Neurospeed - Baillet Lab: Neural Dynamics of Brain Systems

12/15/2025

🚨Just published in open-access in Cell Reports by Cell Press: our latest work on how brain activity evolves across the human lifespan.

We analyzed resting-state (MEG) data from more than 1,000 people aged 4-89 to understand how individualized neurophysiological traits change with age.

We found that brain activity is more similar to one another in childhood, but become increasingly unique through development and into adulthood.

The brain regions that most distinguish individuals also shift with age, with sensorimotor areas playing a bigger role in adulthood. Importantly, these changes align with patterns of gene expression tied to neural signaling, suggesting that genetic influences on brain individuality strengthen over time.

These insights deepen our understanding of how the biological foundations of brain function unfold across life and highlight new avenues for studying individual differences in health and cognition.
👏🙏🏼 Jason da Silva Castanheira, Alex Wiesman and Margot Taylor!

The Neuro, Centre de recherche du CHUM

12/12/2025

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A lot of brains and one big heart tonight at the farewell-to-2025 party of Centre de recherche du CHUM.

See you in 2026 as we continue moving the lines across the full continuum: research, innovation, better care, and a knowledge-driven, healthier society!

11/28/2025

Please repost: another kind of Black-Friday deal!

10/20/2025

Congratulations Dr. Niloofar Gharesi, on your brilliant McGill University PhD defence today! Thank you, Prof. John Kalaska for the collaboration with Université de Montréal.
Another newly minted lab graduate on her way to do great things. Her next employer will be lucky to have her.

10/16/2025

We are thrilled to announce that our lab has two newly minted McGill University Neuroscience PhDs: congratulations, Dr. Xiaobo Liu and Dr. Jonathan Gallego!

10/07/2025

Congratulations to Xiaobo Liu for successfully defending his PhD thesis earlier today!

Wishing you to fulfill your big dreams in the next chapter of your professional journey!

10/01/2025

We're starting a new neuroSPEED chapter, growing a new team at Université de Montréal and Montreal's main University Hospital (CHUM) -- stay tuned!

https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/article/2025/09/26/sylvain-baillet-enseigner-la-science-batir-des-ponts-former-les-nouvelles-generations

09/29/2025

About ten years ago, Prof. Sylvia Villeneuve and the PREVENT-AD team took a bold step: they decided to add MEG recordings to an already intensive longitudinal study of individuals at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. It was a leap into the unknown, but one that is now paying off. Evidence is mounting that subtle changes in brain activity occur long before symptoms emerge, and may even anticipate the pathological build-up of proteins that drive the disease.

This new paper marks a major milestone for PREVENT-AD. I am deeply grateful to Sylvia and the team for their enthusiasm and resilience over the past decade. Their vision and dedication have led to a series of impactful studies and high-profile publications, and the future promises even more insights as this unique dataset continues to grow.

Read the paper in open access:

The PResymptomatic EValuation of Experimental or Novel Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease (PREVENT-AD) is an investigator-driven study that was created in 2011 and enrolled cognitively normal older ...

09/10/2025

How does the brain decide what we actually see? New collaborative study led by Janine Mendola, published open-access in iScience.
When each eye is presented with a different image, our perception flips back and forth between them. This phenomenon, called "binocular rivalry", opens a window into the nature of conscious visual perception.

We tracked, in real time with MEG imaging, how the brain coordinates these perceptual switches. We found that changes in brain rhythms determine when one image takes over, when perception becomes unstable, and how information flows between visual areas and higher-order regions.

One step toward better understanding the neurophysiological foundations of conscious experience. 🌈

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113383

Star trainees in charge: Eric Mokri & Jason Da Silva Castanheira

09/04/2025

Honoured to be elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada | La Société royale du Canada, Academy of Science.

Grateful to 🇨🇦 for the opportunities, and to all colleagues and trainees McGill University The Neuro for this shared recognition🙏🏼.

08/28/2025

PracticalMEEG-2025 is offering two early-bird fees for Brainstorm trainers until September 12 !

Register now and contribute to supporting the Brainstorm community ! ❤️

https://cuttingeeg.org/practicalmeeg2025/

08/09/2025

We have a newly minted ⁦‪‬⁩ ⁦‪‬⁩ PhD: congratulations Dr Zaida Martínez Moreno!