SAN DIEGO — Like fingerprints, human brains are unique. Scientists are working to map the variability of individual brains and to inform personalized therapeutics for treatment-resistant disease. These findings will be presented at Neuroscience 2025, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
Most brain imaging studies rely on differences averaged across groups of people. While this reveals large-scale principles of brain organization, it may hide important individual differences in brain structure and function. Precision brain imaging offers an alternative approach. Scientists prioritize mapping brain structure, function, and connectivity patterns in single individuals. Examining these personalized brain maps could lead to new insights into the organization of the human brain and increase understanding of how to treat psychiatric disorders. Personalized maps could also customize the “dose” of new brain-based treatments to individual patients’ needs.
Today’s new findings show that:
- Children who respond to the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment methylphenidate (Ritalin®) show changes in how the brain’s motor, action, and reward systems communicate. (Gracie Grimsrud, University of Minnesota)
- The lateral prefrontal cortex, a brain region disrupted in neurological and psychiatric disorders, is organized at a fine-grained level that varies across individuals. (Zach Ladwig, Northwestern University)
- Individualized precision brain mapping showed that networks for language and social thinking in the frontal lobe are physically interwoven but functionally distinct. (Rodrigo Braga, Northwestern University)
- Precision functional brain mapping revealed new brain networks. Some were common across participants while others were unique, which may underlie individual behavioral variability. (Evan Gordon, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis)
- Precision mapping techniques can be used to individualize and optimize deep brain stimulation parameters to better allow physicians to find the correct settings to relieve depression and anxiety symptoms. (Alik Widge, University of Minnesota)
“This precision imaging approach is valuable not only in terms of pure discovery, showing us previously unknown brain networks,” says Nico Dosenbach, MD, PhD, a physician-scientist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and moderator of the panel. “Precision mapping and stimulation tuning could also contribute to personalized, patient-specific treatments for brain disorders.”
This research was supported by national funding agencies including the National Institutes of Health and private funding organizations. For complete access to Neuroscience 2025 in-person and online, request media credentials.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
2–3 p.m. PST
San Diego Convention Center, Room 15A, and online for registered media
Precision Press Conference Summary
- Although human brains are organized in a broadly similar manner, individual people exhibit significant differences in brain anatomy and connectivity that can be overlooked when imaging studies rely on group measures.
- New person-specific and precision approaches to brain imaging provide a more nuanced understanding of the functional organization of the brain and its relationship to behavior.
Investigating the role of the somato-cognitive action network in stimulant treatment response in individuals with ADHD
Gracie Grimsrud, grims090@umn.edu, Abstract PSTR150.14
- The somato-cognitive action network (SCAN) is a system within the motor cortex which integrates body representation and goal-directed behaviors. These behaviors are often disrupted in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Using advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods, researchers studied the brain activity of children with ADHD after taking the treatment methylphenidate (MPH, Ritalin®) or a placebo.
- Children with ADHD who showed a behavioral response to MPH demonstrated significant changes in how the SCAN communicates with the brain’s reward systems, and these changes were associated with reductions in impulsivity.
- The findings suggest that SCAN-reward interactions may be central to whether ADHD patients respond positively to MPH treatment.
Precision fMRI reveals highly interdigitated network patches with conserved motifs in the individual lateral prefrontal cortex
Zach Ladwig, ladwig.zach@gmail.com, Abstract PSTR041.01
- A brain region called the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is critical for goal-directed behavior and a target for treating psychiatric disorders. Group-level studies have suggested that the region has gradients of function but could miss individual variability.
- Researchers used precision fMRI, a new type of individual-specific and high-resolution brain imaging, to analyze 10 hours of individual LPFC activity in 10 participants.
- The scientists showed that the LPFC contains a finely interwoven set of distinct brain networks. While the exact position of networks varies across individuals, the network sequences were repeated.
- The results highlight the importance of individual-level neuroscientific analyses and may contribute to understanding the function of this critically important brain area.
Interdigitated regions of human prefrontal cortex reflect distinct medial temporal lobe connections and cognitive specializations
Rodrigo Braga, Rbraga@northwestern.edu, Abstract PSTR041.02
- The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in many different functions that are functionally distinct such as social thinking and language processing. Researchers used individualized precision fMRI to investigate how these diverse functions are organized in the brain.
- Results show that two brain networks, one involved in language and another in social thinking, are arranged in a tightly interwoven pattern in the PFC. But while they are structurally interwoven, they are functionally distinct.
- The social network connects to a brain region called the amygdala, which is important for emotional responses and social behavior, while the language network does not.
- The findings suggest that different connections outside of the PFC help explain the complex arrangement of brain networks supporting different cognitive abilities.
Identifying novel functional brain networks in individuals using precision functional mapping
Evan Gordon, egordon@wustl.edu, Abstract PSTR189.04
- Current procedures for mapping brain networks using fMRI do not recognize that networks may vary between individuals and do not account for the possibility of unique, person-specific networks.
- Researchers used precision functional mapping data from advanced fMRI scans to identify novel brain networks that are common across some, but not all, people, as well as unique brain networks that only appeared in single individuals.
- Recognizing these unique networks could provide valuable insights into how and why individual brains differ, and how individual network differences could change how people think and behave.
Multi-parameter optimization of VCVS deep brain stimulation using objective cognitive control
Alik Widge, awidge@umn.edu, Abstract PSTR094.21
- Deep brain stimulation (DBS), electrical stimulation of an area of the brain, targeting the ventral internal capsule/striatum, is a potential treatment for psychiatric disorders such as depression, autism, and post-traumatic stress disorder that have not responded to previous treatments.
- Correctly programming DBS parameters is currently a time-consuming process that can take weeks.
- Researchers developed an algorithm to “tune” the electrical stimulation from DBS so that it affects those brain circuits in an individualized way by automatically learning a map of how each patient’s brain responds to the stimulation.
- This approach optimizes not only the stimulation site but also the intensity and timing of the stimulation and could help to improve the precision and reliability of DBS.
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The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is an organization of nearly 30,000 basic scientists and clinicians who study the brain and the nervous system.