CNS Seminar

Title: Individual differences under different imaging conditions: Toward a "stress test" for the brain

Abstract: While neuroimaging studies typically collapse data across individuals, understanding how brain function varies across people is critical for both basic scientific progress and translational applications. My work has shown that whole-brain functional connectivity patterns serve as a "fingerprint" that can identify individuals and predict trait-level behaviors. Although we can detect these fingerprints while people are resting and performing various tasks, manipulating brain state using targeted task conditions can enhance aspects of these patterns that are most relevant to behavior. I will also discuss recent efforts and future plans to use naturalistic paradigms—e.g., movie watching—to draw out individual variation in both brain activity and behavior, akin to a "stress test" for the brain.