iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 25/09/2026

Had an incredible time @dukemedschool.bsky.social where I got a chance to share some insight on eliciting TMS phosphenes with the Wuwei Feng lab. See you again soon?

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 14/07/2026

In case you missed the first day of @wmsymposium.bsky.social, I had the chance to share for the first time our psychophysical TMS approach for studying cognition. With @thehandlab.bsky.social, @nkonstantinou.bsky.social, & @eester.bsky.social Very excited for this one! More soon.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 01/07/2026

This provides the field with a dataset representative of the state-of-the-art & robust estimates of TUS effects. 3/5

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 30/06/2026

Honoured to be officially joining the @globalyacademy.bsky.social family!

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 11/04/2026

It is a great honour & a dream come true becoming a member of the @globalyacademy.bsky.social. Looking forward to becoming a small part of this amazing community. Congrats to all incoming members (globalyoungacademy.net/gya-new-memb...) & see you all very soon!

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 12/02/2026

Some thoughts on reviewing papers: 1. I always sign my reviews. I think it allows me to do a better job, remain kind, and be transparent about my potential biases or conflicts of interest with their work. Some journals hate it when I do it, but I still do, and always will. You should try it. 1/5

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 06/02/2026

Today, together with @eester.bsky.social we are checking and fixing all electrodes. A procedure we like to call surgerEEG.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 07/01/2026

TIL from @thehandlab.bsky.social that there are as many TMS related acronyms (tRA) as there are papers in the field.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 21/10/2025

Happy 10-20 day to all other nerds who celebrate.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 14/10/2025

2025: “I’ve got this innovative idea to study pupil responses as a measure of brain stimulation” Meanwhile in 1875:

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 01/09/2025

It is with immense honour that I share that as of today, I’m officially an MSCA fellow @unevadareno.bsky.social benefitting from the minds of @eester.bsky.social & @nkonstantinou.bsky.social 1/3

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 23/08/2025

Today, I had my final walk around campus, remembering the very first visit. I joined Western in hopes of becoming a better scientist, and on top of that, I like to think that I became a better person. 3/3

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

Introducing a new proxy of cortical excitability paves the way for wider use of TMS. Objective measures can be taken outside of M1, and TMS applications can now include individuals who are MEP-negative. [7/end]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

Our sham controls show that pupil responses are not due to auditory artefacts. Additional alternatives were also ruled out. No pupil lateralisation effects were found (i.e., no spill-over iris muscle TMS), and no pupil size differences were found between high vs low MEP activity per intensity. [6/n]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

Further, following inhibitory tDCS, we found a decrease in the TMS-induced pupil dilation peaks as compared to baseline, reflecting the anticipated cortical excitability decrease. [5/n]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

These TMS-induced dilations were dissociable across TMS intensities and between sham & active TMS. [4/n]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

In three experiments (total n = 59) we found consistent TMS-induced pupil dilations, that peaked approx. 1 s after TMS. We showed this consistent effect in two different isoluminant conditions (300 & 400 lux) and with two different eye-trackers (eyelink & tobii). [3/n]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 03/08/2025

Speculations about the nexus between pupil size and cortical excitability have existed for a while, but evidence for this link is scarce and mainly indirect. We wanted to test it out, by measuring TMS-induced pupil dilations at different TMS intensities and before vs after tDCS inhibition. [2/n]

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 16/06/2025

Here’s how I’ve been utilising the excessive amounts of coffee I’m consuming at @westernu.bsky.social lately.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 11/05/2025

Are you coming to London Health Research Day @westernu.bsky.social ? Come to our ( @daspainbrain.bsky.social , @drsmschabrun.bsky.social ) talk to find out how we’ve been using TMS induced pupil dilations to measure cortical excitability. You can also hear all about it at @vssmtg.bsky.social

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 19/04/2025

This is the sign you’ve been waiting for to get yourself a copy of the Publish or Perish Game.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 01/04/2025

This reflection moment from today brought a very fulfilling smile to my face. If you want to get my two-cents for a successful MSCA-PF, you can hear all about it here: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/worldwide/no...

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 31/03/2025

Past few days have been extremely fruitful: Delivered a fun little intro to TMS workshop for @westernuwin.bsky.social BrainHack, presented some recent findings on the nexus between WM & Pain for @westernknowpain.bsky.social & shared some insights for a successful MSCA for EURAXESS-NA. Fun stuff!

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 10/03/2025

The most expensive photo I’ve ever taken. The end result? My irises look like a couple of overcooked bagels.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 28/02/2025

I look at this little fella and I see myself at the conference breakfast buffet, 30 min after the first session started. It’s fur’s gorgeous by the way, I shall call it Racoonzel.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 22/02/2025

Still a baby though. Haven’t even grown hair yet.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 31/01/2025

Throwback to when I created a picture CV for post-doc applications:

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 23/12/2024

Leaving the meeting with my PI without taking notes:

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 19/12/2024

“I have a very novel research idea” The idea:

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 10/12/2024

As an example, we discuss how we can target V1-IPS backprojections, to study some of the strongest arguments against the sensory recruitment framework, while we discuss the necessary steps forward to bring cortico-cortical TMS to fruition for working memory research. 5/5

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 10/12/2024

Cortico-cortical TMS uses two coils over a cortico-cortical network, enabling us to interfere with the targeted network. This enables us to test the role of a cortico-cortical network during working memory. E.g., backprojections across V1-IPS, or occipitofrontal connectivity 4/5

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 04/12/2024

“Did you try it on yourself?”

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 28/11/2024

Post a photo of yourself from a different era - Phivos with hair, circa 2010

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 24/11/2024

Όι! Εν άλλο πράμα η λίστα. Πίεννε στο προφίλ σου τζιαι πάτα «starter pack»

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 18/04/2024

Hey, let’s become colleagues! Dr. Siobhan Schabrun is looking for 2 postdocs. Join our lab where we study the neural & biological underpinnings of pain. TMS, EEG, fMRI, multiomics, you name it!

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 17/04/2024

We show that in most cases, when the H0 is true, the BF fails to reach/exceed BF > 6. Following previous recommendations, we suggest the use of flexible thresholds. As such, even when researchers are aiming for a BF > 10 for H1, a BF > 3 should be considered adequate for H0. 5/5

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 17/04/2024

We are not the first to mention this disanalogy, however we wanted to provide evidence for it. We run a simulation and calculated 200 million BF, simulating either a true H1 or a true H0 with various n, sd, and d. 4/n

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 17/04/2024

For example, with the commonly used Bayesian t-test, there is disanalogous relationship between calculating a BF when H1 is true vs when H0 is true, when relying on the Savage-Dickey approach. 3/n

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 23/02/2024

Deeply honoured that project RESTORE was among the selected proposals! Exciting things to come. Stay tuned to find out how we’ll combine TMS-EEG to unravel the neural underpinnings of visual working memory. #neuroskyence #academicsky #brainsky

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 14/12/2023

Also, with a subset of our data, we found that PT intensities are higher than MT.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 14/12/2023

This correlation remained robust in all subsequent exploratory analyses. The exploratory analyses showed that different parameters (such as single vs paired pulse for PT, and 50 vs. 100 μV for MT), affect the linear relationship.

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Phivos Phylactou @phivph.com · 14/12/2023

A few studies have tried to clarify whether PT and MT are correlated, though they provided contradictory findings. We gathered them all, and conducted a meta-correlation revealing that the two are correlated (ρ = 0.4).

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