Speaker: Prof. Nathan Spreng
James McGill Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University
Director, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, Montreal Neurological Institute.

RSVP: Link to the recording of the second session.

The impact of loneliness on functional brain network organization across the lifespan (11:00 AM – 12:00 PM): Loneliness emerges when one’s need for interpersonal connection is unmet. Loneliness is a modifiable risk factor associated with poor mental and brain health across the lifespan. Over a series of studies examining the impact of loneliness on brain function, measured with resting-state functional connectivity, and analyzed using partial least squares analysis (PLS), we have demonstrated that associations between self-reported loneliness and functional network organization changes over the adult life course. In early adulthood, higher levels of loneliness are associated with greater integration of visual regions with higher order association networks. From late middle-age and into older adulthood, this pattern shifts, with greater integration observed among higher order association networks and a relative isolation of the visual system. We hypothesize that these age-differences in network organization in the context of loneliness may reflect a shift from externally-oriented processing (e.g., perceiving negative social cues) in young, to more internally-oriented processing (e.g., reminiscing or mentalizing about social experiences) in the later decades of life. These findings raise the intriguing possibility that the phenomena of loneliness may be a qualitatively different experience depending upon age. I will conclude with new directions of research into the impact of loneliness on older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease

Dynamic multivariate task fMRI analysis using Partial Least Squares in Matlab (1:00 PM – 2:30 PM): Whole brain imaging provides extraordinary opportunities to identify coherent patterns in the spatial structure and spatiotemporal functioning of cortical and subcortical brain regions. This has led to an explosion of network neuroscience research over the past two decades. Initially, network studies adopted a general linear modelling (GLM) approach, following the early structural and functional activation studies. However, fMRI data is more amenable to multivariate approaches that consider dynamic aspects of brain function given its high dimensionality, temporal complexity, and the issue of multiple statistical comparisons. In this workshop, I will review a dynamic multivariate approach for task based fMRI data, Partial Least Squares (PLS). In this workshop, I will review practical aspects of PLS statistical modelling and analyses, introduce the PLS GUI interface in Matlab, and include key elements of analysis implementation and results interpretation.

About Speaker: Dr. Nathan Spreng is the James McGill Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, and director of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the Montreal Neurological Institute. His research examines large-scale brain network dynamics and their role in cognition. Currently, he is investigating the links between memory, attention, cognitive control, and social cognition and the interacting brain networks that support them. He is also actively involved in the development and implementation of novel multivariate statistical approaches to assess activity and interactivity of large scale brain networks. His work adopts a network neuroscience approach to investigating complex cognitive processes as they change across the lifespan, both in normal aging and brain disease.