Information

Related Research Units

Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine Research
Computational Neuroscience Laboratory Research

Research Overview

The Stamoulis laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School is a computational Neuroscience laboratory that focuses on the development of novel computational approaches and mathematical models for the investigation of multi-scale brain dynamics. Our ultimate goals are to improve our fundamental understanding of the neural underpinnings of complex behaviors in the human brain and to identify robust neural signatures of neurological/neurodevelopmental disorders.

Our research activities lie at the intersection of Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering and Data Science. The overarching goals of our current project are:

  1. Improve our fundamental understanding of the emergence and organization of functional networks in the typically developing brain from infancy to young adulthood
  2. Map the individual to the collective brain: Improve our understanding of how the individual connectome impacts collective behaviors.
  3. Improve our understanding of how dynamically-varying brain networks support cognitive function in ecologically-valid settings.
  4. Improve next-generation therapies for medically refractory epilepsy though novel integration of prediction models and multimodal data.

Our research is supported by the National Science Foundation (BRAIN and Harnessing the Data Revolution Initiatives) and the National Institutes of Health.

Research Background

Dr. Stamoulis is currently Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at MIT. Following postdoctoral training in Neuroscience (MIT) and Biostatistics (Harvard School of Public Health), she joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School in 2009. Her broad research interests are in computational Neuroscience, Signal Processing, Neurostatistics and Data Science. She leads multiple projects that together aim to elucidate the evolving neural circuitry of the typically/atypically developing brain using large-scale brain datasets and novel computational tools.

Publications

  1. Low-Magnitude Mechanical Signals to Preserve Skeletal Health in Female Adolescents With Anorexia Nervosa: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Oct 01; 7(10):e2441779. View Abstract
  2. Substance Use Prevalence Among Transgender and Gender Diverse Young Adults Across Identity and Life Experiences. Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health. 2024. View Abstract
  3. Effects of topology on the controllability of brain connectomes through sparsity promoting control. 46th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). 2024; 1(1):1-4. View Abstract
  4. HIV/Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Knowledge and Acceptability of Rapid HIV Testing Among Transgender Adolescents in a Multidisciplinary Gender Clinic. Transgend Health. 2024 Apr; 9(2):128-135. View Abstract
  5. Strength and resilience of developing brain circuits predict adolescent emotional and stress responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cereb Cortex. 2024 Apr 01; 34(4). View Abstract
  6. Community detection in the human connectome: Method types, differences and their impact on inference. Hum Brain Mapp. 2024 Apr; 45(5):e26669. View Abstract
  7. Psychological Distress and Suicidality Among Transgender Young Adults in the United States. J Adolesc Health. 2024 Jun; 74(6):1095-1105. View Abstract
  8. Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound of the Chest in Children and Adolescents: A Pilot Study for Assessment of Added Diagnostic Value. J Ultrasound Med. 2024 Apr; 43(4):697-711. View Abstract
  9. Effects of multidomain environmental and mental health factors on the development of empathetic behaviors and emotions in adolescence. PLoS One. 2023; 18(11):e0293473. View Abstract
  10. Modulatory effects of fMRI acquisition time of day, week and year on adolescent functional connectomes across spatial scales: Implications for inference. Neuroimage. 2023 Dec 15; 284:120459. View Abstract
  11. Associations between nutritional intake, stress and hunger biomarkers, and anxiety and depression during the treatment of anorexia nervosa in adolescents and young adults. Eat Behav. 2023 Dec; 51. View Abstract
  12. Pelvis radiographs in children with cerebral palsy: effects of patient positioning on calculating migration percentages. Pediatr Radiol. 2023 12; 53(13):2662-2671. View Abstract
  13. GENERATIVE MODELS FOR LARGE-SCALE SIMULATIONS OF CONNECTOME DEVELOPMENT. IEEE ICASSPW 2023 Workshop Proc ICASSP 2023 (2023). 2023 Jun; 2023. View Abstract
  14. Excess BMI in early adolescence adversely impacts maturating functional circuits supporting high-level cognition and their structural correlates. Int J Obes (Lond). 2023 07; 47(7):590-605. View Abstract
  15. Internal Control of Brain Networks via Sparse Feedback. AIChE Journal. American Institute of Chemical Engineers . 2023; 4(69):e18061: 1-11. View Abstract
  16. Accuracy of contrast-enhanced voiding urosonography using Optison™ for diagnosis of vesicoureteral reflux in children. J Pediatr Urol. 2023 02; 19(1):135.e1-135.e8. View Abstract
  17. Parental religiosity is associated with changes in youth functional network organization and cognitive performance in early adolescence. Sci Rep. 2022 10 15; 12(1):17305. View Abstract
  18. Big Data-Driven Brain Parcellation from fMRI: Impact of Cohort Heterogeneity on Functional Connectivity Maps. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2021 11; 2021:3133-3136. View Abstract
  19. A Novel Mobile Phone App for Optimizing Dynamic Discrete Data Collection in Pediatric Epilepsy Studies. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2021 11; 2021:1787-1790. View Abstract
  20. Novel Seizure Biomarkers in Continuous Electrocardiograms from Pediatric Epilepsy Patients. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2021 11; 2021:382-385. View Abstract
  21. Shorter Duration and Lower Quality Sleep Have Widespread Detrimental Effects on Developing Functional Brain Networks in Early Adolescence. Cereb Cortex Commun. 2022; 3(1):tgab062. View Abstract
  22. Widespread Positive Direct and Indirect Effects of Regular Physical Activity on the Developing Functional Connectome in Early Adolescence. Cereb Cortex. 2021 08 26; 31(10):4840-4852. View Abstract
  23. Proceedings, American Control Conference (2021). A sparse H8 controller synthesis perspective on the reconfiguration of brain networks. 2021; 1204-1209. View Abstract
  24. Nonhormonal therapy for endometriosis: a randomized, placebo-controlled, pilot study of cabergoline versus norethindrone acetate. F S Rep. 2021 Dec; 2(4):454-461. View Abstract
  25. Analysis of Staphylococcus aureus Transcriptome in Pediatric Soft Tissue Abscesses and Comparison to Murine Infections. Infect Immun. 2021 03 17; 89(4). View Abstract
  26. Developing a Database of Structural Racism-Related State Laws for Health Equity Research and Practice in the United States. Public Health Rep. 2021 Jul-Aug; 136(4):428-440. View Abstract
  27. Characteristics of Adolescents with Differing Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Phenotypes. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2020 Dec; 33(6):697-702. View Abstract
  28. Young Women's Perceptions of Heart Disease Risk. J Adolesc Health. 2020 11; 67(5):708-713. View Abstract
  29. A Spectral Clustering Approach for the Classification of Waveform Anomalies in High-Dimensional Brain Signals. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2020 07; 2020:50-53. View Abstract
  30. Data-driven separation and estimation of atrial dynamics in very high-dimensional electrocardiograms from epilepsy patients. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2019 Jul; 2019:91-94. View Abstract
  31. Guatemala City youth: an analysis of health indicators through the lens of a clinical registry. Int Health. 2019 07 01; 11(4):265-271. View Abstract
  32. Attitudes Toward Bisexuality and Other Beliefs and Attitudes Related to Sexual Fluidity in Attractions among Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Young Adults. Journal of Bisexuality. 2019; 1(19):1-22. View Abstract
  33. Will Teens Go Red? Low Cardiovascular Disease Awareness Among Young Women. J Am Heart Assoc. 2019 03 19; 8(6):e011195. View Abstract
  34. Clinical features and outcomes of spitzoid proliferations in children and adolescents. Br J Dermatol. 2019 08; 181(2):366-372. View Abstract
  35. Chronic Acalculous Cholecystitis in Children With Biliary Symptoms: Usefulness of Hepatocholescintigraphy. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2019 01; 68(1):68-73. View Abstract
  36. Non-invasive Seizure Localization with Ictal Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography is Impacted by Preictal/Early Ictal Network Dynamics. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2018 Nov 09. View Abstract
  37. Proceedings, IEEE Data Science Workshop. Sparse Anomaly Detection in Very High-Dimensional Brain Signals. 2018; 1(1):140-144. View Abstract
  38. Similarity of chest X-ray and thermal imaging of focal pneumonia: a randomised proof of concept study at a large urban teaching hospital. BMJ Open. 2018 01 05; 8(1):e017964. View Abstract
  39. Blood and Hair Aluminum Levels, Vaccine History, and Early Infant Development: A Cross-Sectional Study. Acad Pediatr. 2018 03; 18(2):161-165. View Abstract
  40. Neuronal networks in the developing brain are adversely modulated by early psychosocial neglect. J Neurophysiol. 2017 10 01; 118(4):2275-2288. View Abstract
  41. The promise of subtraction ictal SPECT co-registered to MRI for improved seizure localization in pediatric epilepsies: Affecting factors and relationship to the surgical outcome. Epilepsy Res. 2017 01; 129:59-66. View Abstract
  42. Machine Learning: A Primer for Child Psychiatrists. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2016 10; 55(10):835-6. View Abstract
  43. Automated Processing of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI: Correlation of Advanced Pharmacokinetic Metrics with Tumor Grade in Pediatric Brain Tumors. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2017 Jan; 38(1):170-175. View Abstract
  44. Infant lower extremity long bone growth rates: comparison of contemporary with early 20th century data using mixed effect models. Am J Hum Biol. 2017 Jan; 29(1). View Abstract
  45. Optimization of Signal Decomposition Matched Filtering (SDMF) for Improved Detection of Copy-Number Variations. IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2016 May-Jun; 13(3):584-91. View Abstract
  46. MRI of the normal appendix in children: data toward a new reference standard. Pediatr Radiol. 2016 Jun; 46(7):1003-10. View Abstract
  47. Infant bone age estimation based on fibular shaft length: model development and clinical validation. Pediatr Radiol. 2016 Mar; 46(3):342-56. View Abstract
  48. Evaluation of Primary Pulmonary Vein Stenosis in Children: Comparison of Radionuclide Perfusion Lung Scan and Angiography. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2015 Oct; 205(4):873-7. View Abstract
  49. Early Psychosocial Neglect Adversely Impacts Developmental Trajectories of Brain Oscillations and Their Interactions. J Cogn Neurosci. 2015 Dec; 27(12):2512-28. View Abstract
  50. Proceedings, International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering (NER). Systematic characterization of stochastic activity in non-invasively recorded neural signals. 2015; 1(1):1008-1011. View Abstract
  51. Similar performance of Brasfield and Wisconsin scoring systems in young children with cystic fibrosis. Pediatr Radiol. 2015 Oct; 45(11):1624-8. View Abstract
  52. Pediatric CT dose reduction for suspected appendicitis: a practice quality improvement project using artificial gaussian noise--part 2, clinical outcomes. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2015 Mar; 204(3):636-44. View Abstract
  53. Effect of early institutionalization and foster care on long-term white matter development: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2015 Mar; 169(3):211-9. View Abstract
  54. Resting and task-modulated high-frequency brain rhythms measured by scalp encephalography in infants with tuberous sclerosis complex. J Autism Dev Disord. 2015 Feb; 45(2):336-53. View Abstract
  55. Retroclival collections associated with abusive head trauma in children. Pediatr Radiol. 2014 Dec; 44 Suppl 4:S621-31. View Abstract
  56. Open surgical treatment of femoroacetabular impingement in adolescent athletes: preliminary report on improvement of physical activity level. J Pediatr Orthop. 2014 Apr-May; 34(3):287-94. View Abstract
  57. Brasfield and Wisconsin scoring systems have equal value as outcome assessment tools of cystic fibrosis lung disease. Pediatr Radiol. 2014 May; 44(5):529-34. View Abstract
  58. Multi-planar dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound assessment of blood flow in a rabbit model of testicular torsion. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2014 Feb; 40(2):361-70. View Abstract
  59. Neurointerventions in children: radiation exposure and its import. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2014 Apr; 35(4):650-6. View Abstract
  60. Discordant radiologic and histological dimensions of the zone of provisional calcification in fetal piglets. Pediatr Radiol. 2013 Dec; 43(12):1606-14. View Abstract
  61. Information theoretic measures of network coordination in high-frequency scalp EEG reveal dynamic patterns associated with seizure termination. Epilepsy Res. 2013 Aug; 105(3):299-315. View Abstract
  62. Distal femoral valgus deformity following plate fixation of pediatric femoral shaft fractures. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2013 Mar 20; 95(6):526-33. View Abstract
  63. Estimation of temporal scales of variation in long-term scalp electroencephalograms from epilepsy patients. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2013; 2013:2894-7. View Abstract
  64. Modeling noninvasive neurostimulation in epilepsy as stochastic interference in brain networks. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2013 May; 21(3):354-63. View Abstract
  65. High-frequency neuronal network modulations encoded in scalp EEG precede the onset of focal seizures. Epilepsy Behav. 2012 Apr; 23(4):471-80. View Abstract
  66. Signal subspace integration for improved seizure localization. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2012; 2012:1016-9. View Abstract
  67. Space-time adaptive processing for improved estimation of preictal seizure activity. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2012; 2012:6157-60. View Abstract
  68. A novel signal processing approach for the detection of copy number variations in the human genome. Bioinformatics. 2011 Sep 01; 27(17):2338-45. View Abstract
  69. ESTIMATION OF DIRECTIONAL BRAIN ANISOTROPY FROM EEG SIGNALS USING THE MELLIN TRANSFORM AND IMPLICATIONS FOR SOURCE LOCALIZATION. Int Conf Digit Signal Process Proc. 2011 Jul 06; 2011. View Abstract
  70. Advance cueing produces enhanced action-boundary patterns of spike activity in the sensorimotor striatum. J Neurophysiol. 2011 Apr; 105(4):1861-78. View Abstract
  71. Single pulse TMS-induced modulations of resting brain neurodynamics encoded in EEG phase. Brain Topogr. 2011 Jun; 24(2):105-13. View Abstract
  72. Estimation of correlations between copy-number variants in non-coding DNA. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011; 2011:5563-6. View Abstract
  73. Multiscale information for network characterization in epilepsy. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011; 2011:5908-11. View Abstract
  74. Encoding of brain state changes in local field potentials modulated by motor behaviors. J Comput Neurosci. 2010 Dec; 29(3):475-83. View Abstract
  75. Network dynamics of the epileptic brain at rest. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2010; 2010:150-3. View Abstract
  76. Estimation of Eeg Signal Dispersion During Seizure Propagation. Int Conf Digit Signal Process Proc. 2009 Sep 18; 2009:1-5. View Abstract
  77. Application of Matched-Filtering to Extract EEG Features and Decouple Signal Contributions from Multiple Seizure Foci in Brain Malformations. Int IEEE EMBS Conf Neural Eng. 2009 Jun 23; 2009:514-517. View Abstract
  78. Application of matched filtering to identify behavioral modulation of brain oscillations. J Comput Neurosci. 2010 Aug; 29(1-2):63-72. View Abstract
  79. Application of signal processing techniques for estimating regions of copy number variations in human meningioma DNA. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009; 2009:6973-6. View Abstract
  80. Estimation of brain state changes associated with behavior, stimulation and epilepsy. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009; 2009:4719-22. View Abstract
  81. Acoustically derived ice-fracture velocity in central Arctic pack ice. J Acoust Soc Am. 2000 Jul; 108(1):96-104. View Abstract

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