On Tuesday 25 April 2023, Dr. Todd Woodward will give a talk entitled "Macro-scale task-based BOLD-signal networks, and activation associations with phenotypes". The talk will take place at 2.30 pm in the Pav. 7 meeting room.

Dr. Todd Woodward is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Research Scientist at BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services (BCMHSUS) Research Institute, Director of the UBC Cognitive Neuroscience of Schizophrenia Laboratory (CNoS) and the UBC Brain Dynamics Laboratory.

To date Dr. Woodward has published over 180 peer-reviewed research manuscripts.

Abstract:

Despite a pressing need to equip fMRI users with network-level information provided by task-based fMRI, these task-based networks remain unknown. We have been working for a number of years on development of methodologies for identifying when an anatomical pattern is consistent over multiple tasks. Observation of how macro-scale task-based blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal networks activate under a range of task conditions has led to hypotheses about the anatomical and functional nature of these networks. Moreover, using a newly developed statistical procedure, we have also investigated the overlap between activity in these networks and a range of phenotypical measures (e.g., personality, age, sex, neuropsychological task performance, and symptoms of brain disorders such as schizophrenia). This knowledge can guide fMRI users in interpreting their task-based data, and provides the means to leverage the wealth of fMRI data that is now publicly available. This approach can provide fundamental details about brain-behaviour relationships in disease and health, and define network-level targets for the neurostimulation and neuromodulation therapies now advancing for all types of brain disorders.