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David Baranger

@davidbaranger.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.1K following 511 posts

Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. 🧀 Substance use, neuroscience, genetics, & development. 🍺🧠🧬 Rock climber & dad. He/him. 🧗 Opinions my own. 🤔 bearlab.science 🐻

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Reposted by David Baranger
Luca Sclisizzo @luca-sclisizzo.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
🚨 New Preprint out! What if psychosis is not a single, homogeneous construct? "Parsing the functional heterogeneity of psychosis spectrum" addresses this question defining a genetic gradient across the spectrum. 🧬 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
medrxiv.org
Parsing the Functional Heterogeneity of the Psychosis Spectrum: A Clinically Informed Application of Genomic Structural Equation Modeling
Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression vary in their age of onset, cognitive impacts, degree of impairment, and clinical course. However, since psychosis is a transdiagnostic feature th...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Probably just shouting into the void but... participants in the Human Connectome Project (HCP-YA) are related! You can't just resample willy-nilly! #neuroskyence #neuroimaging
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Data visualization is storytelling. After Elspeth Kirkman: www.instagram.com/reel/DcSlOws...
Plot of four charts, each showing time vs age, in years. Each plot shows a different aspect - actual (linear), reported (staircase), development (log age), and perception of time passage (log time).
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Stoked to share that I was awarded a 2026 BBRF Young Investigator Grant for my proposal "Decoding the Comorbidity of Alcohol and Depression with Dense-sampling fMRI"! Huge thanks to @bbrfoundation.bsky.social and colleagues at @medicalcollegeofwi.bsky.social for their support.
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ethan whitman @ethanwhitman777.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
New preprint ! Poor sleep is correlated with accelerated aging. But is this relationship causal? We’re not so sure. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Ashley Watts @ashleylwatts.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Excited to share a paper recently accepted at Nature Mental Health! 😄 For decades, we've assumed that covariance among psychopathology informs comorbidity. What if we’ve been wrong?
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Scott Marek @smarek0502.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
What matters most for childhood brain organization? We analyzed 649 variables. The answer: Socioeconomics (SES); with brain patterns pointing at sleep & stress as drivers. Even brain-IQ associations were better explained by SES. In Science today: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Tayler Sheahan @taylersheahan.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I'm recruiting a postdoc! The Sheahan Lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin is looking to add a postdoctoral fellow to our team to expand our work studying the neurobiology of itch and pain in the central nervous system. Please share and reach out if you have any questions!
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Stoked for #SOBP2026! Come by poster F324 to chat about some new imaging genetics work - "Genetic Contributions to Working Memory Activation in Early Adolescence - Links to Psychopathology and Cognition"
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
The first preprint from the lab is up! Are structural MRI correlates of substance use shared across substances, or are there unique associations? And do these reflect predispositional risk and/or possibly the effects of substance exposure? www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... #neuroskyence
medrxiv.org
Brain Structure and Substance Use: Disentangling Risk, Exposure, and Drug-Specific Effects
Importance: Polysubstance use is common, but substance use associations with neuroimaging measures have largely been investigated within individual drug types. Whether effects are substance-specific o...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
So infuriating. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
nytimes.com
Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Please say hi at #ACNP if you'd like to chat with either of us about this opportunity!!
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Toddler requested a "Master Yoda" bedtime story
media.tenor.com
darth vader is standing in front of a wall with the words join me below him
ALT: darth vader is standing in front of a wall with the words join me below him
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐋𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬. New from us, led by @sarahepaul.bsky.social. PheWAS in ABCD identifies many potentially modifiable substance use risk factors! www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Great work led by Andrew Castillo extending sample size stability analyses to interactions! We've also added a function implementing these analyses to the InteractionPoweR R package: dbaranger.github.io/InteractionP... #rstats
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PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
When do interaction/moderation effects stabilize in linear regression?: osf.io/35t84
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Reliability and sample size have a non-linear relationship. Linear increases in reliability yield diminishing reductions in the required sample size.
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
If you are ever working on a project and see r=0.98 between variables that are supposedly different, your first thought should be "oh $&*! what went wrong?", NOT "I wonder what mediates this???"
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Shout out to BEAR Lab research tech Daniella Fernandez (who only joined 4 months ago!) whose poster abstract was selected for a nanosymposium at the annual meeting of the Upper Midwest Chapter of SFN this weekend! #neuroskyence #MRI 🧠🍺
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Applications for the Career Development Institute (CDI) in Psychiatry are open! Strongly recommend for senior grad students and postdocs. cdipsychiatry.org
cdipsychiatry.org
CDI Psychiatry |
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Interesting approach that aligns mouse and human brain-wide data using transcriptomics and structural connectivity. I'm curious if anyone here has tried using it yet? #neuroskyence www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... transbrain.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
biorxiv.org
TransBrain: A computational framework for translating brain-wide phenotypes between humans and mice
Despite remarkable advances in whole-brain imaging technologies, the lack of quantitative approaches to bridge rodent preclinical and human studies remains a critical challenge. Here we present TransB...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 15/10/2025
Official job ad is up! careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
careers.peopleclick.com
Postdoctoral Researcher
Medical College of Wisconsin - Postdoctoral Researcher - Milwaukee WI 53201
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
A new favorite citation appeared!
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
TIL in Windows you can use PowerShell to search not only file names but also text file contents - including .R and .Rhistory files. In a moment of pure insanity, 1.5 years ago I did not save the code for a figure, but it was recorded in an old .Rhistory file!
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Excited to share that I am officially recruiting a postdoc to study the neurobiology of addiction! Looking for someone who would be excited to lead current projects in the lab and develop new directions in related areas. More info: bearlab.science/opportunities/
bearlab.science
Opportunities
Interested in the neuroscience of addiction? We are recruiting at all levels!! Reach out to Dr. Baranger – dbaranger@mcw.edu Postdoctoral fellows/Senior Scientists: Please send an email conta…
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Jamie Hanson @jamielarsh.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
🧠📊 New research examines potential bias in brain age algorithms across racial groups 📈 Study of 6 popular algorithms found lower accuracy for African American participants (r=0.51-0.85) compared to White/Hispanic participants (r=0.57-0.89)/1
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭-𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 | "The predominant lifespan trajectory is inverted U-shaped, rising from childhood to peak in young adulthood before declining in later adulthood" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
The lifespan trajectories of brain activities related to conflict-driven cognitive control
Cognitive control is fundamental to human goal-directed behavior. Understanding its trajectory across the lifespan is crucial for optimizing cognitive…
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 | "Although interaction effects were detected, they were small and practically negligible in their explanation of variance in externalizing behaviors" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Additive and Interactive Relations of Personality and Cognition With Externalizing Behaviors - Nathaniel L. Phillips, Nathan T. Carter, Kevin M. King, Courtland S. Hyatt, Max M. Owens, Donald R. Lynam...
Personality and cognition offer robust frameworks to understand the individual differences associated with externalizing behaviors. However, these literatures h...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Wooo NOA day! Phew.
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
If you're looking at pre-6.0 ABCD results with subcortical rs-fMRI correlations, the labels are all wrong! We reported a result as Auditory - L Putamen, but it it was actually Default Mode - L Cerebellum. docs.abcdstudy.org/latest/docum...
docs.abcdstudy.org
6.0 data release
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
If interactions are incorrectly used when the actual hypothesis is an additive effect, then what's the appropriate test? stats.stackexchange.com/questions/66... #stats #rstats
stats.stackexchange.com
Test if two coefficients in a linear model are both significant
Is there a single test one can perform that would be significant if two coefficients in a linear model are both different from 0, but would not be significant if only one of them differs from 0? Ye...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Folks who had RAs learn R while in your lab - what resources were helpful? Are things like datacamp worth it?
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Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Don't miss this interview with ✨new✨ @npp-journal.bsky.social Associate Editor Dr. Arpana Agrawal & our Special Projects Manager @brikchen.bsky.social Hear Dr. Agrawal's thoughts on the scope of the journal, NPP articles, and the role of peer reviewers (aka YOU!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HqN...
youtube.com
npp's "Meet the Editor" with Dr. Arpana Agrawal
YouTube video by NPP Journal
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A.S.H. @alexanderhatoum.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Collecting large genome-wide samples may de-risk reinvestment in psychopharmaceuticals. Expanding on past work that lumped all psychiatric disorders together, we conducted a test of the utility of GWAS for specific psychiatric indications. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Psychiatric genome-wide association study enrichment shows promise for future psychopharmaceutical discoveries - Communications Medicine
Hatoum et al. undertake exploratory analysis of genome-wide association studies of specific psychiatric disorders to find existing medications that treat those disorders and genetic pathways that may ...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Out now, led by @alexanderhatoum.bsky.social! GWAS associations are enriched for existing psychiatric drug targets www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Psychiatric genome-wide association study enrichment shows promise for future psychopharmaceutical discoveries - Communications Medicine
Hatoum et al. undertake exploratory analysis of genome-wide association studies of specific psychiatric disorders to find existing medications that treat those disorders and genetic pathways that may ...
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
I'm sorry, what is this scale????
Reads: "Please rate the priority for publishing this article (1 is the highest priority, 10 is the lowest priority): 10,6,7,8,1,2,3,4..."
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
Reliability of a difference score vs. reliability of an interaction term.
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
The BEAR Lab will be opening it's doors in July at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and we are looking for our first Research Tech! This position will help with funded MRI studies looking at the brain and alcohol use. More info: bearlab.science/contact/ #neuroscience #psychology #sciencejobs
bearlab.science
Contact
We are actively recruiting a Research Technologist! (start date ~7/1/25) Job ad is coming soon. This position will primarily assist with funded studies examining brain function in people who drink …
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Tayler Sheahan @taylersheahan.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Despite all of *waves around*, the Sheahan Lab is putting one foot in front of the other and is looking for a research technician. A great position for someone interested in gaining more neuroscience experience in itch & pain before applying for grad/med school: shorturl.at/DW3fU 🧠 #PainResearch
shorturl.at
Research Technologist I
Medical College of Wisconsin - Research Technologist I - Milwaukee WI 53201
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
I'll be standing up for science tomorrow at Madison! www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...
eventbrite.com
Stand Up for Science 2025 - Madison, WI
Stand up for science with us on March 7th, 2025, because science is for everyone! More info at www.standupforscience2025.org
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Are there any lists of which labs are hiring postbacs this year? With the IRTA program down, there are many more undergrads looking for positions! 🧪 🧠 #science #neuroscience #psychology
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Bryce Canyon, 2021
A photo of the "Thor's hammer" rock formation, taken at Bryce Canyon National Park in 2021
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João Guassi Moreira @jfguassimoreira.bsky.social · 09/07/2024
Chuffed to share my latest! A review of fMRI MVPA methods specifically tailored for developmental cognitive neuroscientists.
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Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... This is by far the best, clearest and most realistic analysis of what we're in for that I've seen.
foreignaffairs.com
The Path to American Authoritarianism
What comes after democratic breakdown.
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
End of an era. I have so many friends and colleagues who I met as an IRTA. How many of us would be scientists, clinicians, doctors, or researchers without that training? Probably many many fewer. Would I be a scientist right now? Likely not.
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David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Good #dataviz of how much will be lost with the NIH cuts: flo.uri.sh/visualisatio...
newsweek.com
Map shows red states losing the most funding from NIH cuts
The NIH's new 15 percent limit on indirect funding could cost states billions of dollars in medical research funding.
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Tim Mosca (he/him) @drosophilosophy.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Oh. My. God. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
grants.nih.gov
NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates NOT-OD-25-068. OD
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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Cool study by @ndosenbach.bsky.social et al. looking at individual prediction of traits in tasks 👇 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... Nice addition to our work looking at the same problem using our state space method in the HCP Led by the amazing @hardigirl.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42...
nature.com
Personality traits vary in their association with brain activity across situations - Communications Biology
Brain-wide activity patterns show stronger links to personality traits under certain task-contexts than others. These results emphasize the importance of situational factors in finding reliable brain-...
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