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Peter Kirk

@peterakirk.bsky.social
813 followers 715 following 59 posts

Neuroscientist & Psychologist at the NIH | Anxiety & Mood Disorders, Naturalistic Neuroimaging, Subjective Experience, Physiology, Development | Disclaimer: all views/posts are my own.

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Reposted by Peter Kirk
Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Next AFNI Bootcamp: Oct 20-22, 2026! Classes cover: FMRI visualization, full subject-level processing, alignment, regression modeling, and quality control. Registration is free & open to both NIH and non-NIH researchers. Registration+details: afni.nimh.nih.gov/bootcamp Please share widely.
afni.nimh.nih.gov
AFNI Bootcamp: October 20th - 22nd, 2026 | afni.nimh.nih.gov
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Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
In our latest episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, we sit down with Dr. @sidchop.bsky.social from @orygen.org.au and the @unimelb.edu.au to discuss his latest work distinguishing the effects of psychotic illness and antipsychotic medication on the brain.
thebiologicalpsychiatrypodcast.riverside.com
Differential Effects of Psychotic Illness and Antipsychotics on the Brain
In this episode of The Biological Psychiatry Podcast, Dr. Elvisha Dhamala sits down with Dr. Sidhant Chopra from Orygen and the University of Melbourne to discuss his recent paper published in Biologi...
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Hugo Fleming @hugofleming.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
New paper alert! 📣📣 In this work, we investigated the origins of somatic symptoms – a common and debilitating feature of anxiety and depression. 'Anxiety is associated with the persistence of conditioned somatic sensations over time'
osf.io
OSF
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Leah Banellis @leahbanellis.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Sensing your body (‘Interoception’) is everywhere in theories of mental health. But when we tested how well hundreds of people sensed their heart and lungs, the link to symptoms was almost nowhere to be found. 💣 🚨New @natmentalhealth.nature.com paper 🚨🎉 asks why 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s44...
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Sidhant Chopra @sidchop.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
🧠 New work showing prominent and widespread 𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘰 pre-synaptic terminal reductions in people with schizophrenia.🧠 nature.com/articles/s41... Strongest effects in left hemisphere, but synaptic loss didn't track with MRI grey matter alterations, but did align with..👇1/4
nature.com
Widespread synaptic density loss in schizophrenia follows molecular and network architecture - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Widespread synaptic density loss in schizophrenia follows molecular and network architecture
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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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Leah Banellis @leahbanellis.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
🎉 Excited to share our publication in PNAS! 🎉 What happens when our stream of consciousness turns towards the body? Our fMRI study of 536 individuals finds that 'body-wandering' is associated with patterns of brain connectivity, physiology, affect, and mental health: www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
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Caroline Nettekoven @carobellum.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
🧠 Resting-state fMRI is often treated as the gold standard for studying the brain’s intrinsic organization. But is it actually the best way to estimate functional architecture? We tested this directly. 🧵1/8
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Our latest work on the neurobiology of subjective emotional experience in anxiety is out now in SCAN 🧠 Brief summary below 👇 doi.org/10.1093/scan...
doi.org
Linking subjective experience of anxiety to brain function using natural language processing
Abstract. Research on anxiety focuses on clinically relevant behaviours and neurophysiological responses, particularly emphasizing recruitment of amygdala,
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Purnima Qamar @purnimaqamar.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Excited to share our new paper in Scientific Reports. Pre-scanning state anxiety was associated with reduced rs-FC in the DMN in a trait-anxious community sample, underscoring how children’s MRI scanning experiences may be associated with rs-FC. Grateful for mentorship from @UCRiverside and @NIH.
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Purnima Qamar @purnimaqamar.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Children’s state anxiety before MRI scanning and resting state functional connectivity in large scale brain networks - Scientific Reports
Introduction Most resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) research does not consider the participant’s subjective state during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Heightened anxiety before an MRI ...
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Tamara Vanderwal @vanderlab.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Controversial? Classic? What if rest is not best? 🤔 Congrats to @halleeshearer.bsky.social for this thoughtful commentary, and thanks to @ninetlab.bsky.social for the 🎬 movie x rTMS 🧲 collaboration. doi.org/10.1162/IMAG...
doi.org
Considering brain state for individualized functional connectivity-based rTMS
Abstract. Recent endeavors to optimize the efficacy of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment have focused on locating individualized stimulation targets using functional connec...
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Paul Taylor @afni-pt.bsky.social · 07/01/2026
Want to learn about FMRI visualization, processing and group analysis? Join us for the next AFNI Bootcamp (Jan. 27-29, 2026) for a fun few days of theory and interactive practicals. Details+registration for this virtual course: afni.nimh.nih.gov/bootcamp
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Alexander Huth @alexanderhuth.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
This paper had a pretty shocking headline result (40% of voxels!), so I dug into it, and I think it is wrong. Essentially: they compare two noisy measures and find that about 40% of voxels have different sign between the two. I think this is just noise!
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Our latest study led by @purnimaqamar.bsky.social on avoidance in pediatric anxiety is out now in Mental Health Science 🎉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Assessing Behavioral Threat Avoidance in Pediatric Anxiety With Naturalistic Games
Behavioral avoidance exacerbates anxiety symptoms. Capturing and identifying maladaptive avoidance patterns holds clinical utility. However, effective assessment tools which provide unique informatio...
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Sarah Garfinkel @sarahgarf.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
** Recruiting a postdoc ** We are looking for a postdoc to work on emotion, mental health, and interoception, based in London at @ucl.ac.uk in my lab (Clinical and Affective Neuroscience). Part of a large Wellcome Grant (co-led with the brilliant @camillanord.bsky.social)
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Hallee Shearer @halleeshearer.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Excited to share our manuscript about BrainEffeX, a tool for exploring fMRI effect sizes. Includes why we made it, how to use it + contribute, and how we made it. @sneuroble.bsky.social @psychonetrics.bsky.social @alexkfischbach.bsky.social @nichols.bsky.social @dscheinost.bsky.social & MINDS Lab
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Gang Chen @gangchen6.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Data only shows associations. Turning those into claims about mechanism or causation? That requires a Rosetta Stone of prior knowledge + theory. Resting-state fMRI is purely observational; correlation is its currency. From this, plenty of "theoretical toys" about brain function can be built...
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Sarah Katharina Buehler @sarahkathbuehler.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Excited to share this new preprint on the Predictive Modelling of Depression Treatment Response using Individual Symptoms and Latent Factors with @clairegillan.bsky.social fresh up on @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
medrxiv.org
Predictive Modelling of Depression Treatment Response using Individual Symptoms and Latent Factors
Machine learning models have increasingly been used to identify predictors of treatment response in depression, and it is hoped that they may eventually help with clinical decision making. However, th...
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Alec Jamieson @alecjamieson.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Our latest work is now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We examined the role of the basal forebrain and its influence on intrinsic brain networks in depressive and anxiety disorders. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s44... @psychunimelb.bsky.social, @mbciu.bsky.social, #UnimelbMDHS
nature.com
Altered basal forebrain regulation of intrinsic brain networks in depressive and anxiety disorders - Nature Mental Health
Using 7T resting-state functional MRI data, the authors investigate the effective connectivity of basal forebrain areas in a transdiagnostic sample of patients with anxiety and depression and healthy ...
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Avram Holmes @avramholmes.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
The @cahbir.bsky.social and @rutgersbhi.bsky.social are hiring! Multiple open area and open rank faculty jobs, wonderful colleagues, amazing resources, and one of the largest communities of brain science research groups on the planet. Please apply and share widely. jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/209...
jobs.rutgers.edu
Human Neuroimaging Faculty Positions in Rutgers Brain Health Institute
The Center for Advanced Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR), a component of the Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) on the Busch campus in Piscataway, NJ, is recruiting for two open rank (Assistant...
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Imaging Neuroscience @imagingneurosci.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Launched in 2023, Imaging Neuroscience is now firmly established, with full indexing (PubMed, etc.) and 700 papers to date. We're very happy to announce that we are able to reduce the APC to $1400. Huge thanks to all authors, reviewers, editorial team+board, and MIT Press.
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Loïc Labache @loiclabache.cpesr.fr · 03/07/2025
Excited to share that our work is now published in Imaging Neuroscience! 🧠🥳 We show how aging reshapes the brain’s language and memory networks, revealing striking shifts in hemispheric specialization across the lifespan. Check it out @imagingneurosci.bsky.social
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
A great week of meetings and presenting in Melbourne, including a visit to @orygen.org.au hosted by @sidchop.bsky.social & Lianne Schmaal. Now off to Brisbane for #OHBM2025. I'll be presenting Tuesday and Wednesday, 9am in the Great Hall both days :)
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Social anxiety may be related to physical avoidance of aversive stimuli in an interactive game. Our latest study, led by @purnimaqamar.bsky.social. osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
Check our latest work ‘Linking Subjective Experience of Anxiety to Brain Function using Natural Language Processing’. Our analyses link movie-evoked brain activity and subsequent interview recordings in a pediatric sample with and without anxiety disorders (doi.org/10.31234/osf...).
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Loïc Labache @loiclabache.cpesr.fr · 12/04/2025
🚨 New #preprint: The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... 🧠 We identify an acetylcholine-norepinephrine axis underlying functional lateralization, along with mitochondrial and cellular correlates. 🧵1/9👇 #neuroskyence
doi.org
The molecular and cellular underpinnings of human brain lateralization
Hemispheric specialization is a fundamental characteristic of human brain organization, where most individuals exhibit left-hemisphere dominance for language and right-hemisphere dominance for visuosp...
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Avram Holmes @avramholmes.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
"To make a meaningful contribution to #neuroscience, #fMRI must break out of its silo." My latest attempt to convince you of the importance of multi-scale approaches for the study of the human brain.
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Leah Banellis @leahbanellis.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Is interoceptive sensing unified across internal organs? 🫀🫁 Our high-powered psychophysical study (N=241) suggests not. Bayesian evidence indicates interoceptive processes are largely modality-specific—challenging the idea of a unitary interoceptive sense. 🔗 Read here: osf.io/preprints/ps...
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Our report on "The Relations Among Anxiety, Movie-Watching, and In-Scanner Motion" is out now in Human Brain Mapping. In short: even anxiety-evoking movies reduce pediatric in-scanner movement compared to 'rest', highlighting its benefit for developmental neuroimaging. doi.org/10.1002/hbm....
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Holmes Lab @holmeslab-bhi.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
The Holmes Lab is #hiring a full-time research assistant/predoc! Our work focuses on functional brain networks-- how they change, how they are impacted in psychiatric illness, and much more! Unfortunately, we cannot sponsor visas for this position. Please rt and reach out if you're interested👀
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Avram Holmes @avramholmes.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Interested in #MRI and #psychiatry? Our lab is hiring a research assistant (@holmeslab-bhi.bsky.social)! Please RT and share. @geneticssociety.bsky.social @ohbmofficial.bsky.social @sfnjournals.bsky.social @pgcgenetics.bsky.social @hitop-system.bsky.social @blackinneuro.bsky.social
holmeslab.rutgers.edu
Holmes Lab – Rutgers Department of Psychiatry
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Stephanie Rossit @stephanierossit.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
🧠 📌 FINAL CALL FOR POST-DOC IN NEUROIMAGING 🧠 📌 Do you have (or will have soon) a PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience or Neuroimaging? Are you looking for a post-doc in neuroimaging? Do you want to join a friendly lab in a fab Psychology department? Do you wish to live in gorgeous Norwich?
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Oliver Robinson @olijrobinson.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Come join us at the ICN. Were looking for an Associate or Full Professor: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... (these jobs aren't advertised very often!)
ucl.ac.uk
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
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Jonny Smallwood @themindwanders.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Interested in understanding what brain activity during movies means from the perspective of the viewer? Then you absolutely need check out this amazing study by @ravenwallace.bsky.social from THinC Lab out now in @elife.bsky.social A thread 🧵 elifesciences.org/articles/97731
elifesciences.org
Mapping patterns of thought onto brain activity during movie-watching
Decoding brain activity using a novel paradigm unveils distinct neural signatures of subjective experiences during movie-watching.
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Stephanie Rossit @stephanierossit.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
I am looking for a post-doc on neuroimaging analysis. Come & join my team at UEA (Norwich, UK). The post is for 32 months starting from April. Norwich is a wonderful & affordable city. ➡Apply: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/13... ⏰Deadline: 13 February 2025 Questions: s.rossit@uea.ac.uk
media.tenor.com
a black and white image of a person 's brain with the letters p and s visible
ALT: a black and white image of a person 's brain with the letters p and s visible
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Stats and ML
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Tamara Vanderwal @vanderlab.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Great work by @halleeshearer.bsky.social in her first first-author paper. With 🎀 shiny app 🎀 to explore how FC reliability fares ACROSS DIFFERENT movies versus rest, region-by-region. Thanks @sneuroble.bsky.social @tingsterx.bsky.social @ninetlab.bsky.social for 👍 collab. doi.org/10.1162/imag...
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 28/12/2024
Back in London for my birthday and celebrating with Chole Bhatura at The Tamil Prince 😋
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Emma Robinson @OHBM 2026 @metricsemma.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I thought this was the conclusion of the original BWAS paper? Either way it's both imaging pipelines (specifically driving features from population average atlases) and noisy target phenotypes
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
Happy to share our latest paper on 'using movies to study subjective, clinically meaningful experiences in neuroscience' 🎞️🧠. doi.org/10.1093/cerc...
doi.org
Extending insights from LeDoux: using movies to study subjective, clinically meaningful experiences in neuroscience
Abstract. Neuroscience research with public health relevance to emotional disorders examines brain–behavior relations. Joe LeDoux’s legacy advances these e
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Matthias Nau @matthiasnau.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
#Neuroimaging crowd, hear me out! 👀 Did you ever want to add #EyeTracking to your #fMRI study but found it too much hassle? Got existing data you’d love to add eye tracking to? Consider trying out *MR-based eye tracking* (i.e. inferring gaze from eye voxels)! Here is a 🧵 with a few options!👇 1/9
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Tamara Vanderwal @vanderlab.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Working on new film project (INSCAPES 2!!). 💥. Does anyone have an audio recording of a modern, commonly used EPI sequence they could share? The composer builds her score around the types of sounds that occur inside the scanner, so I'm trying to get a few for her to listen to...🎵
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Arielle Keller @ariellekeller.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Starting a Human Neuroimaging pack, let me know if you’d like to be added! 🧠 go.bsky.app/8xs6oWw
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PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁/𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 In a previous fMRI study we use a broad set of regions. Are there other studies that have good sets of ROIs? Are there some important regions missing from our set? Thanks. 🧠 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
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Peter Kirk @peterakirk.bsky.social · 20/10/2024
Happy to share our latest paper on 'using movies to study subjective, clinically meaningful experiences in neuroscience' 🎞️🧠. doi.org/10.1093/cerc...
doi.org
Extending insights from LeDoux: using movies to study subjective, clinically meaningful experiences in neuroscience
Abstract. Neuroscience research with public health relevance to emotional disorders examines brain–behavior relations. Joe LeDoux’s legacy advances these e
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Micah G. Allen @micahgallen.com · 10/06/2024
Got a bad gut feeling 😖? In a new study, led by the brilliant @leahbanellis.bsky.social and Ignacio Rebollo, we combined fMRI & electrogastrographic (EGG) imaging in more than 200 participants to uncover links between the gastric-brain axis and mental health.  www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...  🧵👇
A complex figure showing an overview of our stomach-brain to psychiatric symptom fingerprinting pipeline.
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Pete Hitchcock @pf-hitchcock.bsky.social · 13/05/2024
We are looking for a postdoc at the Translational Lab (translational-lab.com) at Emory! Pls 🔄 We focus on: * when & why decision-making goes awry in depression and anxiety * developing potent and scalable interventions A range of projects are possible w/in this scope. Informal inquiries welcome
translational-lab.com
Home
The Translational Lab focuses on when and why decision-making goes awry in depression and anxiety disorders and on developing potent and scalable interventions to improve it. Some topics of particula...
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Emily Finn @esfinn.bsky.social · 06/03/2024
Our lab is hiring a lab manager/RA to start in summer 2024! Learn cutting-edge behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging tools applied to big Qs in cog&social psych. Send qs my way, and apply through the official posting here: searchjobs.dartmouth.edu/postings/727...
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