Research Interests
Large-scale neurocognitive networks, functional connectivity, cognitive control
Research Description
Distant brain regions are in constant communication with each other. This communication, also called functional connectivity, is foundational to all cognition. Functional connectivity is spatially organized into many large brain networks. But how this network organization is maintained and modulated in the service of flexible cognition is poorly understood. Sepideh Sadaghiani’s lab is studying connectivity and cognitive functions of large-scale brain networks. Her lab is most interested in networks involved in cognitive control functions such as alertness and attention (cognitive control networks).
One research line of the lab seeks to delineate the function of different cognitive control networks. This research investigates how cognitive control networks modulate processes in “lower-order” brain areas such as perception in sensory cortices.
Another research line focuses on the functional role of intrinsic (spontaneous) network activity. Neural activity and communication across brain networks are continuously ongoing independent of external stimuli or tasks. Sadaghiani’s research aims at understanding why this intrinsic activity and functional connectivity exists and how it affects behavior.
Sepideh Sadaghiani’s lab combines various techniques to address these questions in the human brain including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), simultaneous EEG-fMRI and genetic analyses in healthy participants and neurological patients.
Education
Neural and Behavioral Sciences, Ph.D., International Max Planck Research School of Neural and Behavioural Sciences
Postdoc - Stanford University 2015
Postdoc - University of California at Berkeley 2010-2014
Ph.D - Max-Planck International Research School, Germany & NeuroSpin, France 2007-2010
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Bioengineering
Associate Professor, Neuroscience Program
Associate Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Associate Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
External Links
Recent Publications
Weber, M., Cunningham, E., Beck, D. M., Sadaghiani, S., & Wang, R. F. (2024). Effects of task type on spontaneous alternations of attentional states. Memory and Cognition, 52(4), 984-997. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-023-01513-4
Sadaghiani, S., & Alderson, T. H. (2023). Tangling with the Entangled Brain: Putting the Global Back into the Local. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 35(3), 365-367. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01951
Uddin, L. Q., Betzel, R. F., Cohen, J. R., Damoiseaux, J. S., De Brigard, F., Eickhoff, S. B., Fornito, A., Gratton, C., Gordon, E. M., Laird, A. R., Larson-Prior, L., McIntosh, A. R., Nickerson, L. D., Pessoa, L., Pinho, A. L., Poldrack, R. A., Razi, A., Sadaghiani, S., Shine, J. M., ... Spreng, R. N. (2023). Controversies and progress on standardization of large-scale brain network nomenclature. Network Neuroscience, 7(3), 864-905. https://doi.org/10.1162/netn_a_00323
Jun, S., Alderson, T. H., Altmann, A., & Sadaghiani, S. (2022). Dynamic trajectories of connectome state transitions are heritable. NeuroImage, 256, Article 119274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119274
Sadaghiani, S., Brookes, M. J., & Baillet, S. (2022). Connectomics of human electrophysiology. NeuroImage, 247, Article 118788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118788
