Tim Lawn - Neuroimaging Research at MGH Martinos Center

MY RESEARCH

I investigate how the brain's neuromodulatory neurotransmitter systems shape the brains network dynamics, how this is altered across various disorders, and how we can intervene in these processes with precision medicine. My work principally employs multi-modal and brainstem imaging approaches which characterize brain function across scales, linking neurotransmitter systems through to systems level dysfunction.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Normative modelling of molecular-based functional circuits captures clinical heterogeneity transdiagnostically in psychiatric patients

Timothy Lawn, Alessio Giacomel, Daniel Martins, Mattia Veronese, Matthew Howard, Federico E. Turkheimer & Ottavia Dipasquale (2024). Communications Biology.

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Beyond biopsychosocial: The keystone mechanism theory of pain

Timothy Lawn, Manon Sendel, Ralf Baron, Jan Vollert et al. (2023). Brain, Behaviour, and Immunity.

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From neurotransmitters to networks: Transcending organisational hierarchies with molecular-informed functional imaging

Timothy Lawn, Matthew A. Howard, Federico Turkheimer, Bratislav Misic, Gustavo Deco, Daniel Martins, Ottavia Dipasquale (2023). Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.

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Differential contributions of serotonergic and dopaminergic functional connectivity to the phenomenology of LSD

Timothy Lawn, Ottavia Dipasquale, Alexandros Vamvakas, Ioannis Tsougos, Mitul A. Mehta & Matthew A. Howard (2022). Psychopharmacology.

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IN THE MEDIA

Every patient is different, and so are their brains

OHBM Communications

Neuroscientists gain a deeper understanding of how LSD affects molecular brain activity

PsyPost

IASP Pain Research Forum Podcasts: The Keystone Mechanism Theory of Pain

Pain Research Forum Podcast

ABOUT ME

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center where I currently combine ultra-high field functional imaging of the brainstem and functional networks to investigate how dysfunction of neuromodulatory systems give rise to heterogenous patterns of disease progression.

During my PhD in the center for Neuroimaging Sciences at King's College London I worked on novel multi-modal approaches to combine molecular information from PET into BOLD fMRI analyses to investigate psychopharmacology, consciousness, and neuropsychiatric disorders.