Lorenzo Pasquini, PhD
Assistant Professor
Neurology
School of Medicine

I joined Neuroscape as a faculty in 2022, where I explore the neural basis of emotional well-being in older adults using multimodal, simultaneous fMRI and autonomic physiology recordings.

A primary aim of my research is to develop tailored interventions, either behavioral (e.g. closed-loop meditation) or pharmacological (e.g. psilocybin), to target those brain systems that support emotions and social behavior in older adults. In my work, I combine sophisticated data analysis techniques, such as dynamic connectivity and brain connectivity gradients, to to better understand how the brain and the body interact to support emotional well-being in older adults.

Since 2023, I have been in the scientific advisory board of AWEAR, an early-stage startup developing wearable EEG technology.

• Functional network collapse in neurodegenerative disease.
  bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 2023 Brown JA, Lee AJ, Fernhoff K, Pistone T, Pasquini L, Wise AB, Staffaroni AM, Luisa Mandelli M, Lee SE, Boxer AL, Rankin KP, Rabinovici GD, Luisa Gorno Tempini M, Rosen HJ, Kramer JH, Miller BL, Seeley…
• FTLD targets brain regions expressing recently evolved genes.
  medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 2023 Pasquini L, Pereira FL, Seddighi S, Zeng Y, Wei Y, Illán-Gala I, Vatsavayai SC, Friedberg A, Lee AJ, Brown JA, Spina S, Grinberg LT, Sirkis DW, Bonham LW, Yokoyama JS, Boxer AL, Kramer JH, Rosen HJ, …
• Network Connectivity Alterations across the MAPT Mutation Clinical Spectrum.
  Annals of neurology 2023 Zhang L, Flagan TM, Häkkinen S, Chu SA, Brown JA, Lee AJ, Pasquini L, Mandelli ML, Gorno-Tempini ML, Sturm VE, Yokoyama JS, Appleby BS, Cobigo Y, Dickerson BC, Domoto-Reilly K, Geschwind DH, Ghoshal N…
• Prevalence, Timing, and Network Localization of Emergent Visual Creativity in Frontotemporal Dementia.
  JAMA neurology 2023 Friedberg A, Pasquini L, Diggs R, Glaubitz EA, Lopez L, Illán-Gala I, Iaccarino L, La Joie R, Mundada N, Knudtson M, Neylan K, Brown J, Allen IE, Rankin KP, Bonham LW, Yokoyama JS, Ramos EM, Geschwind…
• Dynamic autonomic nervous system states arise during emotions and manifest in basal physiology.
  Psychophysiology 2022 Pasquini L, Noohi F, Veziris CR, Kosik EL, Holley SR, Lee A, Brown JA, Roy ARK, Chow TE, Allen I, Rosen HJ, Kramer JH, Miller BL, Saggar M, Seeley WW, Sturm VE
• Dysfunctional Cortical Gradient Topography in Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder.
  Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging 2022 Pasquini L, Fryer SL, Eisendrath SJ, Segal ZV, Lee AJ, Brown JA, Saggar M, Mathalon DH
• A dynamic gradient architecture generates brain activity states.
  NeuroImage 2022 Brown JA, Lee AJ, Pasquini L, Seeley WW
• Convergent regional brain abnormalities in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia: A neuroimaging meta-analysis of 73 studies.
  Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2022 Kamalian A, Khodadadifar T, Saberi A, Masoudi M, Camilleri JA, Eickhoff CR, Zarei M, Pasquini L, Laird AR, Fox PT, Eickhoff SB, Tahmasian M
• Local neurodegeneration and global connectivity adaptation across the FTD-AD spectrum.
  Alzheimer's & Dementia 2021 Jesse A. Brown, Alex Jihun Lee, Lorenzo Pasquini, Adit Friedberg, Gil D. Rabinovici, Joel H Kramer, Maria Luisa Gorno Tempini, Howard J. Rosen, Bruce L. Miller, William W. Seeley
• A novel temporal-predominant neuro-astroglial tauopathy associated with TMEM106B gene polymorphism in FTLD/ALS-TDP.
  Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) 2021 Llibre-Guerra JJ, Lee SE, Suemoto CK, Ehrenberg AJ, Kovacs GG, Karydas A, Staffaroni A, Franca Resende EP, Kim EJ, Hwang JH, Ramos EM, Wojta KJ, Pasquini L, Pang SY, Spina S, Allen IE, Kramer J, …
• Salience Network Atrophy Links Neuron Type-Specific Pathobiology to Loss of Empathy in Frontotemporal Dementia.
  Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 2020 Pasquini L, Nana AL, Toller G, Brown JA, Deng J, Staffaroni A, Kim EJ, Hwang JL, Li L, Park Y, Gaus SE, Allen I, Sturm VE, Spina S, Grinberg LT, Rankin KP, Kramer JH, Rosen HJ, Miller BL, Seeley WW
• Subacute effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca on the salience and default mode networks.
  Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) 2020 Pasquini L, Palhano-Fontes F, Araujo DB
• Questions and controversies in the study of time-varying functional connectivity in resting fMRI.
  Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) 2020 Lurie DJ, Kessler D, Bassett DS, Betzel RF, Breakspear M, Kheilholz S, Kucyi A, Liégeois R, Lindquist MA, McIntosh AR, Poldrack RA, Shine JM, Thompson WH, Bielczyk NZ, Douw L, Kraft D, Miller RL, …
• State and trait characteristics of anterior insula time-varying functional connectivity.
  NeuroImage 2019 Pasquini L, Toller G, Staffaroni A, Brown JA, Deng J, Lee A, Kurcyus K, Shdo SM, Allen I, Sturm VE, Cobigo Y, Borghesani V, Battistella G, Gorno-Tempini ML, Rankin KP, Kramer J, Rosen HH, Miller BL, …
• Human subsystems of medial temporal lobes extend locally to amygdala nuclei and globally to an allostatic-interoceptive system.
  NeuroImage 2019 Ruiz-Rizzo AL, Beissner F, Finke K, Müller HJ, Zimmer C, Pasquini L, Sorg C
• Progress update from the hippocampal subfields group.
  Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2019 Olsen RK, Carr VA, Daugherty AM, La Joie R, Amaral RSC, Amunts K, Augustinack JC, Bakker A, Bender AR, Berron D, Boccardi M, Bocchetta M, Burggren AC, Chakravarty MM, Chételat G, de Flores R, DeKraker…
• Medial Temporal Lobe Disconnection and Hyperexcitability Across Alzheimer's Disease Stages.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease reports 2019 Pasquini L, Rahmani F, Maleki-Balajoo S, La Joie R, Zarei M, Sorg C, Drzezga A, Tahmasian M
• Dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) polymorphisms with reduced functional potency intensify atrophy in syndrome-specific sites of frontotemporal dementia.
  NeuroImage. Clinical 2019 Butler PM, Chiong W, Perry DC, Miller ZA, Gennatas ED, Brown JA, Pasquini L, Karydas A, Dokuru D, Coppola G, Sturm VE, Boxer AL, Gorno-Tempini ML, Rosen HJ, Kramer JH, Miller BL, Seeley WW
• Effective connectivity in the default mode network is distinctively disrupted in Alzheimer's disease-A simultaneous resting-state FDG-PET/fMRI study.
  Human brain mapping 2019 Scherr M, Utz L, Tahmasian M, Pasquini L, Grothe MJ, Rauschecker JP, Grimmer T, Drzezga A, Sorg C, Riedl V
• Neurons selectively targeted in frontotemporal dementia reveal early stage TDP-43 pathobiology.
  Acta neuropathologica 2018 Nana AL, Sidhu M, Gaus SE, Hwang JL, Li L, Park Y, Kim EJ, Pasquini L, Allen IE, Rankin KP, Toller G, Kramer JH, Geschwind DH, Coppola G, Huang EJ, Grinberg LT, Miller BL, Seeley WW
• Neurological signs as early determinants of dementia and predictors of mortality among older adults in Latin America: a 10/66 study using the NEUROEX assessment.
  BMC neurology 2018 Pasquini L, Llibre Guerra J, Prince M, Chua KC, Prina AM
• Reduced blood oxygenation level dependent connectivity is related to hypoperfusion in Alzheimer's disease.
  Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism 2018 Göttler J, Preibisch C, Riederer I, Pasquini L, Alexopoulos P, Bohn KP, Yakushev I, Beller E, Kaczmarz S, Zimmer C, Grimmer T, Drzezga A, Sorg C
• Decoupling of Local Metabolic Activity and Functional Connectivity Links to Amyloid in Alzheimer's Disease.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2018 Scherr M, Pasquini L, Benson G, Nuttall R, Gruber M, Neitzel J, Brandl F, Sorg C, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
• Individual Correspondence of Amyloid-β and Intrinsic Connectivity in the Posterior Default Mode Network Across Stages of Alzheimer's Disease.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2017 Pasquini L, Benson G, Grothe MJ, Utz L, Myers NE, Yakushev I, Grimmer T, Scherr M, Sorg C, Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
• Degradation in intrinsic connectivity networks across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum.
  Alzheimer's & dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2016 Nuttall R, Pasquini L, Scherr M, Sorg C
• Progressively Disrupted Intrinsic Functional Connectivity of Basolateral Amygdala in Very Early Alzheimer's Disease.
  Frontiers in neurology 2016 Ortner M, Pasquini L, Barat M, Alexopoulos P, Grimmer T, Förster S, Diehl-Schmid J, Kurz A, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Wohlschläger A, Sorg C, Peters H
• AMYLOID PATHOLOGY DECOUPLES LOCAL MEAN SYNAPTIC ACTIVITY FROM ITS INTER-REGIONAL FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY.
  Alzheimer's & Dementia 2016 Christian Sorg, Lorenzo Pasquini, Igor Yakushev, Timo Grimmer, Martin Scherr
• GLOBAL AND LOCAL INTERACTIONS BETWEEN AMYLOID-B PATHOLOGY AND INTRINSIC CONNECTIVITY ALONG THE SPECTRUM OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE.
  Alzheimer's & Dementia 2016 Lorenzo Pasquini, Gloria Benson, Martin Scherr, Igor Yakushev, Timo Grimmer, Nicholas Myers, Michel J. Grothe, Christian Sorg, Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
• Increased Intrinsic Activity of Medial-Temporal Lobe Subregions is Associated with Decreased Cortical Thickness of Medial-Parietal Areas in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease Dementia.
  Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 2016 Pasquini L, Scherr M, Tahmasian M, Myers NE, Ortner M, Kurz A, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Grimmer T, Akhrif A, Wohlschläger AM, Riedl V, Sorg C
• The lower hippocampus global connectivity, the higher its local metabolism in Alzheimer disease.
  Neurology 2015 Tahmasian M, Pasquini L, Scherr M, Meng C, Förster S, Mulej Bratec S, Shi K, Yakushev I, Schwaiger M, Grimmer T, Diehl-Schmid J, Riedl V, Sorg C, Drzezga A
• Link between hippocampus' raised local and eased global intrinsic connectivity in AD.
  Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2014 Pasquini L, Scherr M, Tahmasian M, Meng C, Myers NE, Ortner M, Mühlau M, Kurz A, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Grimmer T, Wohlschläger AM, Riedl V, Sorg C
• Disrupted Intrinsic Networks Link Amyloid-β Pathology and Impaired Cognition in Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease.
  Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) 2014 Koch K, Myers NE, Göttler J, Pasquini L, Grimmer T, Förster S, Manoliu A, Neitzel J, Kurz A, Förstl H, Riedl V, Wohlschläger AM, Drzezga A, Sorg C
• WITHIN-PATIENT CORRESPONDENCE OF AMYLOID-B AND INTRINSIC NETWORK CONNECTIVITY IN ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE.
  Alzheimer's & Dementia 2014 Christian Sorg, Afra M. Wohlschläger, Alexander Drzezga, Alexander Kurz, Hans Förstl, Lorenzo Pasquini, Nicholas Myers, Timo Grimmer, Valentin Riedl
• Intrinsic brain activity of cognitively normal older persons resembles more that of patients both with and at risk for Alzheimer's disease than that of healthy younger persons.
  Brain connectivity 2014 Pasquini L, Tonch A, Plant C, Zherdin A, Ortner M, Kurz A, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Grimmer T, Wohlschäger A, Riedl V, Sorg C
• Within-patient correspondence of amyloid-β and intrinsic network connectivity in Alzheimer's disease.
  Brain : a journal of neurology 2014 Myers N, Pasquini L, Göttler J, Grimmer T, Koch K, Ortner M, Neitzel J, Mühlau M, Förster S, Kurz A, Förstl H, Zimmer C, Wohlschläger AM, Riedl V, Drzezga A, Sorg C