Biology subjects

Tozzi, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Tozzi, L..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

HARMONY: A large-scale harmonized neuroimaging dataset for research on anxious misery disorders

Patterns of brain circuit dysfunction underlying depression and anxiety have been increasingly characterized, including dimensional and subtype variation. A key challenge is determining how such patterns generalize across populations and measurement frameworks. Here, we introduce HARMONY, a harmonized multimodal neuroimaging dataset supporting large-scale investigation of brain-behavior associations across symptom-defined dimensions. HARMONY integrates four Human Connectome Project-style Connectomes Related to Human Disease cohorts spanning adolescence to later adulthood and capturing anxious misery symptoms. The resource combines standardized HCP-style preprocessing, quality control, imaging-derived phenotypes, and harmonized symptom measures into a clinically enriched public dataset. Proof-of-concept analyses using HARMONY showed that pooling heterogeneous cohorts increased statistical power for detecting associations between imaging-derived phenotypes and anhedonia and depression severity. Effect sizes remained modest, consistent with symptom-based measures across heterogeneous samples. Functional imaging-derived phenotypes showed the strongest multivariate predictive performance. In summary, HARMONY provides a large multi-cohort resource for reproducible mental health neuroimaging research.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Three-dimensional humanized gingival tissue model to study oral microbiome

The oral cavity contains different microenvironments, as the non-shedding surface of the teeth and the epithelial mucosa, where oral barriers and microbial communities coexist. The interactions and balances between these two communities are responsible for oral tissue homeostasis or dysbiosis, that ultimately dictate health or disease. Disruption of this equilibrium is the first necessary step towards chronic inflammation and permanent tissue damage in the case of chronic periodontitis. There are currently no experimental models able to mimic the structural, physical, and metabolic conditions present in the oral gingival tissue to support the long-term investigation of host-pathogens unbalances. Herein, we report a 3D anatomical gingival in vitro model based on human primary culture that recapitulates the native tissue organization, and a native oxygen gradient within the gingival pocket to support human microbiome persistence with a physiologically relevant level of microbial diversity as well as native spatial organization. The modulation of inflammatory markers in the presence of oral microbiome suggested the humanized functional response of this model. The model will be used in future studies to investigate host-pathogen unbalances in gingivitis and periodontal disease.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2019

Short-term test-retest reliability of the human intrinsic functional connectome

Functional connectivity is frequently used to quantify the complex synchronous distributed fluctuations in neuronal activity derived from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and to generate network representations of human brain function. Such \"functional connectomes\" have great promise for mechanistic studies and for clinical translation. However, we do not know to what extent a functional connectome is stable over time for an individual. In the present work, we evaluate the short-term test-retest reliability of functional connectomes in a large publicly available sample of healthy participants (N=833) scanned on two consecutive days. We also assess the consequences on reliability of three methodological procedures for which a clear guideline in the community is lacking: atlas choice, global signal regression and thresholding. By adopting the intraclass correlation coefficient as a reliability metric, we demonstrate that a relatively small portion of the intrinsic functional connectome is characterized by good (4-6%) to excellent (0.08-1%) stability over time. In particular, connectivity between prefrontal, parietal and temporal areas appears to be especially stable over short timescales. Also, while unreliable edges of the functional connectome are generally weak in terms of average functional connectivity, reliable edges are not necessarily strong. Methodologically, we demonstrate that multimodal parcellation and averaging of connections within known networks are practices that improve reliability. Harnessing this knowledge, for example by honing in on the reliable portion of the connectome, offers one way forward for studies of trait-like features within the normative connectome and for discovery of biomarkers in clinical cohorts.

neuroscience↗