Danilo Bzdok

Why AI Models Hallucinate and How to Fix Them

A tab representation of the Pre trained CLIP Vision Transformer

October 8, 2025

Praneet Suresh

Jack Stanley

Danilo Bzdok

Sonia Joseph

Luca Scimeca

Using LLMs to better understand autism diagnosis

March 25, 2025

Jack Stanley

Danilo Bzdok

Towards Precision Medicine: Understanding Inference and Prediction Divergence in Biomedicine

September 8, 2020

Danilo Bzdok

Publications

Multivariate analytical approaches for investigating brain-behavior relationships

E. Leighton Durham

Karam Ghanem

Andrew J. Stier

Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez

Gabrielle E. Reimann

Hee Jung Jeong

Randolph M. Dupont

Xiaoyu Dong

Tyler M. Moore

Marc G. Berman

Benjamin B. Lahey

Antonia N. Kaczkurkin

2023-07-30

Frontiers in Neuroscience (published)

The default network dominates neural responses to evolving movie stories

Enning Yang

Filip Milisav

Avram J. Holmes

Georgios D. Mitsis

Bratislav Misic

Emily S. Finn

Neuroscientific studies exploring real-world dynamic perception often overlook the influence of continuous changes in narrative content. In … (see more)our research, we utilize machine learning tools for natural language processing to examine the relationship between movie narratives and neural responses. By analyzing over 50,000 brain images of participants watching Forrest Gump from the studyforrest dataset, we find distinct brain states that capture unique semantic aspects of the unfolding story. The default network, associated with semantic information integration, is the most engaged during movie watching. Furthermore, we identify two mechanisms that underlie how the default network liaises with the amygdala and hippocampus. Our findings demonstrate effective approaches to understanding neural processes in everyday situations and their relation to conscious awareness.

2023-07-13

Nature Communications (published)

Distinctive Whole-brain Cell-Types Predict Tissue Damage Patterns in Thirteen Neurodegenerative Conditions

Veronika Pak

Quadri Adewale

Mahsa Dadar

Yashar Zeighami

Yasser Iturria-Medina

Abstract For over a century, brain research narrative has mainly centered on neuron cells. Accordingly, most whole-brain neu… (see more)rodegenerative studies focus on neuronal dysfunction and their selective vulnerability, while we lack comprehensive analyses of other major cell-types’ contribution. By unifying spatial gene expression, structural MRI, and cell deconvolution, here we describe how the human brain distribution of canonical cell-types extensively predicts tissue damage in eleven neurodegenerative disorders, including early- and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, and tauopathies. We reconstructed comprehensive whole-brain reference maps of cellular abundance for six major cell-types and identified characteristic axes of spatial overlapping with atrophy. Our results support the strong mediating role of non-neuronal cells, primarily microglia and astrocytes, on spatial vulnerability to tissue loss in neurodegeneration, with distinct and shared across-disorders pathomechanisms. These observations provide critical insights into the multicellular pathophysiology underlying spatiotemporal advance in neurodegeneration. Notably, they also emphasize the need to exceed the current neuro-centric view of brain diseases, supporting the imperative for cell-specific therapeutic targets in neurodegeneration.

2023-06-08

bioRxiv (preprint)

156. Modeling Eye Gaze to Videos Using Dynamic Trajectory Variability Analysis

Qianying Wu

Na Yeon Kim

Jasmin Turner

Umit Keles

Lynn Paul

Ralph Adolphs

2023-04-30

Biological Psychiatry (published)

Using rare genetic mutations to revisit structural brain asymmetry

Kuldeep Kumar

Kimia Shafighi

Karin Saltoun

Claudia Modenato

Clara A. Moreau

Guillaume Huguet

Martineau Jean-Louis

Charles-Olivier Martin

Zohra Saci

Nadine Younis

Élise Douard

Khadije Jizi

Alexis Beauchamp-Chatel

Leila Kushan

Ana I. Silva

Marianne B. M. van den Bree

David E. J. Linden

Michael J. Owen

Jeremy Hall … (see 10 more)

Sarah Lippé

Bogdan Draganski

Ida E. Sønderby

Ole A. Andreassen

David C. Glahn

Paul M. Thompson

Carrie E. Bearden

Robert Zatorre

Sébastien Jacquemont

Asymmetry between the left and right brain is a key feature of brain organization. Hemispheric functional specialization underlies some of t… (see more)he most advanced human-defining cognitive operations, such as articulated language, perspective taking, or rapid detection of facial cues. Yet, genetic investigations into brain asymmetry have mostly relied on common variant studies, which typically exert small effects on brain phenotypes. Here, we leverage rare genomic deletions and duplications to study how genetic alterations reverberate in human brain and behavior. We quantitatively dissected the impact of eight high-effect-size copy number variations (CNVs) on brain asymmetry in a multi-site cohort of 552 CNV carriers and 290 non-carriers. Isolated multivariate brain asymmetry patterns spotlighted regions typically thought to subserve lateralized functions, including language, hearing, as well as visual, face and word recognition. Planum temporale asymmetry emerged as especially susceptible to deletions and duplications of specific gene sets. Targeted analysis of common variants through genome-wide association study (GWAS) consolidated partly diverging genetic influences on the right versus left planum temporale structure. In conclusion, our gene-brain-behavior mapping highlights the consequences of genetically controlled brain lateralization on human-defining cognitive traits.

2023-04-17

bioRxiv (preprint)

Genesis, modelling and methodological remedies to autism heterogeneity

Juliette Rabot

Eya‐mist Rødgaard

Ridha Joober

Guillaume Dumas

Boris C Bernhardt

Sébastien Jacquemont

Laurent Mottron

2023-03-31

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (published)

Bayesian stroke modeling details sex biases in the white matter substrates of aphasia

Julius M. Kernbach

Gesa Hartwigsen

Jae-Sung Lim

Hee-Joon Bae

Kyung-Ho Yu

Gottfried Schlaug

Anna Bonkhoff

Natalia S. Rost

Ischemic cerebrovascular events often lead to aphasia. Previous work provided hints that such strokes may affect women and men in distinct w… (see more)ays. Women tend to suffer strokes with more disabling language impairment, even if the lesion size is comparable to men. In 1401 patients, we isolate data-led representations of anatomical lesion patterns and hand-tailor a Bayesian analytical solution to carefully model the degree of sex divergence in predicting language outcomes ~3 months after stroke. We locate lesion-outcome effects in the left-dominant language network that highlight the ventral pathway as a core lesion focus across different tests of language performance. We provide detailed evidence for sex-specific brain-behavior associations in the domain-general networks associated with cortico-subcortical pathways, with unique contributions of the fornix in women and cingular fiber bundles in men. Our collective findings suggest diverging white matter substrates in how stroke causes language deficits in women and men. Clinically acknowledging such sex disparities has the potential to improve personalized treatment for stroke patients worldwide.

2023-03-30

Communications Biology (published)

Transitions between cognitive topographies: contributions of network structure, neuromodulation, and disease

Andrea I. Luppi

S. Parker Singleton

Justine Y. Hansen

Amy Kuceyeski

Richard F. Betzel

Bratislav Misic

Patterns of neural activity underlie human cognition. Transitions between these patterns are orchestrated by the brain’s network architect… (see more)ure. What are the mechanisms linking network structure to cognitively relevant activation patterns? Here we implement principles of network control to investigate how the architecture of the human connectome shapes transitions between 123 experimentally defined cognitive activation maps (cognitive topographies) from the NeuroSynth meta-analytic engine. We also systematically incorporate neurotransmitter receptor density maps (18 receptors and transporters) and disease-related cortical abnormality maps (11 neurodegenerative, psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diseases; N = 17 000 patients, N = 22 000 controls). Integrating large-scale multimodal neuroimaging data from functional MRI, diffusion tractography, cortical morphometry, and positron emission tomography, we simulate how anatomically-guided transitions between cognitive states can be reshaped by pharmacological or pathological perturbation. Our results provide a comprehensive look-up table charting how brain network organisation and chemoarchitecture interact to manifest different cognitive topographies. This computational framework establishes a principled foundation for systematically identifying novel ways to promote selective transitions between desired cognitive topographies.

2023-03-16

bioRxiv (preprint)

Investigating the neural correlates of affective mentalizing and their association with general intelligence in patients with schizophrenia

Wladimir Tantchik

Melissa J. Green

Yann Quidé

Susanne Erk

Sebastian Mohnke

Carolin Wackerhagen

Nina Romanczuk-Seiferth

Heike Tost

Kristina Schwarz

Carolin Moessnang

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg

Andreas Heinz

Henrik Walter

2023-03-12

Schizophrenia Research (unknown)

The end game: respecting major sources of population diversity

Lucina Q. Uddin

Human neuroscience is enjoying burgeoning population data resources: large-scale cohorts with thousands of participant profiles of gene expr… (see more)ession, brain scanning and sociodemographic measures. The depth of phenotyping puts us in a better position than ever to fully embrace major sources of population diversity as effects of interest to illuminate mechanisms underlying brain health.

2023-03-02

Nature Methods (published)

Rare CNVs and phenome-wide profiling highlight brain structural divergence and phenotypical convergence

Kuldeep Kumar

Karin Saltoun

Claudia Modenato

Clara Moreau

Sandra Martin‐Brevet

Guillaume Huguet

Martineau Jean‐Louis

Charles-Olivier Martin

Zohra Saci

Nadine Younis

Petra Tamer

Élise Douard

Anne Maillard

Borja Rodríguez‐Herreros

Aurélie Pain

Sonia Richetin

Leila Kushan

Ana Isabel Silva

Marianne van den Bree … (see 12 more)

David E.J. Linden

Michael J. Owen

Jeremy Hall

Sarah Lippé

Bogdan Draganski

Ida E. Sønderby

Ole A. Andreassen

David C. Glahn

Paul M. Thompson

Carrie E. Bearden

Sébastien Jacquemont

Copy number variations (CNVs) are rare genomic deletions and duplications that can affect brain and behaviour. Previous reports of CNV pleio… (see more)tropy imply that they converge on shared mechanisms at some level of pathway cascades, from genes to large-scale neural circuits to the phenome. However, existing studies have primarily examined single CNV loci in small clinical cohorts. It remains unknown, for example, how distinct CNVs escalate vulnerability for the same developmental and psychiatric disorders. Here we quantitatively dissect the associations between brain organization and behavioural differentiation across 8 key CNVs. In 534 CNV carriers, we explored CNV-specific brain morphology patterns. CNVs were characteristic of disparate morphological changes involving multiple large-scale networks. We extensively annotated these CNV-associated patterns with ~1,000 lifestyle indicators through the UK Biobank resource. The resulting phenotypic profiles largely overlap and have body-wide implications, including the cardiovascular, endocrine, skeletal and nervous systems. Our population-level investigation established brain structural divergences and phenotypical convergences of CNVs, with direct relevance to major brain disorders.

2023-03-01

Nature Human Behaviour (unknown)

Social isolation is linked to classical risk factors of Alzheimer's disease-related dementias

Kimia Shafighi

Sylvia Villeneuve

Pedro Rosa Neto

AmanPreet Badhwar

Judes Poirier

Vaibhav Sharma

Yasser Iturria Medina

Patricia P. Silveira

Laurette Dubé

David Glahn

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is a major public health burden–compounding over upcoming years due to longevity. Recently, cl… (see more)inical evidence hinted at the experience of social isolation in expediting dementia onset. In 502,506 UK Biobank participants and 30,097 participants from the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, we revisited traditional risk factors for developing dementia in the context of loneliness and lacking social support. Across these measures of subjective and objective social deprivation, we have identified strong links between individuals’ social capital and various indicators of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias risk, which replicated across both population cohorts. The quality and quantity of daily social encounters had deep connections with key aetiopathological factors, which represent 1) personal habits and lifestyle factors, 2) physical health, 3) mental health, and 4) societal and external factors. Our population-scale assessment suggest that social lifestyle determinants are linked to most neurodegeneration risk factors, highlighting them as promising targets for preventive clinical action.

2023-01-31

PLOS ONE (published)