Leah Banellis
@leahbanellis.bsky.social
🏳️🌈 Postdoc at the Embodied Computation Group. Interested in brain-body interactions, interoception, consciousness, & mental health
Pinned
Leah Banellis
@leahbanellis.bsky.social
· Jul 30
Got Butterflies in your Stomach? I am super excited to share the first major study of my postdoc @the-ecg.bsky.social - Now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We report a multidimensional mental health signature of stomach-brain coupling in the largest sample to date www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Reposted by Leah Banellis
So happy this paper is now out in @plosbiology.org! We investigated whether fluctuations in MEPs can be explained by phasic influences from internal bodily rhythms, and whether this might happen independently per organ system.
#interoception #neuroskyence
#interoception #neuroskyence
How do internal bodily rhythms influence #brain activity & motor function? @tahnee-engelen.bsky.social &co show that #cardiac, #respiratory & #gastric rhythms independently modulate motor excitability, revealing distinct #interoceptive profiles across individuals @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4nMtpLT
November 13, 2025 at 11:01 AM
So happy this paper is now out in @plosbiology.org! We investigated whether fluctuations in MEPs can be explained by phasic influences from internal bodily rhythms, and whether this might happen independently per organ system.
#interoception #neuroskyence
#interoception #neuroskyence
The hard problem is solved - Thanks @naddenmark.bsky.social !
November 3, 2025 at 6:55 PM
The hard problem is solved - Thanks @naddenmark.bsky.social !
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Even after recovery, relapse is heartbreakingly common in anorexia nervosa. Could the answer lie in the gut’s hidden signals? 🧵
September 22, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Even after recovery, relapse is heartbreakingly common in anorexia nervosa. Could the answer lie in the gut’s hidden signals? 🧵
Reposted by Leah Banellis
I'm thrilled to share that our new paper is now published in Psychophysiology (Open Access):
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@zacndr.bsky.social @teamlabuda.bsky.social @fraferri.bsky.social @danlikesbrains.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@zacndr.bsky.social @teamlabuda.bsky.social @fraferri.bsky.social @danlikesbrains.bsky.social
September 26, 2025 at 8:31 AM
I'm thrilled to share that our new paper is now published in Psychophysiology (Open Access):
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@zacndr.bsky.social @teamlabuda.bsky.social @fraferri.bsky.social @danlikesbrains.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@zacndr.bsky.social @teamlabuda.bsky.social @fraferri.bsky.social @danlikesbrains.bsky.social
Thank you to @psypost.bsky.social for featuring our @natmentalhealth.nature.com research on stomach–brain communication and worse mental health symptoms
www.psypost.org/scientists-d...
Was also shared on X but with weirdly more hair colour comments 🌈 than the science itself 😅:
x.com/OwenGregoria...
www.psypost.org/scientists-d...
Was also shared on X but with weirdly more hair colour comments 🌈 than the science itself 😅:
x.com/OwenGregoria...
Scientists discover surprising link between gut-brain interactions and mental health
Every emotion has a physical side, but one organ has been curiously overlooked in brain-body research. Now, scientists are turning their attention to the stomach—and discovering signals that may chang...
www.psypost.org
October 1, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Thank you to @psypost.bsky.social for featuring our @natmentalhealth.nature.com research on stomach–brain communication and worse mental health symptoms
www.psypost.org/scientists-d...
Was also shared on X but with weirdly more hair colour comments 🌈 than the science itself 😅:
x.com/OwenGregoria...
www.psypost.org/scientists-d...
Was also shared on X but with weirdly more hair colour comments 🌈 than the science itself 😅:
x.com/OwenGregoria...
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Two new preprints on multilevel HMMs! Time series data is now pervasive in psychology and new methods are needed to model the dynamics in such data. Hidden Markov Models (HHMs) are powerful models for dynamics in which a system is switching between a number of discrete states.
September 22, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Two new preprints on multilevel HMMs! Time series data is now pervasive in psychology and new methods are needed to model the dynamics in such data. Hidden Markov Models (HHMs) are powerful models for dynamics in which a system is switching between a number of discrete states.
Reposted by Leah Banellis
That’s a wrap! Thanks to the speakers @leahbanellis.bsky.social @tschreiner.bsky.social and Anke Karabanov and co-organiser @danlikesbrains.bsky.social for a great symposium 💪
September 19, 2025 at 11:37 AM
That’s a wrap! Thanks to the speakers @leahbanellis.bsky.social @tschreiner.bsky.social and Anke Karabanov and co-organiser @danlikesbrains.bsky.social for a great symposium 💪
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Finally, we'll have the Brain-Body States Symposium on Friday morning, featuring @tahnee-engelen.bsky.social @leahbanellis.bsky.social @tschreiner.bsky.social and Anke Karabanov.
Friday's poster session will also feature the lab's recent work on respiration and active sampling.
Friday's poster session will also feature the lab's recent work on respiration and active sampling.
September 15, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Finally, we'll have the Brain-Body States Symposium on Friday morning, featuring @tahnee-engelen.bsky.social @leahbanellis.bsky.social @tschreiner.bsky.social and Anke Karabanov.
Friday's poster session will also feature the lab's recent work on respiration and active sampling.
Friday's poster session will also feature the lab's recent work on respiration and active sampling.
Incredibly impressed with the calibre of research by Ye Ella Tian showing the importance of multi-organ bodily health including immunometabolics (at Adriatica Summer School 🏖️)
#teamlab #mambolab #psychologywellbeing_ch #fraferri_78 #erasmus_uda
#teamlab #mambolab #psychologywellbeing_ch #fraferri_78 #erasmus_uda
September 10, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Incredibly impressed with the calibre of research by Ye Ella Tian showing the importance of multi-organ bodily health including immunometabolics (at Adriatica Summer School 🏖️)
#teamlab #mambolab #psychologywellbeing_ch #fraferri_78 #erasmus_uda
#teamlab #mambolab #psychologywellbeing_ch #fraferri_78 #erasmus_uda
So thrilled to see this Spotlight. Thank you @dalmaijer.bsky.social! Homes in on the complexity of the role of interoceptive signals with mental health, a 'one size fits all' is clearly not appropriate for interoception (sometimes showing that ‘being in touch with your body’ is not always preferred)
In this @cp-trendsneuro.bsky.social Spotlight, I describe how a recent paper by @leahbanellis.bsky.social, @brainandstomach.bsky.social, et al. opens new avenues in interoception research, including those focussed on the subjective interpretation of internal signals: www.cell.com/trends/neuro...
Stomach–brain synchronisation is associated with poorer mental health
In common parlance, ‘being in touch with your body’ is often used positively. However,
in a recent study, Banellis, Rebollo, and colleagues show that better stomach–brain
synchronisation is actually a...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:35 PM
So thrilled to see this Spotlight. Thank you @dalmaijer.bsky.social! Homes in on the complexity of the role of interoceptive signals with mental health, a 'one size fits all' is clearly not appropriate for interoception (sometimes showing that ‘being in touch with your body’ is not always preferred)
Reposted by Leah Banellis
New preprint! We are pleased to share our Hierarchical Bayesian framework for Interoceptive Psychophysics! Implemented in rstan, we provide a complete suite of tools spanning model comparison, parameter recovery, multifactor designs, power analysis, and more! 🎯 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 2, 2025 at 8:09 AM
New preprint! We are pleased to share our Hierarchical Bayesian framework for Interoceptive Psychophysics! Implemented in rstan, we provide a complete suite of tools spanning model comparison, parameter recovery, multifactor designs, power analysis, and more! 🎯 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Leah Banellis
New preprint...and this one is truly EPIC 🚨.
Using a large group of patients with depression and healthy controls (N>800), we show differences in the functional segregation of insular subnetworks. And we can use it to classify!
Led by @glassybrain.bsky.social #neuroskyence 🩺
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Using a large group of patients with depression and healthy controls (N>800), we show differences in the functional segregation of insular subnetworks. And we can use it to classify!
Led by @glassybrain.bsky.social #neuroskyence 🩺
osf.io/preprints/ps...
August 30, 2025 at 8:30 AM
New preprint...and this one is truly EPIC 🚨.
Using a large group of patients with depression and healthy controls (N>800), we show differences in the functional segregation of insular subnetworks. And we can use it to classify!
Led by @glassybrain.bsky.social #neuroskyence 🩺
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Using a large group of patients with depression and healthy controls (N>800), we show differences in the functional segregation of insular subnetworks. And we can use it to classify!
Led by @glassybrain.bsky.social #neuroskyence 🩺
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Leah Banellis
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation
Interoception-the sensing and perception of the internal viscera-is widely cast as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking brain-body interaction to mental illness. Prevailing models propose that altered ...
www.medrxiv.org
August 27, 2025 at 8:32 PM
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Excellent thread - explaining a (highly surprising) negative result, but also going into the ecological validity of the experiments performed and possible strategies to address those validity issues.
This is what we need in experimental cog sci !
This is what we need in experimental cog sci !
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation
Interoception-the sensing and perception of the internal viscera-is widely cast as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking brain-body interaction to mental illness. Prevailing models propose that altered ...
www.medrxiv.org
August 27, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Excellent thread - explaining a (highly surprising) negative result, but also going into the ecological validity of the experiments performed and possible strategies to address those validity issues.
This is what we need in experimental cog sci !
This is what we need in experimental cog sci !
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Very interesting set of null findings! TL;DR: no direct link between rigorously tested interoception across various domains and mental health. Read the whole thread (and/or preprint!) for nuance behind why there might be a null effect here.
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation
Interoception-the sensing and perception of the internal viscera-is widely cast as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking brain-body interaction to mental illness. Prevailing models propose that altered ...
www.medrxiv.org
August 28, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Very interesting set of null findings! TL;DR: no direct link between rigorously tested interoception across various domains and mental health. Read the whole thread (and/or preprint!) for nuance behind why there might be a null effect here.
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Wow, this is the kind of evidence we need to move ahead in the field. I'll go out on a limb here: I guess it is more about the gut than cardiac and respiratory domains. Huge effort by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @micahgallen.com and the entire team 👏
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.25.25334366v1
August 27, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Wow, this is the kind of evidence we need to move ahead in the field. I'll go out on a limb here: I guess it is more about the gut than cardiac and respiratory domains. Huge effort by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @micahgallen.com and the entire team 👏
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
Interoceptive Ability is Unrelated to Mental Health Symptoms: Evidence From a Large Scale Multi-Domain Psychophysical Investigation
Interoception-the sensing and perception of the internal viscera-is widely cast as a transdiagnostic mechanism linking brain-body interaction to mental illness. Prevailing models propose that altered ...
www.medrxiv.org
August 27, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Are interoception and mental health linked? Many assume so, with interoception even described as a psychiatric “p-factor.” But in our latest preprint, we were surprised to find little evidence for such a connection. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 Thread with our reflections on the matter 👇
I am ridiculously excited about this! We made the cover!! (online-only... but still 😂). Love the philosophical twist to this Editorial at Nature Mental Health featuring our research.
Very pleased to be featured in the August Editorial for Nature Mental Health! The stomach’s turn: elucidating the gut–brain axis www.nature.com/articles/s44...
The stomach’s turn: elucidating the gut–brain axis - Nature Mental Health
Philosophers and scientists have debated for centuries about how cognition and emotions are produced and the causal roles the body and brain serve. The advent of more sophisticated models of gut–brain...
www.nature.com
August 7, 2025 at 9:24 AM
I am ridiculously excited about this! We made the cover!! (online-only... but still 😂). Love the philosophical twist to this Editorial at Nature Mental Health featuring our research.
Absolutely loved discussing our recent @natmentalhealth.nature.com paper on IhmCurious
YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTv...), thank you for having me! & to
@micahgallen.com @brainandstomach.bsky.social & the @the-ecg.bsky.social team for all their hard work 🧠
YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTv...), thank you for having me! & to
@micahgallen.com @brainandstomach.bsky.social & the @the-ecg.bsky.social team for all their hard work 🧠
July 31, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Absolutely loved discussing our recent @natmentalhealth.nature.com paper on IhmCurious
YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTv...), thank you for having me! & to
@micahgallen.com @brainandstomach.bsky.social & the @the-ecg.bsky.social team for all their hard work 🧠
YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDTv...), thank you for having me! & to
@micahgallen.com @brainandstomach.bsky.social & the @the-ecg.bsky.social team for all their hard work 🧠
Reposted by Leah Banellis
The way we feel affects the way we think. Can we find evidence for this in real-world mood and cognitive performance? For a few weeks, we followed people through their daily lives on their smartphones to answer this question! 📱🌍🧠 #neuroskyence
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
June 19, 2025 at 11:18 AM
The way we feel affects the way we think. Can we find evidence for this in real-world mood and cognitive performance? For a few weeks, we followed people through their daily lives on their smartphones to answer this question! 📱🌍🧠 #neuroskyence
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
Reposted by Leah Banellis
I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!
Stomach–brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of mental health - Nature Mental Health
Using a relatively large and diverse sample of mostly young adults, this study by Banellis, Rebollo and colleagues examines associations between regional stomach–brain coupling and mental health and i...
www.nature.com
July 30, 2025 at 10:25 AM
I’m elated to share our latest publication - out now in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s44... - tour de force by @leahbanellis.bsky.social @brainandstomach.bsky.social and the rest of the VMP team!
Got Butterflies in your Stomach? I am super excited to share the first major study of my postdoc @the-ecg.bsky.social - Now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We report a multidimensional mental health signature of stomach-brain coupling in the largest sample to date www.nature.com/articles/s44...
July 30, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Got Butterflies in your Stomach? I am super excited to share the first major study of my postdoc @the-ecg.bsky.social - Now out in @natmentalhealth.nature.com! We report a multidimensional mental health signature of stomach-brain coupling in the largest sample to date www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Loving that my #ASSC conferences keep aligning with pride 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (left #ASSC28 in Heraklion Crete, right ASSC in New York). Can we keep this up for Chile? @assc28.bsky.social
July 14, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Loving that my #ASSC conferences keep aligning with pride 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ (left #ASSC28 in Heraklion Crete, right ASSC in New York). Can we keep this up for Chile? @assc28.bsky.social
Loved presenting our Brain-Body tutorial🫀🫁🧠 at #ASSC28, great initiative & brilliant talk from @brainandstomach.bsky.social & awesome talks as always from @danlikesbrains.bsky.social & @marieloescher.bsky.social. Looking forward to the rest of the conference!
July 6, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Loved presenting our Brain-Body tutorial🫀🫁🧠 at #ASSC28, great initiative & brilliant talk from @brainandstomach.bsky.social & awesome talks as always from @danlikesbrains.bsky.social & @marieloescher.bsky.social. Looking forward to the rest of the conference!
Reposted by Leah Banellis
Check out this cool Psyche article by @leahbanellis.bsky.social - covering our recent research into the neural and psychiatric correlates of "body-wandering", i.e., mind-wandering about the interoceptive and somatic body.
Ever get distracted by your own body? We call this "body-wandering." 🧠🫀
Our latest study uncovers its neural fingerprint and the link to ADHD & depression symptoms. Awesome write-up by our own @leahbanellis.bsky.social, in Psyche Magazine!
psyche.co/ideas/how-mu...
#neuroscience #research #ADHD
Our latest study uncovers its neural fingerprint and the link to ADHD & depression symptoms. Awesome write-up by our own @leahbanellis.bsky.social, in Psyche Magazine!
psyche.co/ideas/how-mu...
#neuroscience #research #ADHD
How much you ‘body-wander’ could affect your mental health | Psyche Ideas
Some people tune into bodily sensations while daydreaming, others don’t – with implications for anxiety, depression and ADHD
psyche.co
June 20, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Check out this cool Psyche article by @leahbanellis.bsky.social - covering our recent research into the neural and psychiatric correlates of "body-wandering", i.e., mind-wandering about the interoceptive and somatic body.