The future of neuroimaging

Psychologist Russ Poldrack is a mind reader of sorts, but not in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, he makes movies of blood flow in the brain using functional MRI to draw insights into the function of specific regions of the brain to decipher how they control behavior. In one example, Poldrack has shown how people with obsessive-compulsive disorder have enhanced “salience networks” that turn on when surprising things happen. This finding could have “very profound” outcomes in diagnosis and treatment, Poldrack tells host Russ Altman in this wide-ranging exploration of the implications and the ethics of functional neuroimaging on Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything podcast. Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your question. You can send questions to [email protected]. Episode Reference Links: Stanford Profile: Russ Poldrack Poldrack Lab website: http://poldracklab.org The MyConnectome project: https://www.myconnectome.org/ Stanford Center for Open and Reproducible Science: https://datascience.stanford.edu/cores Connect With Us: Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything Website Connect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / Mastodon Connect with School of Engineering >>> Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Chapters: (00:00:00) Introduction Russ Altman introduces guest Russ Poldrack, a professor of psychology and of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford University. (00:03:15) Path into Neuroimaging How Poldrack moved from cognitive psychology into functional MRI research. (00:04:18) Functional MRI How MRI can be used to track brain activity. (00:06:59) Mapping Brain Activity How tasks and behaviors are linked to patterns of brain activation. (00:08:02) Resting Functional MRI How resting scans revealed large-scale brain networks. (00:09:00) Brain Networks and Behavior How the brain controls stopping, switching, and habits. (00:10:34) Layers of Brain Organization Why neuroimaging studies the brain across multiple scales. (00:13:04) Individual Brain Differences How shared brain networks vary across individuals. (00:13:34) Scanning Himself Why Poldrack repeatedly scanned his own brain. (00:15:47) Mapping One Brain Deeply How repeated scans revealed reliable individual brain patterns. (00:18:59) Neuroimaging and Mental Health How brain network differences may relate to depression and OCD. (00:21:42) Reproducibility in Brain Imaging How larger and deeper data sets improve reliability. (00:24:51) Analytic Variability Why the same data can produce different conclusions. (00:26:39) Multiverse Analysis How testing many analyses helps identify stable findings. (00:27:55) Open Science How data sharing and standards improve transparency. (00:30:29) Privacy and Brain Data How researchers protect participants when sharing neuroimaging data. (00:32:17) Future In a Minute Rapid-fire Q&A: neuroimaging, reproducibility, and AI in science. (00:33:22) Conclusion   Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.