Professional Bio

Research Interests

The research in our lab examines the effects of brain injury and disease on functional brain organization over the lifespan. One primary goal of our work is to understand how distributed neural networks are altered following significant neurological disruption (e.g., traumatic brain injury) and how distinct trajectories for network plasticity predict patient outcome.  To do so we incorporate novel cognitive paradigms, structural and functional MRI, and network neuroscience approaches (e.g., graph theory) to understand how the brain adapts to significant neurological disruption. More recent collaborations also integrate studies in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and TBI as a risk for neurodegeneration later in life.

Recent Publications

Hallquist, M. & ‡Hillary, F.G. (in press). Graph theory approaches to functional network organization in brain disorders: A critique for a brave new small-world. Network Neuroscience. See: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/01/05/243741.article-metrics.

*Brenner, E., Hampstead, B.M., Grossner, E.C., Bernier, R.A., Gilbert, N., Sathian, K., ‡Hillary, F.G.  (in press). Neural network dynamics in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. International Journal of Psychophysiology.

Rajagopalan, V., Das, A., Zhang, L., Hillary, F.G., Wylie, G.R., Yue, G. (in press). Fractal dimension brain morphometry: A novel approach to quantify white matter in Traumatic Brain Injury. Brain Imaging and Behavior.

Gilbert, N., *Bernier, R., Calhoun, V.D., Rajtmajer, S.M.,  ‡Hillary F.G. (2018).  Diminished neural dynamics after Traumatic Brain Injury. PLOS ONE.

*Grossner, E., Bernier, R.A., Brenner, E.K., Chiou, K.S., ‡Hillary F.G., (2018). Prefrontal Gray Matter Volume Predicts Metacognitive Accuracy Following Traumatic Brain Injury. Neuropsychology.

*Roy, A., *Berner, R.A., Wang, J, *French, JJ, *Benson, M., ‡Hillary, F.G. (2017). The evolution of cost-efficiency in neural networks during recovery from traumatic brain injury. PLOS ONE. Apr 19;12(4):e0170541. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170541. PMID: 28422992

Hillary FG, Grafman JH. (2017). Injured Brains and Adaptive Networks: The Benefits and Costs of Hyperconnectivity. Trends Cogn Sci. Cover of Issue  May;21(5):385-401.

*Bernier, R., Roy, A.R., *Venkatesan, U., *Grossner, E., *Brenner, E., ‡Hillary, F.G. (2017). Dedifferentiation does not account for hyperconnectivity after traumatic brain injury. Frontiers in Neurology. 260867.

*Bernier, R. & ‡Hillary, F.G. (2016). Alcohol as a predictor of outcome in moderate and severe traumatic brain injury: 18 years of brain injury in Pennsylvania. Brain Injury. Feb 24:1-8.

*Roy, A., Campbell, C., *Bernier, R.,  ‡Hillary, F.G. (2016). An evolutionary computation based approach to examine functional plasticity between regional pairs in the brain. Frontiers in Neuroscience. Apr 5;10:146. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00146.

Taber-Thomas, B., Pamplona-Morales, S., Hillary, F.G., Perez-Edgar, K. (2016). Altered topography of intrinsic functional connectivity in childhood risk for social anxiety. Depression and Anxiety.

Rajtmajer, S.M., *Roy, A., Albert, R.A., Molenaar, P.M., ‡Hillary, F.G. (2015). A voxelwise approach to determine consensus regions-of-interest for the study of brain network plasticity. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. 28; 9:97. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2015.00097.

Hillary, F.G., *Roman, C., *Venkatesan, U., Rajtmajer, S.M., Bajo, R., Castellanos, N.D., (2015). Hyperconnectivity as a fundamental response to neurological disruption. Neuropsychology. PMID: 24933491.

*Ventkatesan, U.,  *Medaglia, J.D.,  & Hillary, F.G. (2015). Time post injury as a predictor of network change after TBI.  Journal of Neurotrauma. PMID: 24955788.

Hillary, F.G., Rajtmajer, S., *Roman, C., *Medaglia, J.D., Calhoun, V.D. (2014). The rich get richer: traumatic brain injury elicits hyperconnectivity in core subnetworks. PLoS ONE, 6/14.

*Medaglia, J.D, *McAleavey, A., *Nostami, S., Hillary, F.G. (2014). Modeling distinct imaging hemodynamics early after TBI: the relationship between signal amplitude and connectivity.  Brain Imaging and Behavior. PMID: 24906546