@uscini
USC's Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (INI) applies innovative imaging and information technologies to studying the brain. We share our data and resources with thousands of collaborators around the world. Home of Lab of Neuro Imaging (LONI).
🚨 Our NEW study from Koral Wheeler-Bacani, MS, and @meredithbraskie.bsky.social found early Alzheimer's disease-related brain changes may appear differently across racial and ethnic groups.
Read the press release 👉 bit.ly/46VvzDu and check out our animation of the data 🧠
Congrats to our superb grad student, Gaon Kim, for winning Best TED Talk at the 2026 Neuroscience Graduate Program Forum Symposium for her talk on neuroethics, "Just Because We Can." Well deserved! 👏👏
Congratulations to our faculty member Chris Ching on receiving the @usc.edu Bosco S. Tjan Mentorship Award. A well-deserved recognition of his dedication to mentoring and supporting the next generation of scientists! We're thrilled to celebrate this honor 🎉 🧠
This is the corpus callosum, one of the major white matter tracts in the brain. It's one of the tracts we looked at in our white matter study, where we found differences in autism: bit.ly/4aT2r2f
We're proud to be represented with @keck.usc.edu and our individual faculty members in the 2025 Blue Ridge Rankings for NIH funding 🙌
#5 Neurology • #5 Ophthalmology • #3 Paul M. Thompson, PhD • #8 Arthur W. Toga, PhD
Learn more: brimr.org
🚨 NEW study out in Alzheimer's & Dementia from our very own @meredithbraskie.bsky.social & Amaryllis Tsiknia 🧠
Learn how subtle changes in how blood flows through the brain and how brain tissue uses oxygen may be closely linked to Alzheimer’s disease risk
Press release: bit.ly/46UqkUu
Proud moment for us! 🙌
The Transmitter’s new list of the most-cited neuroscience papers from the past 30 years ranks a landmark PNAS study co-authored by Dr. Toga and
@ptenigma.bsky.social: bit.ly/4rl6XMv
Read the full list here:
bit.ly/4c1kkgc
Meet @uscniin.bsky.social student, Marco, winner of a Technica Magazine Outstanding Student Leadership – Graduate award! technica-magazine.com/marco-ebeling
With a background in electrical & computer engineering, Marco applies advanced engineering & AI approaches to study optic nerve degeneration 👀🧠
This animation reveals connections between the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex, key regions for emotion and decision-making. Mapping these pathways helps scientists understand how brain circuits influence behavior 🧠
Check out @neuralmapping.bsky.social's lab spotlight from Precisionary Instruments!
precisionary.com/lab-spotligh...
Meet Sam, one of our current @uscniin.bsky.social students! 👋
From quality control of brain images to developing new projects using large-scale datasets, Sam is gaining hands-on experience at the intersection of neuroscience, data, and mental health research 🧠
Check out the anatomy and structural complexity of the brain at different scales 👀 👀
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8r...
Our animation shows how brain cells form new connections, a process called synaptogenesis. As neurons grow, their long extensions (axons) reach out and connect with tiny contact points on neighboring neurons, helping build the brain’s communication network 🧠 🎇
🎉 Congrats to @uscniin.bsky.social alum Bennett Alterman, PhD!
We’re thrilled to celebrate Bennett’s new professional milestone, stepping into his next role as a Research Scientist at Colorado State University. We wish him continued success and innovation in this next chapter!
Check out our new Center for Integrative Connectomics website!
@neuralmapping.bsky.social & his team investigate why specific brain cell types are vulnerable to neurodegenerative disease. This work aims to identify therapeutic targets & improve patient outcomes 🧠
👉 cic.ini.usc.edu
🎉 Congratulations to Grace Schwartz from our @uscniin.bsky.social class of 2024 on starting medical school at UCLA. We're glad we've been a part of her academic career and can't wait to see what she accomplishes next! 🧠 🥼
How wonderful to have our very own Danny JJ Wang featured on The Academic Minute today!
Give it a listen and learn more about his new 🧠 imaging technique, which opens new possibilities for detecting early signs of vascular and neurodegenerative disease.
bit.ly/4s7iAHS
Got someone interested in cutting-edge medical imaging technologies for visualizing blood-brain barrier function on your holiday gift list?? We've got you covered 😆🎁🧠
bit.ly/48MlloU
Wishing our @uscniin.bsky.social students the very best as finals get underway! You got this!
🧠 Our fall newsletter is live!
From bold new NIH-backed grants, breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s, brain aging, and AI-driven imaging, discover how we’re mapping the brain, advancing precision rehab, and training the next generation of neuroscientists.
bit.ly/4oU6tv3
🚨 Our latest study from @neuralmapping.bsky.social and his team is out in @nature.com and reveals a hidden set of cellular layers inside the hippocampus, the brain’s key center for learning and memory 🧠
Learn more about this work and its implications for memory and disease: bit.ly/48NtGdf
Warm Thanksgiving wishes from all of us at the Stevens INI!
Here's to giving your brain a well-deserved break and enjoying a delicious meal and good company 🧠 🥧 👨👩👦👦
🚨 We're thrilled to share NEW findings from @kelawrence.bsky.social on how brain wiring differs in children & young adults with autism. By mapping white matter pathways in unprecedented detail, we identified structural differences that earlier methods often overlooked 🧠
👉 bit.ly/3XUGyrH
We’re proud that our own Dr. Neda Jahanshad is co-leading a new NIH-funded study investigating how the brain’s pain-processing pathways shape treatment outcomes in endometriosis 🧠🔬
Learn more: bit.ly/3JEv34w
Our NIIN students jumped straight from the classroom into the MRI suite last week, getting hands-on with the same technology driving today’s biggest breakthroughs in neuroscience. Nothing beats learning imaging by actually running the scanners 🧠 ✌
We’ve mapped the genetic blueprint of the brain’s largest communication bridge using a new AI tool developed here at the Stevens INI 🧠 🗺️
Our publicly available tool reveals how genes shape this vital structure & may influence certain disorders.
Learn more: bit.ly/47V28SJ
Through @enigmabrains.bsky.social, we analyzed brain scans from one of the largest global cohorts of people with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome—a major genetic risk factor for schizophrenia. We found brain alterations associated with the genetic condition:
We’re advancing AI to improve brain disease diagnosis, uncover biomarkers of aging, and enhance clinical imaging. Watch our video to see how AI works and explore some of our recent visualizations 💻🧠👩🔬
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_YQ...
🎉 Congrats to @uscniin.bsky.social alum Matthew Thurston '20!
Matthew and his colleagues published a paper in the Journal of Affective Disorders examining patterns of post-stroke depression across 41 studies and nearly 7,000 stroke survivors.
Check it out 👉 bit.ly/4hlZFUF
The @uscniin.bsky.social crew is all smiles for their fMRI analysis with Dr. Kay Jann 😀🧠💻
