Dr. Sean Froudist Walsh
Research Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Research Assistant Professor, Trinity Inst. of Neurosciences (TCIN)
Biography
Seán trained at Trinity College Dublin, King"s College London, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and New York University in Mathematics, Psychiatry and Neuroscience research. He has developed methods for computational modelling and integration of brain data across scales, and species. This work has led to discoveries of major axes of cortical receptor organisation and multi-scale computational models of cognitive functions including working memory and conscious perception. He leads the Cognition, Anatomy and Neural Networks (CANN) research group at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Oxford.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Mary Kate P Joyce, Tsvetoslav G Ivanov, Fenna M Krienen, Jude F Mitchell, Shaojie Ma, Wataru Inoue, Anirvan S Nandy, Dibyadeep Datta, Alvaro Duque, Jon I Arellano, Rahul Gupta, Guillermo Gonzalez-Burgos, David A Lewis, Nenad Sestan, Steven A McCarroll, Julio Martinez-Trujillo, Seán Froudist-Walsh, Amy F T Arnsten, Higher dopamine D1 receptor expression in prefrontal parvalbumin neurons underlies higher distractibility in marmosets versus macaques, Communications Biology, 2025
Purple RJ, Gupta R, Thomas CW, Golden CT, Palomero-Gallagher N, Carhart-Harris R, Froudist-Walsh S, Jones MW., Short- and long-term modulation of rat prefrontal cortical activity following single doses of psilocybin., Molecular psychiatry, 30, (12), 2025, p5889-5900
Luppi AI, Liu ZQ, Hansen JY, Cofre R, Niu M, Kuzmin E, Froudist-Walsh S, Palomero-Gallagher N, Misic B., Benchmarking macaque brain gene expression for horizontal and vertical translation., Science advances, 11, (9), 2025, peads6967
Ulysse Klatzmann, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Daniel P Bliss, Panagiota Theodoni, Jorge Mejías, Meiqi Niu, Lucija Rapan, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher, Claire Sergent, Stanislas Dehaene, Xiao-Jing Wang, A dynamic bifurcation mechanism explains cortex-wide neural correlates of conscious access, Cell Reports, 2025
Ding X, Froudist-Walsh S, Jaramillo J, Jiang J, Wang XJ., Cell type-specific connectome predicts distributed working memory activity in the mouse brain., eLife, 13, 2024, pe85442
Magrou L, Joyce MKP, Froudist-Walsh S, Datta D, Wang XJ, Martinez-Trujillo J, Arnsten AFT., The meso-connectomes of mouse, marmoset, and macaque: network organization and the emergence of higher cognition., Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 34, (5), 2024, pbhae174
Meiqi Niu, Lucija Rapan, Seán Froudist-Walsh, Ling Zhao, Thomas Funck, Katrin Amunts, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher, Multimodal mapping of macaque monkey somatosensory cortex, Progress in Neurobiology, 2024
Froudist-Walsh S, Xu T, Niu M, Rapan L, Zhao L, Margulies DS, Zilles K, Wang XJ, Palomero-Gallagher N., Gradients of neurotransmitter receptor expression in the macaque cortex., Nature neuroscience, 26, (7), 2023, p1281-1294
Lucija Rapan, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Meiqi Niu, Ting Xu, Ling Zhao, Thomas Funck, Xiao-Jing Wang, Katrin Amunts, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher, Cytoarchitectonic, receptor distribution and functional connectivity analyses of the macaque frontal lobe, eLife, 2023
Meiqi Niu, Lucija Rapan, Thomas Funck, Seán Froudist-Walsh, Ling Zhao, Karl Zilles, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher, Organization of the macaque monkey inferior parietal lobule based on multimodal receptor architectonics, NeuroImage, 231, 2021, p117843
Lucija Rapan, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Meiqi Niu, Ting Xu, Thomas Funck, Karl Zilles, Nicola Palomero-Gallagher, Multimodal 3D atlas of the macaque monkey motor and premotor cortex, NeuroImage, 226, 2021, p117574
Zilong Gao, Hanqing Wang, Chen Lu, Tiezhan Lu, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Ming Chen, Xiao-Jing Wang, Ji Hu, Wenzhi Sun, The neural basis of delayed gratification, Science Advances, 7, (49), 2021
P. Christiaan Klink, Jean-François Aubry, Vincent P. Ferrera, Andrew S. Fox, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Béchir Jarraya, Elisa E. Konofagou, Richard J. Krauzlis, Adam Messinger, Anna S. Mitchell, Michael Ortiz-Rios, Hiroyuki Oya, Angela C. Roberts, Anna Wang Roe, Matthew F.S. Rushworth, Jérôme Sallet, Michael Christoph Schmid, Charles E. Schroeder, Jordy Tasserie, Doris Y. Tsao, Lynn Uhrig, Wim Vanduffel, Melanie Wilke, Igor Kagan, Christopher I. Petkov, Combining brain perturbation and neuroimaging in non-human primates, NeuroImage, 235, 2021, p118017
Chiara Papini, Lena Palaniyappan, Jasmin Kroll, Sean Froudist-Walsh, Robin M. Murray, Chiara Nosarti, Altered Cortical Gyrification in Adults Who Were Born Very Preterm and Its Associations With Cognition and Mental Health, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 5, (7), 2020, p640--650
Xu, T., Sturgeon, D., Ramirez, J.S.B., Froudist-Walsh, S., Margulies, D.S., Schroeder, C.E., Fair, D.A., Milham, M.P., Interindividual Variability of Functional Connectivity in Awake and Anesthetized Rhesus Macaque Monkeys, Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 4, (6), 2019, p543-553
Parvaz, M.A., Kim, K., Froudist-Walsh, S., Newcorn, J.H., Ivanov, I., Reward-based learning as a function of severity of substance abuse risk in drug-naïve youth with ADHD, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology, 28, (8), 2018, p547-553
Velthorst, E. and Froudist-Walsh, S. and Stahl, E. and Ruderfer, D. and Ivanov, I. and Buxbaum, J. and Banaschewski, T. and Bokde, A.L.W. and Bromberg, U. and BÃ"chel, C. and Burke Quinlan, E. and DesriviÃ"res, S. and Flor, H. and Frouin, V. and Garavan, H. and Gowland, P. and Heinz, A. and Ittermann, B. and PaillÃ"re Martinot, M.-L. and Artiges, E. and Nees, F. and Papadopoulos Orfanos, D. and Paus, T. and Poustka, L. and Hohmann, S. and Fröhner, J.H. and Smolka, M.N. and Walter, H. and Whelan, R. and Schumann, G. and Reichenberg, A. and BÃ"rglum, A.D. and Grove, J. and Mattheisen, M. and Werge, T. and Mortensen, P.B. and Pedersen, M.G. and Pedersen, C.B. and Mors, O. and Nordentoft, M. and Hougaard, D.M. and Bybjerg-Grauholm, J. and BÃ"kvad-Hansen, M. and Hansen, C.S. and Daly, M.J. and Neale, B.M. and Robinson, E.B. and Cerrato, F. and Dumont, A. and Goldstein, J. and Stevens, C. and Walters, R. and Churchhouse, C. and Ripke, S. and Martin, J., Genetic risk for schizophrenia and autism, social impairment and developmental pathways to psychosis, Translational Psychiatry, 8, (1), 2018, p204-
Froudist-Walsh, S., López-Barroso, D., José Torres-Prioris, M., Croxson, P.L., Berthier, M.L., Plasticity in the Working Memory System: Life Span Changes and Response to Injury, Neuroscientist, 24, (3), 2018, p261-276
Sean Froudist-Walsh, Philip G.F. Browning, Paula L. Croxson, Kathy L. Murphy, Jul Lea Shamy, Tess L. Veuthey, Charles R.E. Wilson, Mark G. Baxter, The Rhesus Monkey Hippocampus Critically Contributes to Scene Memory Retrieval, But Not New Learning, The Journal of Neuroscience, 38, (36), 2018, p7800--7808
Kroll, J., Froudist-Walsh, S., Brittain, P.J., Tseng, C.-E.J., Karolis, V., Murray, R.M., Nosarti, C., A dimensional approach to assessing psychiatric risk in adults born very preterm, Psychological Medicine, 48, (10), 2018, p1738-1744
Dahoun, T., Pardiñas, A.F., Veronese, M., Bloomfield, M.A.P., Jauhar, S., Bonoldi, I., Froudist-Walsh, S., Nosarti, C., Korth, C., Hennah, W., Walters, J., Prata, D., Howes, O.D., The effect of the DISC1 Ser704Cys polymorphism on striatal dopamine synthesis capacity: An [ 18 F]-DOPA PET study, Human Molecular Genetics, 27, (20), 2018, p3498-3506
Milham, M.P., Ai, L., Koo, B., Xu, T., Amiez, C., Balezeau, F., Baxter, M.G., Blezer, E.L.A., Brochier, T., Chen, A., Croxson, P.L., Damatac, C.G., Dehaene, S., Everling, S., Fair, D.A., Fleysher, L., Freiwald, W., Froudist-Walsh, S., Griffiths, T.D., Guedj, C., Hadj-Bouziane, F., Ben Hamed, S., Harel, N., Hiba, B., Jarraya, B., Jung, B., Kastner, S., Klink, P.C., Kwok, S.C., Laland, K.N., Leopold, D.A., Lindenfors, P., Mars, R.B., Menon, R.S., Messinger, A., Meunier, M., Mok, K., Morrison, J.H., Nacef, J., Nagy, J., Rios, M.O., Petkov, C.I., Pinsk, M., Poirier, C., Procyk, E., Rajimehr, R., Reader, S.M., Roelfsema, P.R., Rudko, D.A., Rushworth, M.F.S., Russ, B.E., Sallet, J., Schmid, M.C., Schwiedrzik, C.M., Seidlitz, J., Sein, J., Shmuel, A., Sullivan, E.L., Ungerleider, L., Thiele, A., Todorov, O.S., Tsao, D., Wang, Z., Wilson, C.R.E., Yacoub, E., Ye, F.Q., Zarco, W., Zhou, Y.-D., Margulies, D.S., Schroeder, C.E., An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Imaging, Neuron, 100, (1), 2018, p61-74.e2
Sean Froudist-Walsh, Michael AP Bloomfield, Mattia Veronese, Jasmin Kroll, Vyacheslav R Karolis, Sameer Jauhar, Ilaria Bonoldi, Philip K McGuire, Shitij Kapur, Robin M Murray, Chiara Nosarti, Oliver Howes, The effect of perinatal brain injury on dopaminergic function and hippocampal volume in adult life, eLife, 6, 2017
Kroll, J., Karolis, V., Brittain, P.J., Tseng, C.-E.J., Froudist-Walsh, S., Murray, R.M., Nosarti, C., Real-Life Impact of Executive Function Impairments in Adults Who Were Born Very Preterm, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 23, (5), 2017, p381-389
Karolis, V.R., Froudist-Walsh, S., Kroll, J., Brittain, P.J., Tseng, C.-E.J., Nam, K.-W., Reinders, A.A.T.S., Murray, R.M., Williams, S.C.R., Thompson, P.M., Nosarti, C., Volumetric grey matter alterations in adolescents and adults born very preterm suggest accelerated brain maturation, NeuroImage, 163, 2017, p379-389
Caldinelli, C., Froudist-Walsh, S., Karolis, V., Tseng, C.-E., Allin, M.P., Walshe, M., Cuddy, M., Murray, R.M., Nosarti, C., White matter alterations to cingulum and fornix following very preterm birth and their relationship with cognitive functions, NeuroImage, 150, 2017, p373-382
Tseng CJ, Froudist-Walsh S, Brittain PJ, Karolis V, Caldinelli C, Kroll J, Counsell SJ, Williams SC, Murray RM, Nosarti C., A multimodal imaging study of recognition memory in very preterm born adults., Human brain mapping, 38, (2), 2017, p644-655
Papini, C., White, T.P., Montagna, A., Brittain, P.J., Froudist-Walsh, S., Kroll, J., Karolis, V., Simonelli, A., Williams, S.C., Murray, R.M., Nosarti, C., Altered resting-state functional connectivity in emotion-processing brain regions in adults who were born very preterm, Psychological Medicine, 46, (14), 2016, p3025-3039
Nosarti C, Froudist-Walsh S., Alterations in development of hippocampal and cortical memory mechanisms following very preterm birth., Developmental medicine and child neurology, 58 Suppl 4, 2016, p35-45
Catani M, Dell'Acqua F, Budisavljevic S, Howells H, Thiebaut de Schotten M, Froudist-Walsh S, D'Anna L, Thompson A, Sandrone S, Bullmore ET, Suckling J, Baron-Cohen S, Lombardo MV, Wheelwright SJ, Chakrabarti B, Lai MC, Ruigrok AN, Leemans A, Ecker C, Consortium MA, Craig MC, Murphy DG., Frontal networks in adults with autism spectrum disorder., Brain : a journal of neurology, 139, (pt 2), 2016, p616-630
Karolis VR, Froudist-Walsh S, Brittain PJ, Kroll J, Ball G, Edwards AD, Dell'Acqua F, Williams SC, Murray RM, Nosarti C., Reinforcement of the Brain's Rich-Club Architecture Following Early Neurodevelopmental Disruption Caused by Very Preterm Birth., Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991), 26, (3), 2016, p1322-1335
Sarkar S, Dell'Acqua F, Froudist Walsh S, Blackwood N, Scott S, Craig MC, Deeley Q, Murphy DG., A Whole-Brain Investigation of White Matter Microstructure in Adolescents with Conduct Disorder., PloS one, 11, (6), 2016, pe0155475
Bloomfield, M.A.P., Jauhar, S., Froudist-Walsh, S., Bonoldi, I., Howes, O.D., Commentary on a study of the prevalence of mental disorders by Breslau et al., Journal of Psychiatric Research, 61, 2015, p231-232
Nam KW, Castellanos N, Simmons A, Froudist-Walsh S, Allin MP, Walshe M, Murray RM, Evans A, Muehlboeck JS, Nosarti C., Alterations in cortical thickness development in preterm-born individuals: Implications for high-order cognitive functions., NeuroImage, 115, 2015, p64-75
Froudist-Walsh S, Karolis V, Caldinelli C, Caldinelli C, Brittain PJ, Kroll J, Rodríguez-Toscano E, Tesse M, Colquhoun M, Howes O, Dell'Acqua F, Thiebaut de Schotten M, Murray RM, Williams SC, Nosarti C., Very Early Brain Damage Leads to Remodeling of the Working Memory System in Adulthood: A Combined fMRI/Tractography Study., The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 35, (48), 2015, p15787-15799
White TP, Symington I, Castellanos NP, Brittain PJ, Froudist Walsh S, Nam KW, Sato JR, Allin MP, Shergill SS, Murray RM, Williams SC, Nosarti C., Dysconnectivity of neurocognitive networks at rest in very-preterm born adults., NeuroImage. Clinical, 4, 2014, p352-365
Brittain PJ, Froudist Walsh S, Nam KW, Giampietro V, Karolis V, Murray RM, Bhattacharyya S, Kalpakidou A, Nosarti C., Neural compensation in adulthood following very preterm birth demonstrated during a visual paired associates learning task., NeuroImage. Clinical, 6, 2014, p54-63
Lawrence, E.J., Froudist-Walsh, S., Neilan, R., Nam, K.W., Giampietro, V., McGuire, P., Murray, R.M., Nosarti, C., Motor fMRI and cortical grey matter volume in adults born very preterm, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 2014, p1-9
Salvan P, Froudist Walsh S, Allin MP, Walshe M, Murray RM, Bhattacharyya S, McGuire PK, Williams SC, Nosarti C., Road work on memory lane--functional and structural alterations to the learning and memory circuit in adults born very preterm., NeuroImage, 102 Pt 1, 2014, p152-161
Tuomiranta LM, Càmara E, Froudist Walsh S, Ripollés P, Saunavaara JP, Parkkola R, Martin N, Rodríguez-Fornells A, Laine M., Hidden word learning capacity through orthography in aphasia., Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 50, 2014, p174-191
Berthier ML, Froudist Walsh S, Dávila G, Nabrozidis A, Juárez Y Ruiz de Mier R, Gutiérrez A, De-Torres I, Ruiz-Cruces R, Alfaro F, García-Casares N., Dissociated repetition deficits in aphasia can reflect flexible interactions between left dorsal and ventral streams and gender-dimorphic architecture of the right dorsal stream., Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 2013, p873
De-Torres I, Dávila G, Berthier ML, Walsh SF, Moreno-Torres I, Ruiz-Cruces R., Repeating with the right hemisphere: reduced interactions between phonological and lexical-semantic systems in crossed aphasia?, Frontiers in human neuroscience, 7, 2013, p675
Berthier ML, García-Casares N, Walsh SF, Nabrozidis A, Ruíz de Mier RJ, Green C, Dávila G, Gutiérrez A, Pulvermüller F., Recovery from post-stroke aphasia: lessons from brain imaging and implications for rehabilitation and biological treatments., Discovery medicine, 12, (65), 2011, p275-289
Berthier, M.L., García-Casares, N., Walsh, S.F., Nabrozidis, A., Ruíz de Mier, R.J., Green, C., Dávila, G., Gutiérrez, A., Pulvermüller, F., Recovery from post-stroke aphasia: lessons from brain imaging and implications for rehabilitation and biological treatments., Discovery medicine, 12, (65), 2011, p275-289
Research Expertise
Description
The Cognition, Anatomy and Neural Networks (CANN) group develops computational approaches to understand how the brain"s anatomical organisation gives rise to distributed cognitive computations. Our work sits at the intersection of cognitive computational neuroscience, brain mapping, artificial intelligence and psychiatry. Projects and themes 1) Anatomy-constrained neural networks for cognition We develop neural network models whose architecture and dynamics are explicitly constrained by cortical anatomy. These models are designed to capture cognitive computations while remaining directly comparable to brain-wide neuroimaging and physiology data, allowing us to ask not only what computation is being performed, but also where and why it is implemented in particular cortical systems (e.g. Sevenster*, Thrivikrami* et al., 2025). 2) Neuromodulation of cortex-wide distributed networks How do common circuit motifs across the cortex generate large-scale dynamics underlying flexible functions? The answer may partly be due to gradients of receptors for neuromodulators such as dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine and noradrenaline across the cortex. We combine dynamical systems modelling with large-scale data on neurotransmitter receptor expression to explain how changing local parameters via neuromodulation can produce distinct cognitive regimes (e.g. Froudist-Walsh et al., Neuron, 2021). 3) Translational computational neuroscience We contribute to and advocate for the emerging subfield of translational computational neuroscience. Our approach is to build computational models of cognition that explicitly integrate species-specific brain anatomy, and to test these models against rich cross-species datasets generated with our collaborators. By comparing model predictions across mouse, marmoset, macaque and human, we aim to identify when different species rely on shared versus distinct circuit and network mechanisms to solve similar cognitive problems. Ultimately, our goal is to predict which findings in animal research are most likely to generalise to the human brain, to help accelerate translation from basic experiments to new treatments for brain disorders (e.g. Joyce*, Ivanov* et al., 2025). 4) From synapses to brain-wide phenotypes and symptoms in mental health (stress and schizophrenia) We develop mechanistic models to connect synaptic and circuit-level changes to cortex-wide dynamics, cognitive phenotypes, and ultimately symptoms. A major focus is understanding how neuromodulatory and microcircuit alterations associated with stress exposure and schizophrenia reshape distributed computations (e.g., working memory, perception and hallucinations), and why these changes affect particular brain networks and behaviour. By embedding these mechanisms within anatomically-grounded models, we aim to generate testable predictions about vulnerability, compensatory dynamics, and which interventions are most likely to normalise function across the relevant circuits and networks. 5) Principles of cortical organisation within and across species We analyse organising principles of cortex by integrating multimodal brain data into modern AI/ML frameworks. We aim to learn shared and species-specific structure in cortical organisation across major species in cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry research. This work also directly informs our neural models of cognition (e.g. Froudist-Walsh et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2023).Projects
- Title
- Anatomy-driven AI for translational neuroscience
- Summary
- Despite major advances in neuroscience, psychiatric treatments have barely improved in 35 years. This fellowship will infuse AI with neuroanatomy to improve how we select species and circuits for translational neuroscience and psychiatry studies, with the aim of accelerating discovery of treatments for psychiatric illness.
- Funding Agency
- UKRI
- Date From
- 12/2025
Recognition
Awards and Honours
UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Innovative and Inspiring Teaching Award, Bristol Teaching Awards " Nominated
Young Investigator Award, Persistent Maladaptive Beh. Conf. Rochester, NY, USA.
Memberships
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy