Giulia Baracchini (she/her)
Curriculum Vitae
Nationality: Italian, Canadian | Email: giulia.baracchini@sydney.edu.au
DOB: 14/12/1994 | Personal website: https://giuliabaracchini.academic.ws/
Work address: Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney
94 Mallett St, Camperdown, Sydney, NSW 2050, AUSTRALIA
EDUCATION
2024 – | Postdoctoral Fellow, Systems Neuroscience and Complexity Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia |
2019 – 2024 | Ph.D., Cognitive Neuroscience Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada |
2016 – 2018 | M.Sc., Cognitive Neuroscience & Clinical Neuropsychology Summa cum laude (110L/110) Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Veneto, Italy |
2013 – 2016 | B.Sc., Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology Summa cum laude (110L/110) Università degli Studi di Padova, Padova, Veneto, Italy |
FUNDING
2024 – 2027 | Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Amount: $225,000 (CAD) |
2022 – 2025 | Fonds de Recherche du Québec Doctoral Fellowship Amount: $49,000 (CAD) |
2022 – 2023 | Internal Studentship McGill Faculty of Medicine (declined) Amount: $12,000 (CAD) |
2021 – 2022 | David G. Guthrie McGill Faculty of Medicine Studentship Amount: $12,000 (CAD) |
2020 – 2021 | Max Binz McGill Faculty of Medicine Studentship Amount: $12,000 (CAD) |
2015 – 2016 | Erasmus+ European Commission Scholarship Amount: 1,460 Euro |
AWARDS
2024 | Best fast talk at the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference in Newcastle, Australia (non-monetary) |
2023 | Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Merit Award ($700 USD) |
2023 | Quebec Bioimaging Network (QBIN) Travel Award ($500 CAD) |
2021 | McGill Integrated Program in Neuroscience Summer School Award ($295 CAD) |
2017 | Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Travel Award ($581 CAD) |
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2022 – 2023 | Visiting PhD student at the Padova Neuroscience Centre directed by Prof. Maurizio Corbetta, Padova, Italy. |
2019 – | PhD research at the Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Nathan Spreng. Thesis title: A multi-level understanding of brain signal variability for human brain organization. |
2018 – 2019 | Full-time Research Assistant at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Cheryl Grady. Responsibilities: participant recruitment, data acquisition, data preprocessing, data analysis of a large-scale functional MRI and behavioral study on cognitive control changes across the adult lifespan. |
2018 | MSc research at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Cheryl Grady and Prof. Antonino Vallesi. Thesis title: Can we see the forest for the trees, do our brain processes work in isolation? A multi-modal fMRI study of age-related differences in cognitive control. |
2017 | Visiting MSc student at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Canada under the supervision of Prof. Cheryl Grady and Prof. Antonino Vallesi. |
2016 | BSc thesis with Prof. Jeff Kiesner at the University of Padova. Thesis: The neural underpinnings of the criminal mind. |
2016 | BSc internship at the research hospital of Cittadella, Padova, Italy in the Department of Psychiatry. |
2015 – 2016 | BSc semester abroad at the Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany with the Erasmus+ program. Focus: animal cognition and behavior. |
PUBLICATIONS
Articles published or under review as first author
Baracchini, G., Müller, E.J., Shine, J.M. Bridging the epistemological divide in neuroscience to improve ontological clarity (2025). Aperture Neuro, 5 (Suppl 1).
*Baracchini, G., *Yu, J.-C., Rieck, J., Beaton, D., Guillemot, V., Grady, C., Abdi, H., Spreng, R.N. covSTATIS: a multi-table technique for network neuroscience (2024). Aperture Neuro, 4. *equal contributions
Baracchini, G., Zhou, Y., da Silva Castanheira, J., Hansen, J.Y., Rieck, J., Turner, G.R., Grady, C.L., Mišić, B., Nomi, J., Uddin, L.Q., Spreng, R.N. The biological role of local and global fMRI BOLD signal variability in human brain organization. Under Review – paper available on bioRxiv (2023) here.
Baracchini, G., Mišić, B., Setton, R., Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, L., Girn, M., Nomi, J.S., Uddin, L.Q., Turner, G.R., Spreng, R.N. (2021). Inter-regional BOLD signal variability is an organizational feature of functional brain networks. NeuroImage, 237, 118149.
Other articles published or preprinted
2025
Tan, J., Orlando, I., Whyte, C., Bryant, A., Munn, B., Baracchini, G., King, M., O’Callaghan, C., Müller, E.J., Shine, J.M. Cerebellar and subcortical contributions to working memory manipulation. Communications Biology, 8(1), 1028.
Secara, M.T., Khan, Z., Rashidi, A., Oliver, L.D., Yu, J.C., Foussias, G., Dickie, E.W., Szatmari, P., Desarkar, P., Lai, M.-C., Baracchini, G., Malhotra, A.K., Buchanan, R.W., Voineskos, A.N., Ameis, S.H., Hawco, C. Transdiagnostic profiles of BOLD signal variability in autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders: Associations with cognition and functioning. bioRxiv, 2025-06.
2024
Müller, E.J., Munn, B., Baracchini, G., Fulcher, B.D., Medel, V., Redinbaugh, M.J., Saalmann, Y.B., Brunton, B.W., Brunton, S.L., Shine, J.M. (2024). Thalamic control over laminar cortical dynamics across conscious states. bioRxiv, 2024-07.
Zhou, J., Wearn, A., Huck, J., Hughes, C.S., Baracchini, G., Tremblay-Mercier, J., Poirer, J., Villeneuve, S., Tardif, C., Chakravarty, M.M., Daugherty, A.M., Gauthier, C.J., Turner, G.R., Spreng, R.N., for the PREVENT-AD Research Group (2024). Iron deposition and distribution across the hippocampus is associated with pattern separation and pattern completion in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Neuroscience, 44(19), e1973232024.
Walker, C.S., Li., L., Baracchini, G., Tremblay-Mercier, J., Spreng, R.N., Geddes, M.R. (2024). Neurobehavioral mechanisms influencing the association between generativity, the desire to promote well-being of younger generations, and purpose in life in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, gbae060.
Wearn, A., Tremblay S.A., Tardif, C.L., Leppert, I.R., Gauthier, C.J., Baracchini, G., Hewan, P., Poirer, J., Rosa-Neto, P., Villenueve, S., Schmitz, T.W., Turner, G.R., Spreng, R.N., for the PREVENT-AD Research Group. Neuromodulatory subcortical nucleus integrity is associated with white matter microstructure, tauopathy and APOE status. Nature Communications, 15(1), 4706.
Turner, G.R., Hewan, P., Wearn, A., van Dooren, R., Wyatt, L., Leppert, I.R., Baracchini, G., Hughes, C.S., Williams, K.M., Sylvain, E., Tremblay-Mercier, J., Poirer, J., Villeneuve, S., Tardif, C., Spreng, R.N., for the PREVENT-AD Research Group. Locus coeruleus integrity is related to an exploitation-based decision-making bias in older adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(22), e2322617121.
Thovinakere, N., Ai, M., Noriega de la Colina, A., Walker, C., Baracchini, G., Tremblay-Mercier, J., Villenueve, S., Spreng, R.N., Geddes, M.R. Ventromedial frontoinsular connectivity is associated with long-term smoking behavior change in aging. Imaging Neuroscience, 2, 1-20.
Hughes, C.S., Setton, R., Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, L., Baracchini, G., Turner, G., Spreng, R.N. Precision mapping of the default network reveals common and distinct (inter)activity for autobiographical memory and theory of mind. Journal of Neurophysiology, 132(2), 375-388.
Fenerci, C., Setton, R., Baracchini, G., Snytte, J., Spreng, R.N., Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience Cam-CAN, Sheldon, S. Lifespan differences in hippocampal subregion connectivity patterns during movie watching. Neurobiology of Aging, 141, 182-193.
2023
Grady, C.L., Rieck, J.R., Baracchini, G., DeSouza, B. (2023). Relation of brain signal variability to cognitive and socioemotional traits in an adult lifespan sample. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, nsad044.
*Setton, R., *Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, L., Girn, M., Lockrow, A.W., Baracchini, G., Hughes, C., Lowe, A.J., Cassidy, B.N., Li, J., Luh, W.-M., Bzdok, D., Leahy, R.M., Ge, T., Margulies, D.S., Mišić, B., Bernhardt, B.C., Stevens, W.D., De Brigard, F., Kundu, P., Turner, G.R., Spreng, R.N. (2023). Age differences in the functional architecture of the human brain. Cerebral Cortex, 33(1), 114-134. *equal contributions
2022
Rieck, J.R., DeSouza, B., Baracchini, G., Grady, C.L. (2022). Reduced modulation of BOLD variability as a function of cognitive load in healthy aging. Neurobiology of Aging, 112, 215-230.
Kantarovich, K., Mwilambwe-Tshilobo, L., Fernandez-Cabello, S., Setton, R., Baracchini, G., Lockrow, A.W., Spreng, R.N. & Turner, G.R. White matter lesion load is associated with lower within- and greater between- network connectivity across older age. Neurobiology of Aging, 112, 170-180.
2021
Rieck, J. R., Baracchini, G., & Grady, C.L. (2021). Contributions of Brain Function and Structure to Three Different Domains of Cognitive Control in Normal Aging. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 1-22.
Rieck, J.R., Baracchini, G., Nichol, D., Abdi, H., Grady, C.L. (2021). Reconfiguration and dedifferentiation of functional networks during cognitive control across the adult lifespan. Neurobiology of Aging, 106, 80-94.
Levitis, E., van Praag, C.D.G., Gau, R., Heunis, S., DuPre, E., Kiar, G., …, Baracchini, G., …, Maumet, C. (2021). Centering inclusivity in the design of online conferences – An OHBM-Open Science perspective. GigaScience, 10(8), giab051.
Rieck, J.R., Baracchini, G., Nichol, D., Abdi, H., Grady, C.L. (2021). Dataset of functional connectivity during cognitive control for an adult lifespan sample. Data in Brief, 39, 107573.
2020
Brown, A., Gervais, N. J., Almey, A., Duchesne, A., Gravelsins, L., Reuben, R. B., Baker-Sullivan, E., Rieck, J., Baracchini, G., Foulkes, W., Meschino, W., Grady, C. & Einstein, G. (2020). Effects of menopausal estrogen loss on the functional brain activity underlying associative memory: Developing topics. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 16, e047596. Conference proceeding
Open datasets published online
Rieck, J.R., Baracchini, G., DeSouza, B., Nichol, D., Howard, E., Grady, C. (2024). BOLD variability during cognitive control for an adult lifespan sample. OpenNeuro: https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds005270/versions/1.0.0
Commentaries and discussions
Whyte, C., & Baracchini, G. (2024). Response to ‘Has AI “killed” Marr’s ‘three’-levels framework?’: New Framework same old mistakes. JoCN Forum.
TEACHING & MENTORSHIP
August - October 2025 - Teaching role at The University of Sydney | Total of 35 hours of teaching, including 1x 1hr lecture on multi-scale/cross-species neuroscience + 22x 1.5hr tutorial on neuroimaging and computational neuroscience for 3rd year neuroscience undergraduates (course: NEUR3006). |
May 2025 - Teaching role at The University of Sydney | 1hr lecture + hands-on workshop on functional MRI for psychology Masters students at The Brain and Mind Centre (course: BMRI5004). |
2024 – University of Sydney | Honours student (science communication mentor): Rebekah Wong. |
2021 – McGill University | Undergraduate research assistant and Honors project: Yigu Zhou (ongoing, now MD-PhD student). Undergraduate research assistants: Eliana Muszynski, Sophie Hübner (6 months). |
2019 – University of Toronto | Undergraduate research assistant: Brennan DeSouza (ongoing, now graduated). Masters students: Alana Brown, Laura Gravelsins (6 months). |
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2025 | Reviewer for Canada Graduate Research Doctoral Scholarships (CIHR - CGRS D program) |
2024 – 2025 | Liaison member for Organization for Human Brain Mapping Communications Committee |
2024 – 2025 | Liaison member for Organization for Human Brain Mapping Program Committee |
2024 – 2025 | Event Manager for Organization for Human Brain Mapping BrainArt Special Interest Group |
2023 – 2024 | Liaison member for Organization for Human Brain Mapping Education Committee |
2023 – 2024 | Chair of Organization for Human Brain Mapping BrainArt Special Interest Group |
2022 | Organizing Committee of the Quebec Bioimaging Network Scientific Day, Sherbrooke, Canada. |
2021 – | Member of the Women’s NeuroNetwork |
2021 | Brenda Milner Neuropsychology Day Scientific Committee, The Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. |
2021 | Organizing Committee of the Quebec Bioimaging Network Scientific Day (virtual) |
2020 – 2023 | Student Representative of the Quebec Bioimaging Network |
2019 – 2023 | Student Representative of the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, The Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. |
2019 – 2021 | Founder of the Virtual Neuroimaging Journal Club: biweekly meetings across McGill University, University of Toronto, Karolinska Institute. |
2019 – 2020 | Member of the organizing committee of Cognition & Circuits, weekly seminar series at The Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. |
AD HOC REVIEWER
PLOS Computational Biology | NeuroImage | Imaging Neuroscience | Molecular Psychiatry | Network Neuroscience | Behavioural Brain Research | Human Brain Mapping | Biological Psychiatry | Communications Biology
INVITED TALKS
July 2025 | fMRI unpacked: A guided tour from raw data to functional analyses. Invited talk at the ISMRM ANZ Virtual Workshop on fMRI. |
June 2025 | Towards a unification of the multiscale nature of human brain activity and cognitive function. Invited talk at the Gradients of Brain Organization Workshop ahead of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting, Brisbane, Australia. |
March 2025 | Towards a unification of the multiscale nature of human brain activity and cognitive function. Invited talk at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia. |
November 2024 | Beyond modularity: building coherent cognitive neuroscience theories through multi-scale integration. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Australian Chapter, Melbourne, Australia. |
November 2024 | Beyond modularity: building coherent cognitive neuroscience theories through multi-scale integration. Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS) Conference, Newcastle, Australia. |
September 2024 | Opening the dialogue: why multi-party conversations should be the focus of neuroscience research. Invited talk for the Wisdom Exchange Project (Canadian intergenerational SciComm initiative). Online. |
January 2024 | A multi-level understanding of brain signal variability for human brain organization. Invited talk at the Inria Saclay Institute by the MIND NeuroSpin Group (PI: Dr. Philippe Ciuciu), Paris, France. |
October 2023 | Unraveling the spatiotemporal complexity of multimodal functional brain signals. Invited talk at the Montreal Neurological Institute for the neuroSPEED lab (PI: Prof. Sylvain Baillet), Montreal, Canada. |
June 2023 | An integrative framework to understand the role of brain “noise” and dynamics in brain organization. Invited presentation at the Shine Lab (PI: Dr. Mac Shine) at the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (virtual). |
July 2023 | Charting a wavy sea: BOLD signal dynamics converge across methods, scales, modalities and sites. Selected talk at the Annual Meeting of The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) in Montreal, Canada. |
April 2023 | Finding my own path in science through outreach activities. Invited panelist as part of The Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) 5à7 event “Inspiration from outreach” in Montreal, Canada. |
February 2023 | Charting a wavy sea: BOLD signal dynamics converge across methods, scales, modalities and sites. Selected talk at the 7th Whistler Scientific Workshop on Brain Functional Organization, Connectivity and Behavior, Whistler, Canada. |
January 2023 | Characterizing the multiscale dynamics of the human brain. Invited talk at the Padova Neuroscience Centre, University of Padova, Italy. |
December 2022 | What macroscale dynamics tell us about the brain’s functional network organization. Invited talk at the Brain Connectivity and Cognition Lab (PI: Prof. Lucina Uddin) at the University of California Los Angeles, USA. |
September 2022 | From brain regions to macroscale brain networks: why we should care about brain dynamics. Invited talk at the Integrated Program for Neuroscience Retreat at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. |
September 2022 | Personal perspectives on the PhD process. Invited talk at the Annual Medical Student Conference at the University of Köln, Köln, Germany. |
May 2022 | Inter-regional BOLD signal variability traces functional connectivity: Implications for assessing age-related cognitive decline. Invited talk at the Cerebral Imaging Center Lecture series at the Research Center of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Montreal, Canada. |
May 2021 | Inter-regional BOLD signal variability is an organizational feature of functional brain networks. Selected trainee spotlight talk at the Canadian Computational Neuroscience Conference (virtual). |
December 2020 | Inter-regional BOLD signal variability is an organizational feature of functional brain networks. Invited talk at the Brain Imaging Centre at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. |
November 2019 | A novel application of PLS-Regression: multimodal predictions in healthy aging. Selected talk at the Montreal AI and Neuroscience Conference, Montreal, Canada. |
February 2019 | Multimodal predictive modeling in healthy cognitive aging. Invited talk at the Biostatistics Meeting at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, Toronto, Canada. |
POSTER PRESENTATIONS (first author only shown here)
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION: PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT & OUTREACH
General
Science communication through art
June 2025 | Leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art during the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting in Brisbane, Australia. |
July 2024 | Leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art during the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting in Seoul, Korea. |
May 2024 | Eureka Festival for the Montreal Neurological Institute: leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art. |
February 2024 | Leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art at the Montreal Science Centre for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Activities sponsored by the Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Canada. |
2023 – 2024 | Chair of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping BrainArt Special Interest Group. |
October 2023 | Co-curator and co-organizer of a public art exhibition on the history of brain imaging told through the lens of Quebec scientists (“Art of Imaging”) at Palais de Congres, Montreal, Canada. Exhibition held by the Quebec Neuroimaging Network during the World Congress of Neurology and Montreal’s Amazing Brain Week – a week of activities and talks related to neuroscience for the general public. Media attention: here, here. Full exhibition can be accessed here. |
August 2023 | Curator and organizer of a booth on brain art for the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music at McGill University, for medical students from all over the world visiting The Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Canada. |
July 2023 | Leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art during the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting in Montreal, Canada. |
March 2023 | Co-curator and co-organizer with the Quebec Bioimaging Network of a public art exhibition on the history of brain imaging told through the lens of Quebec scientists (“Art of Imaging”) at the Centre PHI, Montreal, Canada. Media attention: interview with Radio Canada here. Leader and organizer of activities for children during the art exhibition. |
February 2023 | Leader and organizer of activities for children around brain art at the Montreal Science Centre for the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Activities sponsored by the Montreal Neurological Institute and the Quebec Bioimaging Network, Montreal, Canada. |
2022 – 2023 | Website and communication manager elect for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping BrainArt Special Interest Group. |
Science communication through written words
Blog contributor for BrainPost and the Quebec Bioimaging Network Blog. Here is a list of my pieces:
Science communication through intergenerational events & initiatives
2023 – 2025 | Event manager for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping BrainArt Special Interest Group. |
2020 – | Vice President of the Wisdom Exchange Project. Volunteer-based organization run by graduate students and postdoc in Quebec and Ontario to mitigate loneliness among older adults and promote intergenerational learning. |
2020 – | Co-organizer and co-leader of monthly seminars for the Wisdom Exchange Project to share the latest findings in brain health research with our community of older adults. Seminars both online and in person on McGill campus, Montreal, Canada. |
2023 | Co-organizer and co-leader of the Italian satellite of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Multilingual Kids Review event. Event held online. |
2022 | Co-organizer, co-leader and presenter of the Italian satellite of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Multilingual Kids Review event. Event held online. My presentation is accessible here. |
2021 | Co-organizer and co-leader of the Italian satellite of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Multilingual Kids Review event. Event held online. |
2019 – 2020 | BrainReach North volunteer. Organization aimed to promote education in neuroscience to students of all ages and backgrounds, particularly to Indigenous peoples of Canada. |
Science communication through sports
2022 – | Leader of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Sports Run Group |
2022 | Leader and organizer of the Together for Mental Health event at McGill University to raise awareness around mental health among graduate students. |
2020 | Co-founder of Co-active @ a Distance. Initiative that encouraged socially-distanced, active living while supporting Montreal local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Teaching scientists about science communication
May 2025 | Invited panelist for a session on science communication for PhD students in Physics at The University of Sydney. |
July 2024 | Co-organizer and instructor of an Educational Course on Science Communication “Communicating neuroscience across peoples, languages, and cultures” at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting in Seoul, Korea. |
2021 | Co-organizer of a Science Communication workshop with the Quebec Bioimaging Network (virtual). |
PROGRAMMING PROFICIENCY
R (proficient) | MATLAB (proficient) | Bash (proficient) | Python (intermediate)
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
Italian (mother tongue) | English (bilingual) | German (advanced) | French (intermediate) | Spanish (intermediate)