Brainhack Rome 2025: connecting the dots between structure and function.
Authors
Affiliations (28)
Affiliations (28)
- Enrico Fermi Research Center, Rome, Italy. [email protected].
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. [email protected].
- Enrico Fermi Research Center, Rome, Italy.
- Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
- Institute for Complex Systems, National Research Council, Rome, Italy.
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
- School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
- Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic Medicine and Orthopaedics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
- Padova Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
- Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies, University "G. D'Annunzio", Chieti, Italy.
- Neuroscience Research Center, Magna Graecia University, Catanzaro, Italy.
- DIIES, Mediterranea University, Reggio Calabria, Italy.
- Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Rovereto, TN, Italy.
- LUMSA University, Rome, Italy.
- Neuroimaging Lab, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
- University of Rome "Roma Tre", Rome, Italy.
- CNR-Nanotec, Rome, Italy.
- Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
- Medical Physics Department, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Rome, Italy.
- Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.
- Bocconi AI & Neuroscience Student Association (BAINSA), Milan, Italy.
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
- Department of Philosophy, Social Sciences & Education, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy.
- Neuroengineering and Medical Robotics Laboratory, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
- University "Niccolò Cusano", Rome, Italy.
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Caserta, Italy.
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Schleswig-Holstein, University Medical Center, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
- Inserm U987, APHP, CHU Ambroise Paré, UVSQ, Paris-Saclay, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
Abstract
Brainhack events provide a bottom-up approach to tackle challenges in neuroscience. In 2025, the Enrico Fermi Research Center in Rome hosted its first Brainhack, with the goal of fostering interdisciplinary collaborations bringing together the physics and neuroscience perspectives on the study of brain structure and function. Structured in four days, it gave the chance to the participants to propose their own idea and shape a project based on it, leading to six research avenues: the combination of X-ray imaging and diffusion MRI algorithms to pioneer ultra-high-resolution tractography; multivariate approaches to study the shared factors between brain metabolism and microstructure estimated from MRI data; development of transfer entropy analysis-based tools for effective connectivity estimation in fMRI data; identification of brain states through Markov models; deep learning approaches to predict task EEG time courses; multi-scale network models to study functional and cerebrovascular data. Each project led to promising results and marked the beginning of new collaborations.