Top Researchers
Top Neuroscience Researchers at Queen's University for 2026
Queen's University has seen a lively year in Neuroscience, with research spanning cognition, mental health, imaging, physiology, and the biology of brain disorders. Across a sample of recent works, the institution’s scholars are exploring both fundamental questions about brain function and clinically relevant problems in diagnosis, treatment, and lived experience.
Below, you’ll find a snapshot of researchers whose recent publications reflect that range. Their work shows how neuroscience at Queen's University connects methods, mechanisms, and mental health across several active areas of inquiry.
Featured Researchers
Jonathan Smallwood
Jonathan Smallwood’s recent work at Queen's University centers on cognitive neuroscience and experimental psychology, including studies of the default mode network, spontaneous thought, and task states.
Activity over the last year: 15 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- The architecture of the human default mode network explored through cytoarchitecture, wiring and signal flow (Jan 2025)
- Opening the black box: Think Aloud as a method to study the spontaneous stream of consciousness (Jan 2025)
- Self-reports map the landscape of task states derived from brain imaging (Jan 2025)
Gavin P. Winston
Gavin P. Winston’s publications connect psychiatry, cognitive neuroscience, and neuroimaging, with recent attention to epileptogenic focal cortical dysplasia, Brain MoNoCle, and presurgical epilepsy workups.
Activity over the last year: 11 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Detection of Epileptogenic Focal Cortical Dysplasia Using Graph Neural Networks (Feb 2025)
- Brain morphology normative modelling platform for abnormality and centile estimation: Brain MoNoCle (Jan 2025)
- ILAE neuroimaging task force highlight: The utility of multimodal neuroimaging in diagnostic and presurgical workup of drug‐resistant focal epilepsy (Mar 2025)
Elizabeth Kelley
Elizabeth Kelley focuses on cognitive neuroscience, psychiatry, and genetics, with recent studies on brain morphology clustering, structural MRI population modelling, and neurodevelopmental disorder phenotypes.
Activity over the last year: 10 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Characterizing replicability in the clustering structure of brain morphology in autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder (Aug 2025)
- Subgrouping autism and ADHD based on structural MRI population modelling centiles (Jun 2025)
- Transdiagnostic Behavioral Phenotypes and Comorbid Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Neurodevelopmental Disorders: An Exploratory Study (Dec 2025)
Gustavo Vázquez
Gustavo Vázquez works across psychiatry, pharmacology, and biological psychiatry, recently addressing ketamine, esketamine, and antidepressant treatment in depression.
Activity over the last year: 6 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Antidepressants in the treatment of bipolar depression: commentary (Feb 2025)
- Abuse liability for esketamine in a cohort of patients undergoing an acute treatment course to manage treatment-resistant depression: a secondary analysis of an observational study in real-world clinical practicee (Jun 2025)
- Efficacy and safety of ketamine maintenance therapy in treatment-resistant depression: A systematic review of treatment protocols and clinical outcomes (Oct 2025)
Sébastien Talbot
Sébastien Talbot’s recent Queen's University publications span physiology and cellular neuroscience, especially neuro-immune cross-talk, sensory neuron-cancer interactions, and immunosuppression.
Activity over the last year: 5 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Douglas P. Munoz
Douglas P. Munoz combines cognitive neuroscience and sensory systems research, with recent papers on eye-movement abnormalities, pupil dynamics, and freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease.
Activity over the last year: 5 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
Nader Ghasemlou
Nader Ghasemlou’s work brings together physiology, pain research, and autonomic systems, including studies of circadian rhythmicity, opioid use, and the temporal dynamics of pain.
Activity over the last year: 4 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Circadian rhythmicity and biopsychosocial characteristics influence opioid use in chronic low back pain (Sep 2025)
- Site- and cell-type-specific miRNA and mRNA genes and networks across the cortex, striatum, and hypothalamus (Jul 2025)
- Rethinking the temporal dynamics of pain: from 3 months to 3 hours? (Oct 2025)
Fernanda Guarino De Felice
Fernanda Guarino De Felice’s recent research links physiology, psychiatry, and molecular biology, with studies of extracellular vesicles, plasma biomarkers, and ketamine responses in Alzheimer’s disease models.
Activity over the last year: 6 indexed journal articles.
Top publications:
- Extracellular vesicles derived from mesenchymal stem cells alleviate depressive-like behavior in a rat model of chronic stress (Feb 2025)
- Plasma biomarkers are related to white matter integrity in alzheimer's disease continuum (Dec 2025)
- Low dose ketamine induces unique molecular and cellular responses in the brains of Alzheimer's disease mouse models (Dec 2025)
What Queen's University's Neuroscience Community Is Working On
The most common themes across Queen's University neuroscience papers are psychiatry and mental health, cognitive neuroscience, and physiology, showing a community that is closely engaged with both brain function and clinical relevance. Experimental and cognitive psychology also appears prominently, reinforcing interest in consciousness, task states, and behavior, while imaging adds a diagnostic and translational layer. Together, these subfields suggest a research environment that moves between mechanisms, measurement, and mental health applications.- Psychiatry and Mental health - seen across 5 of the featured researchers
- Cognitive Neuroscience - seen across 4 of the featured researchers
- Physiology - seen across 3 of the featured researchers
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology - seen across 2 of the featured researchers
- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging - seen across 1 of the featured researchers
Taken together, these researchers illustrate a broad and active neuroscience community at Queen's University, with strong links between cognitive science, mental health, imaging, and physiology. If you’re exploring how institutions organize and share their research output, tools like Resub can help streamline citation discovery, manuscript formatting, and submission preparation.
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