达米安-费尔 认知神经科学家

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Damien Fair
Cognitive Neuroscientist | Class of 2020
Devising maps of network connectivity in individual brains that advance our understanding of how distinct regions communicate and develop in both typical and atypical contexts.


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Title
Cognitive Neuroscientist
Affiliation
Masonic Institute of the Developing Brain, University of Minnesota Medical School
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Age
44 at time of award
Area of Focus
Neuroscience and Neurobiology
Website
Developmental Cognition and Neuroimaging Lab
Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain
NOUS Imaging, Inc.
Social
Twitter
Published October 6, 2020
ABOUT DAMIEN'S WORK
Damien Fair is a cognitive neuroscientist advancing our understanding of brain functioning during development in typical and atypical contexts. Combining technical advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), advanced mathematical techniques, and expertise in psychology and neuroscience, Fair investigates resting state brain connectivity—the brain’s intrinsic or spontaneous neural activity.

Fair has been able to more precisely observe how distinct regions in the brain communicate with each other and how this communication evolves at different stages of development, from infancy to adolescence. He employs graph theory to map the connectivity and the strength of those connections while the brain is in a resting state. He has also led an emerging interest in characterizing or mapping individual brains. These “connectotypes” or “functional fingerprints” vastly improve upon the previous models of typical and atypical brain connectivity built with aggregated data from multiple individuals. Fair’s functional fingerprints are also improving understanding of atypical development such as that in ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Traditionally, causal models of psychopathologies have focused on identifying a single core dysfunction, but such models cannot account for marked differences in both brain function and behavior across a population. Fair and collaborators are building computational models to identify subgroups of manifestations of ADHD and ASD that have unique causal pathways; this work has the potential to inform the design of more personalized therapeutic protocols. More recently, Fair is investigating the effects of early life environmental influences (such as maternal stress, inflammation, or depression during pregnancy) and childhood experiences (such as participation in sports, sleep habits, and social media) on resting state networks in human and animal models. These findings have implications for how developmental psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists think about brain development and how we prevent emerging psychopathologies across the lifespan. All of this work requires precise measurements obtained with functional and structural MRI with children; however, any movements during the scan can distort the data. Fair and a colleague built a software platform called Frame-Wise Integrated Real-Time Motion Monitoring (FIRMM) to make scanning more entertaining for patients and to enable scanner operators to correct for motion-distorted data in real time. FIRMM is being used in research labs around the world, and they are deploying it for use in clinical settings.

In addition, Fair is a generous mentor and collaborator and has built programs to expose underrepresented students to scientific research and STEM-related careers and increase faculty representation of underrepresented minorities. Through integration of disparate streams of research, Fair contributes to a deeper understanding of brain development with the promise of devising new therapies for treatment of neurological disorders.

BIOGRAPHY
Damien Fair received a BA (1998) from Augustana University, an MMSc (2001) from the Yale University School of Medicine, and a PhD (2008) from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Fair was affiliated with the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) from 2008 to 2020. In July 2020, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota as Redleaf Endowed Director of the Masonic Institute of the Developing Brain, with faculty appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute of Child Development. He is the co-founder of Youth Engaged in Science (YES!) and, with Dr. Nico Dosenbach, co-founded NOUS Imaging, Inc., which has developed the FIRMM software for clinical use. Fair’s articles have appeared in such scientific journals as Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, Neuron, Science, JAMA Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, Neuroimage, and PLOS One, among others.

IN DAMIEN'S WORDS
DamienFair:"Itcouldbearguedthatthedrivingfactorofdiscoveryandadvancementofnearlyeverycivilizationhasbeentheresultofhumanvariability,wheresomeoutlier,oftentimesbeingofminoritystatus,pushedthesocietyinawaythatnoonecouldhaveeverimagined."
  

Every step toward a deeper characterization of brain function brings advances in health care, education, technologies, economics and other enhancements to our society that deeply touch our everyday lives. However, continued progress will not come with a homogeny of ideas, thoughts, education, experience, and culture. We need to embrace “variability”—our diversity— and provide access to this pursuit to all of the talents that exist in our society. It could be argued that the driving factor of discovery and advancement of nearly every civilization has been the result of human variability, where some outlier, often times being of minority status, pushed the society in a way that no one could have ever imagined. Ironically, in the sciences, our ability to proportionally value the importance of this principle has been limited. I am hopeful, at this critical juncture in our history, we can harness our privilege and awareness to embrace a change of course.



达米安-费尔
认知神经科学家 | 2020级
设计个人大脑中的网络连接图，促进我们对不同区域在典型和非典型背景下如何沟通和发展的理解。


达米安-费尔的画像

标题
认知神经科学家
工作单位
明尼苏达大学医学院共济会大脑发育研究所
工作地点
明尼阿波利斯，明尼苏达
年龄
获奖时44岁
重点领域
神经科学和神经生物学
网站
发育认知和神经影像学实验室
共济会大脑发育研究所
NOUS Imaging, Inc.
社会
推特
发表于2020年10月6日
关于达米安的工作
达米安-费尔是一位认知神经科学家，他推动了我们对典型和非典型背景下发展中的大脑功能的理解。结合功能磁共振成像（fMRI）的技术进步，先进的数学技术，以及心理学和神经科学的专业知识，费尔研究了静止状态下的大脑连接--大脑的内在或自发神经活动。

费尔已经能够更精确地观察到大脑中的不同区域是如何相互沟通的，以及这种沟通在从婴儿期到青春期的不同发展阶段是如何演变的。他采用图论来绘制大脑处于静止状态时的连接和这些连接的强度。他还领导了一个新兴的兴趣，即对个人大脑的特征或绘图。这些 "连接型 "或 "功能指纹 "大大改进了以前用多个个体的汇总数据建立的典型和非典型大脑连接模型。费尔的功能指纹也正在改善对非典型发展的理解，如多动症和自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）。传统上，精神病症的因果模型集中于识别单一的核心功能障碍，但这种模型不能解释整个人群中大脑功能和行为的明显差异。费尔和合作者正在建立计算模型，以确定具有独特因果途径的多动症和ASD表现的亚群；这项工作有可能为设计更多个性化的治疗方案提供信息。最近，费尔正在研究早期生活环境影响（如母亲的压力、炎症或怀孕期间的抑郁症）和童年经历（如参与运动、睡眠习惯和社交媒体）对人类和动物模型的静止状态网络的影响。这些发现对发展心理学家和认知神经科学家如何思考大脑的发展以及我们如何预防整个生命期出现的心理病症有影响。所有这些工作都需要用功能和结构磁共振成像对儿童进行精确的测量；然而，扫描过程中的任何动作都会扭曲数据。费尔和一位同事建立了一个软件平台，称为帧智能综合实时运动监测（FIRMM），使扫描对病人来说更有娱乐性，并使扫描仪操作员能够实时纠正运动扭曲的数据。FIRMM正在世界各地的研究实验室中使用，他们正在将其部署在临床环境中使用。

此外，费尔是一位慷慨的导师和合作者，他建立了一些项目，让代表性不足的学生接触科学研究和STEM相关职业，并增加代表性不足的少数民族的教师代表。通过整合不同的研究流，费尔为更深入地了解大脑发育做出了贡献，并有望设计出治疗神经系统疾病的新疗法。

个人简历
达米安-费尔在奥古斯塔纳大学获得学士学位（1998年），在耶鲁大学医学院获得硕士学位（2001年），并在圣路易斯的华盛顿大学医学院获得博士学位（2008年）。2008年至2020年，费尔隶属于俄勒冈州健康与科学大学（OHSU）。2020年7月，他加入明尼苏达大学的教师队伍，担任共济会大脑发育研究所的红叶捐赠主任，并在儿科系和儿童发展研究所任教。他是青年参与科学（YES！）的共同创始人，并与尼科-多森巴赫博士共同创立了NOUS成像公司，该公司开发了FIRMM软件用于临床。费尔的文章出现在《自然-神经科学》、《美国科学院院刊》、《神经元》、《科学》、《美国医学会精神病学杂志》、《生物精神病学》、《神经图像》和《PLOS One》等科学杂志上，等等。

达米安的话
达米安-费尔："可以说，几乎所有文明的发现和进步的驱动因素都是人类变异性的结果，一些异类，往往是处于少数地位的人，把社会推到了午后无法想象的地方。"
  

对大脑功能进行更深入的描述的每一步都会带来医疗保健、教育、技术、经济和其他对我们社会有深刻影响的改进。然而，持续的进步不会随着观念、思想、教育、经验和文化的同质化而出现。我们需要拥抱 "可变性"--我们的多样性--并向我们社会中存在的所有人才提供这种追求的机会。可以说，几乎每一种文明的发现和进步的驱动因素都是人类变异性的结果，其中一些异类，往往是少数人的身份，以一种没有人能够想象的方式推动着社会的发展。具有讽刺意味的是，在科学领域，我们按比例评价这一原则的重要性的能力一直很有限。我希望，在我们历史上的这个关键时刻，我们可以利用我们的特权和意识来迎接课程的改变。