Events
We host workshops, seminar series, training and outreach events, bringing together researchers, clinicians, and the broader SFU community.
Check out our upcoming events below, and join our mailing list to receive announcements of future events. These include outreach activities for Brain Awareness Week, workshops and our seminar series.
Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Seminar
Title: The Brain Resilience Study: A dataset of the biological and sociocultural factors affecting brain health in older adults
Speaker: Brianne Kent, PhD; Associate Director, INN, Canada Research Chair (II), Translational Neuroscience and Dementia, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, SFU
Abstract: Dementia arises from a complex interplay of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors. However, previous large-scale studies have largely focused on biomarkers and genetics, with limited attention to the social and structural determinants of health that shape diverse aging trajectories. In 2024, we launched the Brain Resilience Study (BRS) to addresses this gap by integrating multimodal biological and cognitive measures with rich demographic, psychosocial, and lifestyle data to create an open resource for studying resilience to dementia. We are recruiting adults aged 50 years and older from the British Columbia Generations Project, a population-based cohort with extensive pre-existing sociodemographic, lifestyle, occupational, and residential data that has been collected since 2009. In 950 participants, we are collecting additional information about dementia risk factors, as well as cognitive testing, sleep assessments, portable EEG, and genetic sequencing. Sub-studies have also collected high-resolution neuroimaging (MRI, MEG) and circadian rhythm biomarkers. BRS data will be openly shared as a Brain Imaging Data Structure (BIDS) standardized dataset. By capturing variables often overlooked in dementia research, the BRS provides an unprecedented opportunity to study brain health in diverse aging populations. This resource will lay the foundation for longitudinal follow-up and future computational modeling, supporting the development of early, personalized, and equitable interventions to promote brain resilience across the lifespan.
Date/Time: Thursday Oct 1st @ 2:30pm PDT
In-person Location: Big Data Hub Presentation Studio (ASB 10900)
Online: https://sfu.zoom.us/j/89489850052?pwd=zQMjTS2hKZm5wlWapVelXVz7zkLkN7.1
NeuroBrownBag Talk
Title: Spatiotemporal whole-brain patterns underlying theory of mind: a Human Connectome Project functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study
Speaker: Ava Momeni, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, University of British Columbia
Abstract: Theory of mind (ToM) is an important aspect of social cognition that enables individuals to infer others’ mental states. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have implicated the medial pre-frontal cortex and temporo-parietal junction in ToM, as well as the default mode network. However, prior work has solely focused on the spatial configurations of the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes induced by ToM, and the underlying temporal profiles have been largely neglected. Spatiotemporal whole-brain BOLD patterns can be retrieved by applying multivariate multiple regression, with a finite impulse response model of the task timing, followed by dimensionality reduction. We employed this approach to a large-scale, publicly available fMRI dataset (n = 500; 55% female, 45% male) from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) Social Cognition study, where participants evaluated whether animated shapes interacted in social or random manners. This corresponded to the Mentalizing and Random conditions, respectively. Six distinct spatiotemporal whole-brain BOLD patterns emerged. Two showed early activations in both the Mentalizing and Random conditions, two showed higher mid-trial activations in the Mentalizing condition relative to the Random condition, and two showed late-trial activations that were more pronounced in the Random condition relative to the Mentalizing condition. The mid-trial Mentalizing peaks were default mode and language regions invoked during ToM, due to the requirement to mentally project into another’s experience and identifying non-verbal communication patterns, respectively. Our findings highlight that examining the spatiotemporal BOLD patterns elicited during ToM can deepen our understanding of its neural underpinnings as captured by fMRI.
Date/Time: Wednesday Sept 23rd @ 10am PDT
Location: INN-AQ Conference Room (AQ 3128)
Events Calendar
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