New paper in JAMA Network Open! We found that individuals with high amygdala threat reactivity at baseline showed greater normalization of brain function and improved threat processing under 120mg MDMA. A step toward personalized MDMA therapies!

I’m very honored to be recognized by the Sammy Kuo Neuroscience Award. Grateful to my mentor @LMWilliams_PhD, collaborators, and lab @Stanford_PMHW for the support that made this possible. Excited to continue advancing precision mental health research.

Proud to co-author this work showing how targeting the cognitive control subtype of depression with a circuit-based, mechanism-specific medicine can personalize treatment and improve outcomes. 🧠🧠🧠

Congratulations to our Human Neural Circuitry team; https://t.co/ocMsFdVbbT publishes today in Science! This was the hardest challenge of my career, but one of the most rewarding, after years of rebuilding– & for myself, expanding my inpatient neuropsychiatry work to the service

Congratulations Paula on your first first-author paper — so well deserved! 👏 Exciting to see this important work on BIT+ treatment mechanisms of cognitive control circuit in hoarding disorder out in the world! 🧠✨

Thanks to all amazing co-authors who made it possible: Laura Hack, Claire Bertrand, @Rachel_Hilton1, Nancy Gray, Leyla Boyar, Jessica Laudie, @theBorisLab, Trisha Suppes, Peter van Roessel, @CRodriguezMDPhD, Karl Deisseroth, Brian Knutson & @LMWilliams_PhD. @Stanford_PMHW

🌝 Behaviorally, high-reactivity individuals rated threat faces as more likable after MDMA vs placebo. ✨ 120mg MDMA may soften emotional impact of threat-related stimuli in high-reactivity individuals.

🧠 What happened after MDMA? In the high-reactivity group, 120mg MDMA: Reduced amygdala and sgACC hyperactivity Increased sgACC-amygdala connectivity ➡️ 120mg MDMA normalized negative affect circuit function.

📊 How did we stratify? We measured amygdala activity to nonconscious threat at baseline before any drug administration using fMRI. Individuals were split into high vs low reactivity groups. ✅ High-reactivity individuals also showed greater implicit threat bias at baseline.

🧩 Why does this matter? Many with trauma-related symptoms don’t respond to conventional treatments, especially those with high threat reactivity. MDMA-based therapy is a promising alternative, but we need tools to identify who benefits - we focus on brain circuit stratification.

🚨 Join our lab as a Postdoctoral Scientist in Functional Brain Imaging for Precision Medicine in Depression Position! To learn more about the position find Dr. Leanne Williams (@LMWilliams_PhD) or Dr. Teddy Akiki ( @teddyjakiki) at the @SOBP conference next week to chat.

🚨 Join our lab as a Postdoctoral Scientist in Functional Brain Imaging for Precision Medicine in Depression Position! To learn more about the position find Dr. Leanne Williams (@LMWilliams_PhD) or Dr. Xue Zhang (@warmxue) at @ACNPorg next week to chat. →🧠To apply, visit:

Had a great time presenting our psilocybin neuroimaging results at the @StanfordBrain #BrainAndMachines symposium alongside @Paula_MunozR! Grateful for the continued support from amazing mentors @LMWilliams_PhD @CRodriguezMDPhD.

Huge congratulations Dr. @BHoltGosselin!

Great Idea for Poster presentation...!!! Via Caroline O'Donnell/O'Flaherty Lab (Linkedin) #scicomm #scienceoutreach #sciencetalk #scienceposter

Researchers have found that selecting treatments, such as specific types of cognitive behavioral therapy, tailored to a patient's form of depression significantly increases the chances of success. https://t.co/n8iq6L8o1b

Scientists have harnessed #fMRI techniques to visualize the cognitive control circuit in patients with #depression and #obesity, and find the circuit can help predict outcomes in a trial of integrated problem-solving therapy. @LMWilliams_PhD @warmxue https://t.co/ZX2wDAs8au

12/ I would also like to acknowledge the RAINBOW trial investigators represented by authors on this paper and all participants.

11/ A heartfelt thanks to co-authors @pineurosci, Patrick Stetz, @agoldpie, Lan Xiao, Nan Lv, @LeonardoTozzi1, Philip Lavori, Mark Snowden, Elizabeth Venditti, Joshua Smyth, Trisha Suppes, @pshrink, Jun Ma, and @LMWilliams_PhD @Stanford_PMHW, who made this work possible.

10/ Our findings demonstrate a proof of concept that cognitive behavioral interventions can modulate the cognitive control circuit to improve outcomes and highlight that targeting the circuit mechanism of action could largely enhance the prediction of treatment outcomes.