Sébastien Naze

Dr | Senior Research Officer

Clinical Brain Networks

+61 7 3845 3007

Sebastien.Naze@qimrberghofer.edu.au

CAREER HISTORY

Dr Sebastien Naze joined QIMR Berghofer in 2021 to analyse and model fronto-striatal brain circuit dynamics in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Prior to this, Dr Naze completed his PhD in 2015 at the Institute of Systems Neuroscience in Marseille, France, and worked 5 years at IBM Research in New York, United States, and then Melbourne, Australia. He develops and applies computational models, graph analytics, and machine learning techniques to understand multiscale brain dynamics in healthy and psychiatric conditions. 

He is a Chief Investigator on a $1.4M NHMRC grant to probe the effect of focused-ultrasound stimulation in OCD using virtually-informed neuronal targets.

CURRENT APPOINTMENTS

• 2021-current: Senior Research Officer, Clinical Brain Network and Brain Modelling teams, QIMR Berghofer

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

• 2019-2021: Research Scientist, IBM Research, Melbourne, Australia.
• 2016-2019: Postdoctoral Fellow, IBM Research, New York, United States.

ORCID NUMBER

0000-0003-0367-402X

CURRENT AREA OF RESEARCH

Dr Naze develops advanced computational methods to analyse and model real and artificial neural networks. His research has focused on dynamical systems modelling, graph signal processing and parameter inference from data. He has applied those methods in the context of epileptic seizures, Huntington’s disease, traumatic brain injury, transmagnetic brain stimulation, and now obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

• Extracted directed coupling disruptions in fronto-striatal circuits associated to obsessions and compulsions (2022)
• Benchmarked the decomposition of brain spectral components using connectome harmonics framework (2018)
• Translated phenomenological model of seizure dynamics into biophysically informed neural network (2015)

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• Organisation of Computational Neuroscience
• Biological Psychiatry

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

• 2015 : PhD Computational Neuroscience, Université Aix-Marseille, France
• 2011 : MSc Information Science, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
• 2008 : BSc Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland

PUBLICATIONS

• Cocchi, Naze S, Robinson C, Webb L, Sonkusare S, Hearne L, Whybird G, Saffron G, Scott G, Hall C, Nott Z, Grasby K, Jentjens J, Scott J, Marcus L, Savage E, Zalesky A, Burgher B, Breakspear M (2023) Effects of noninvasive stimulation of the rostromedial prefrontal cortex on symptoms and frontostriatal connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nature Mental Health (in press).
•  Naze S, Hearne LJ, Roberts JA, Sanz-Leon P, Burgher B, Hall C, Sonkusare S, Nott Z, Marcus L, Savage E, Robinson C, Zalesky A, Breakspear M, Cocchi L (2022) Mechanisms of imbalanced frontostriatal functional connectivity in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Brain (in press).
• Naze S, Proix T, Atasoy S, Kozloski JR (2021) Robustness of connectome harmonics to local gray matter and long-range white matter connectivity changes. Neuroimage 224:117364.
• Naze S, Humble J, Zheng P, Barton S, Rangel-Barajas C.R, Rebec G.V, Kozloski J.R. (2018) Cortico-striatal cross-frequency coupling and gamma genesis disruptions in Huntington’s disease mouse and computational models. eNeuro 5:6.
• Naze S, Bernard C, Jirsa V.K. (2015) Computational modeling of seizure dynamics using coupled neuronal networks: factors shaping epileptiform activity. PLoS Comp Biol 11:5.