That said, I agree with Dr. Marsh's point that we need to develop treatments for people with psychopathy, and that doing so will benefit the individuals themselves and not just the people they harm.

5/end

It's worth refuting the amygdala narrative because I think there's a more interesting story emerging from the data. That is, people with psychopathy show dysfunction in a distributed brain system.

IMO, that system is responsible for sensing and regulating the body.

4/

doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Critically, this included studies of fear conditioning and emotion processing, which many neuroscientists think of as the 'bread and butter' of the amygdala (sometimes called the brain's 'fear center' - I disagree with this, but I digress).

3/

Notably, the article cites a couple of papers that have found smaller/less active amygdalae in relation to psychopathy.

When we reviewed 134 brain studies of psychopathy, we found this relationship was not consistent. Most studies found no relationship.

2/

doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...

Using this article to shamelessly promote my own work.

Dr. Marsh states that people with psychopathy show "pretty consistent differences in an area of the brain called the amygdala."

My own work shows otherwise.

1/

The Abstract submission date has been extended to 15 December 2025. We look forward to more of your best work being submitted for our SSSP 2026 conference. @ssspstudents.bsky.social
psychopathysociety.org/page/Upcomin...

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to share my latest research with @urneuroscience.bsky.social. @drnathanasmith.bsky.social and everyone were great hosts - our conversations will certainly shape my research going forward.

Read my research here:
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

I'm very excited to share my research with the Rochester neuroscience community!

New preprint: "Bodily Rhythms Gate Action–Perception Coupling"

Cardiorespiratory cycles gate when it's best to sense & act on the world, shaping when precision peaks

Active sensing + Interoception + Active inference 🧠

🔗 bit.ly/3MinQIi

w/ @micahgallen.com; Lucas Naranjo; @jameskilner.bsky.social

It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function The authors review evidence that the primary function of the brain, supported by distributed neural systems, is the predictive regulation of physiology (i.e., allostasis). An example from Alzheimer’s ...

Here are our lab's recent papers on interoception and allostasis.

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Enjoyed this read on the growing field of #interoception neuroscience.

Of course, I was also excited to see the article twice cited our lab's recent work, spearheaded by Jiahe Zhang and @jtheriault.bsky.social.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/s...

Evidence from 7 Tesla fMRI of intrinsic network supporting allostasis in the human brain Nature Neuroscience - Functional connectivity analyses using ultra-high precision 7 Tesla functional MRI identified a unified system for allostasis and interoception that included more than 96% of...

Neat that my review of Zhang et al.'s "Cortical and subcortical mapping of the human allostatic–interoceptive system using 7 Tesla fMRI" was quoted in this Research Briefing. It was one of my favorite papers I reviewed in 2024! rdcu.be/eOlTT by Jiahe Zhang, @lisafeldmanbarrett.com and others

This looks like a super useful for anyone doing fMRI work. Congrats to @halleeshearer.bsky.social, @sneuroble.bsky.social, @alexkfischbach.bsky.social and their team!

🚨 New preprint on the first infant 7T MRI project in North America! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
We showcase that by leveraging 7T for infants, we can improve data quality and thereby facilitate precision functional mapping in early development.

#interoception #neuropapers

It’s not the thought that counts: Allostasis at the core of brain function The authors review evidence that the primary function of the brain, supported by distributed neural systems, is the predictive regulation of physiology (i.e., allostasis). An example from Alzheimer’s ...

Sensing and regulating the body may be core functions of the brain. For more on this, check out our other recent paper here:

www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

The system contained several hub regions (with connections to multiple other networks), suggesting this system may serve as the backbone of brain function.

Check out our new paper, where we used 7T fMRI to map out a brain system central to sensing and regulating the body! Based on prior animal studies - which tracked white matter traveling to/from the body - we mapped this system from cerebral cortical networks down to subcortex and brainstem nuclei.

To kick things off, I’m organizing a monthly “how-to” workshop series ft. leading scientists who will share practical/technical skills w/ the global SP-SIG community. If you or anyone you know is interested in participating, please reach out!

@ohbmtrainees.bsky.social @ohbmofficial.bsky.social

Psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonism alters neurovascular coupling and differentially affects neuronal and hemodynamic measures of brain function - Nature Neuroscience Padawer-Curry et al. show that the hallucinogenic 5-HT2A receptor agonist DOI alters neurovascular coupling in mice, with implications for the interpretation of human fMRI studies of psychedelics.

Psychedelics alter neurovascular coupling, which means we need to critically re-evaluate fMRI findings of acute psychedelic effects
#neuroskyence
#PsychSciSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

That’s right—open neuro AND behavioral (+ESM) data! So looking forward to the cross-field conversations about methods!
🧠✨

@ssspsychopathy.bsky.social @ssspstudents.bsky.social

Long story short:

Viewing the brain as a regulatory organ (aimed at maintaining the body's organ systems) will change how we study and attempt to treat psychopathy.

/end

Highlights:

we outline the allostatic-interoceptive system by diving into the neuroanatomy

we review MRI evidence related to psychopathy

we grapple with heterogeneity across studies and offer possible explanations

we discuss how this view might shift research on psychopathy and aggression

3/

To make this argument, @clare-shaffer.bsky.social and I pieced together evidence from MRI studies that measured white matter connectivity, functional connectivity, and task-based activity. We found dysfunction of the brain's allostatic-interoceptive system.

2/

Psychopathy - a devastating disorder that upends victims' lives - may be best understood as a disorder of allostasis (the brain regulating the body) and interoception (the brain sensing the body).

New preprint: doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/

We are now inviting submissions for the 11th biennial meeting of SSSP that will be held at the Dallas Marriott Downtown in Dallas, TX, USA on May 6-9th, 2026. The deadline for submissions is December 1st, 2025. Please see tinyurl.com/352zbztk for submission guidelines.

In response to anti-DEI legislation in the states, universities have started to hire more white male faculty.

This increase starts before bills are signed into law.

Universities appear to be anticipating anti-DEI legislation and preemptively hiring more white men.

The brain constantly senses and regulates the body. These sensory and regulatory signals are not merely background signals of interest only to physiologists. Instead, these 'allostatic' signals are central to neural and cognitive function. Great new work from our lab led by @jtheriault.bsky.social.