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Leonard Asan

@asankleo.bsky.social
85 followers 137 following 2 posts

Affective Neuroscience | Doctoral candidate at Uni Med Center Hamburg as part of www.emotionalmemory.de | Investigating opioidergic mechanisms of motivation-induced pain modulation

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Reposted by Leonard Asan
Communications Biology @commsbio.nature.com · 03/09/2026
🧠Decoding neural threat-reward information using high-precision MEG in humans shows that defensive cardiac states sharpen low-frequency value representations in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during decision making under threat. PDF ↪️ www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Defensive cardiac states sharpen neural value representations during decision making - Communications Biology
Decoding neural threat-reward information using high-precision MEG in humans shows that defensive cardiac states sharpen low-frequency value representations in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex during ...
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Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens @mklingelhoeferj.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
New preprint together with @kuhnmanu.bsky.social, @tobiassommer.bsky.social & @tinalonsdorf.bsky.social! 🧠 Can recent adversity shape how we learn and retrieve threat? And can these changes predict the onset of symptoms? Find out on bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Recent Adversity Shapes Autonomic and Neural Threat Learning and Retrieval Under Imminent Threat: A Prospective Longitudinal Study
Recent adversity (RA) increases the risk of later mental health problems, but the mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unclear. Altered associative learning and specifically threat le...
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Leonard Asan @asankleo.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Criticism of neuroimaging methodology is important. I think it is equally important to represent the studies that motivate such criticism and their implications accurately. Otherwise, methodological criticism risks turning into an overly simplistic debate about the field's shortcomings.
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Andreas Strube @astrube.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
Many thanks to the @biodgps-dgpa.bsky.social and all colleagues for awarding me the DGPA Early Career Award 2026 at the fantastic #PuG2026! I am also grateful to the @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social for the support of my scientific work and the great research environment and network.
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Universität Hamburg @uni-hamburg.de · 02/06/2026
🧠 Neue Informationen gleicht das Gehirn mit Erinnerungen ab und verknüpft sie miteinander. Ein Forschungsteam unter der Leitung von Prof. Lars Schwabe aus dem Arbeitsbereich Kognitionspsychologie (@stresscognition.bsky.social) zeigt nun, dass diese Prozesse durch Stress negativ beeinflusst werden.
uni-hamburg.de
Eingeschränkte Schlussfolgerungen: Wie Stress unser Gehirn beeinflusst
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Lauren Atlas @laurenatlas.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Our multiverse analysis of associations between skin conductance and acute pain is published! >550 participants x 18 SCR pipelines = 1 winning approach to SCR analysis! (Ledalab + artifact detection). thread below. We hope others find this useful! Please RT :) journals.lww.com/pain/fulltex...
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RTG Emotional Learning and Memory @rtg2753.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
📄New publication from Kai Schüren et al. shows that acute stress impairs memory integration by reducing hippocampal reactivation during new learning. With Broad implications for educational, legal & clinical settings. 🔗https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea5496 www.nature.com/articles/d41...
science.org
Stress disrupts hippocampal integration of overlapping events and memory inference in humans
Stress disrupts inference by reducing hippocampal reactivation of related content and differentiating overlapping events.
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Reposted by Leonard Asan
Ole Goltermann @olegolt.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
A recent paper by Epp et al. in NN claimed that ~40% of reported BOLD findings could be misinterpreted. In our reanalysis, we identified several statistical issues that, in our view, undermine these conclusions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 👇 1/11
biorxiv.org
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Livia Asan @liviaasan.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
We looked at a global cohort of >145,000 patients with a record of FND in the last 30 ys in TriNetX: confirmed frequent comorbidities and outcomes often worse than in MS. Read in JAMA Neurology: tinyurl.com/yc4wfyaj Open access to the accepted manuscript: osf.io/rwtnp @fndsociety.bsky.social
jamanetwork.com
Comorbidities and Outcomes in People with Functional Neurological Disorder
This cohort study compared the prevalence of neurological comorbidities among people with functional neurological disorder versus those with epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
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Christian Büchel @christianbuchel.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Howard Fields was a great scientist and one of the pioneers unravelling the descending pain modulatory system. He was also interacting with human pain scientists and I vividly remember my visits to UCSF in 2013 during my sabbatical at Stanford to discuss ideas with him. He will be dearly missed.
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Ole Goltermann @olegolt.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Thanks for your comments Valentin, much appreciated - and thanks as well for sharing the data publicly! A few thoughts on your points 👇
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Tim Behrens @behrenstimb.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This is the May cover of NN but it has already been debunked on biorxiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Such a clear statement about the ridiculous pace of publishing (not just NN).
biorxiv.org
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Karin Roelofs @epanlab.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
🧠 Congrats @felixklaassen.bsky.social with this unique DBS case study targeting the midbrain PAG. Direct PAG stimulation (and not a bordering control region) induces threat-specific bradycardia ❤️ @devoogdld.bsky.social @anneloeshulsman.bsky.social & co-authors www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Stimulation of the human periaqueductal gray induces threat bradycardia: a case report
The ability to recognize and anticipate potential danger is crucial for survival across species. The midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG) is implicated in regulating threat-anticipatory responses, in...
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Andreas Strube @astrube.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
1/6 Our paper is out today in Nature Communications! From the SFB/TRR 289 Treatment Expectation @sfb-trr-289.bsky.social we show that temporal expectations shape somatosensory perception - for both painful heat AND non-painful cold stimuli.
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Livia Asan @liviaasan.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Milestone for FND care in Germany: first guideline on functional motor disorder, published by German Neurol. Society. I contributed to comorbidities, pharmacotherapy & placebo/nocebo. Hope it's a valuable resource for clinicians & support people living with FND. register.awmf.org/de/leitlinie...
register.awmf.org
AWMF Leitlinienregister
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Fabian Schneider @fabianschneider.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Same sound, different perception: Do expectations change what you hear?👂🧠 We paired faces w topics and played the same ambiguous speech w different faces. The brain sharpened sensory signals toward predictions and showed gated prediction errors at higher levels. Read @plosbiology.org. Blueprint👇
dx.plos.org
Sensory sharpening and semantic prediction errors unify competing models of predictive processing in human speech comprehension
Speech comprehension relies on predictive mechanisms, but models disagree on whether the brain prioritizes expected or unexpected information. This study shows that sharpening of sensory representatio...
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Science Magazine @science.org · 26/12/2025
A 2024 study found that ants best humans at tests of collective intelligence. Learn more: scim.ag/42nMvQJ #ScienceMagArchives
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Marie Habermann @mahabermann.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Excited to share that the main work of my PhD has been published! We found that having control over pain makes expectations more precise, and changes pain perception. This is accompanied by activation changes in the PAG, SMA and ACC. You can read the full version of the paper here: rdcu.be/eQy6X
rdcu.be
Controllability changes pain perception by increasing the precision of expectations
Nature Communications - Control over pain changes how intense it is perceived. Here, the authors show that this effect results from increased expectation precision with control, which changes...
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Lena Szabó @lenaszabo.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
Criminal risk behavior can be an early sign of dementia - raising important clinical and legal questions. Excited to share the findings from our meta-analysis: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Ulrike Horn @ulrikehorn.bsky.social · 26/08/2025
I am thrilled about this new preprint of ours! Using 7T fMRI of the spinal cord we uncover two different spinal response components – phasic and tonic heat responses – that map differentially onto superficial and deep layers of the dorsal horn! 🔥Long thread upcoming!🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Ultra-high-field fMRI reveals layer-specific responses in the human spinal cord
Developments in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at ultra-high field (UHF) now allow for insights into human brain function at mesoscopic scale. However, similar progress has not been achi...
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eLife @elife.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Exercise can reduce pain. But you don’t have to just work out harder to feel the benefit. New research suggests that fitness level and sex may play a bigger role than exercise intensity in how we experience exercise-induced pain relief. buff.ly/6oo87SW
legs of runners
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Siri Leknes @sirileknes.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
Major news! Exhaustive metaanalysis (N=2706) finding that endogenous opioids play a MINOR role in human pain regulation: Consistent with 0.3 on 11-point VAS By @isabellmeier.bsky.social @martintrostheim.bsky.social @marieeikemo.bsky.social @loseth.bsky.social et al Thread 👇 osf.io/preprints/os...
osf.io
OSF
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PAIN @painthejournal.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
May et al. find that the relationship between peak alpha frequency and pain does not generalize to brief experimental pain calling for a systematic exploration across different pain types. Learn more in #PAIN bit.ly/3Hmxszm
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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 09/07/2025
Hilft künstliche Intelligenz bei der #Demenz - Diagnose? Simon Hofmann @mpicbs.bsky.social erklärt im neuen #AchMensch Podcast, wie sich Ärzte in Zukunft durch #KI unterstützen lassen können und woran der Einsatz bislang scheitert detektor.fm/wissen/ach-m... #Medizin #Gehirn @detektorfm.bsky.social
detektor.fm
Kann KI in der Medizin Leben retten, Simon Hofmann?
Der Neurowissenschaftler Simon Hofmann untersucht, wie künstliche Intelligenz in der Medizin zum Einsatz kommen kann.
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Leonard Asan @asankleo.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
important, please give this a read!
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PAIN @painthejournal.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Hubschmid et al. find that monetary rewards increase sensory signal strength leading to enhanced pain discrimination. Mechanistically, this process seems to be driven by learning from positive prediction errors. Learn more in #PAIN bit.ly/4lWzNjb
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