Seokjun Hong
Sungkyunkwan University · Neuroscience
About the Lab
Professor Seokjun Hong's research lab specializes in computational neuroimaging and brain network analysis, focusing on understanding the macroscale organization of the human brain in health and neurodevelopmental disorders. The lab integrates advanced MRI-based methods—such as connectome gradients, cortical morphology analysis, and machine learning—to uncover biologically meaningful subtypes of brain disorders, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and focal cortical dysplasia (FCD). A central theme is the identification of reproducible, individual-level brain phenotypes through dimensionality reduction and multimodal imaging, with translational goals in personalized diagnostics and intervention planning. The lab emphasizes the convergence of neurocognitive principles with quantitative imaging to reveal underlying biological mechanisms.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Selected Papers
15One paradox of autism is the co-occurrence of deficits in sensory and higher-order socio-cognitive processing. Here, we examined whether these phenotypical patterns may relate to an overarching system-level imbalance-specifically a disruption in macroscale hierarchy affecting integration and segregation of unimodal and transmodal networks. Combining connectome gradient and stepwise connectivity analysis based on task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we demonstrated atypical con
Despite myriad demonstrations of feasibility, the high dimensionality of fMRI data remains a critical barrier to its utility for reproducible biomarker discovery. Recent efforts to address this challenge have capitalized on dimensionality reduction techniques applied to resting-state fMRI, identifying principal components of intrinsic connectivity which describe smooth transitions across different cortical systems, so called "connectivity gradients". These gradients recapitulate neurocognitively
OBJECTIVE: To detect automatically focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type II in patients with extratemporal epilepsy initially diagnosed as MRI-negative on routine inspection of 1.5 and 3.0T scans. METHODS: We implemented an automated classifier relying on surface-based features of FCD morphology and intensity, taking advantage of their covariance. The method was tested on 19 patients (15 with histologically confirmed FCD) scanned at 3.0T, and cross-validated using a leave-one-out strategy. We asse
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with multiple biological etiologies and highly variable symptoms. Using a novel analytical framework that integrates cortex-wide MRI markers of vertical (i.e., thickness, tissue contrast) and horizontal (i.e., surface area, geodesic distance) cortical organization, we could show that a large multi-centric cohort of individuals with ASD falls into 3 distinctive anatomical subtypes (ASD-I: cortical thickening, increased surf
OBJECTIVE: To perform whole-brain morphometry in patients with frontal lobe epilepsy and evaluate the utility of group-level patterns for individualized diagnosis and prognosis. METHODS: We compared MRI-based cortical thickness and folding complexity between 2 frontal lobe epilepsy cohorts with histologically verified focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) (13 type I; 28 type II) and 41 closely matched controls. Pattern learning algorithms evaluated the utility of group-level findings to predict histolo
OBJECTIVE: To characterize in vivo MRI signatures of focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) type IIA and type IIB through combined analysis of morphology, intensity, microstructure, and function. METHODS: We carried out a multimodal 3T MRI profiling of 33 histologically proven FCD type IIA (9) and IIB (24) lesions. A multisurface approach operating on manual consensus labels systematically sampled intracortical and subcortical lesional features. Geodesic distance mapping quantified the same features in
Neuroimaging studies of malformations of cortical development have mainly focused on the characterization of the primary lesional substrate, while whole-brain investigations remain scarce. Our purpose was to assess large-scale brain organization in prevalent cortical malformations. Based on experimental evidence suggesting that distributed effects of focal insults are modulated by stages of brain development, we postulated differential patterns of network anomalies across subtypes of malformatio
In autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), the majority of neuroimaging studies have focused on the analysis of cortical morphology. White matter changes remain less understood, particularly their association to cortical structure and function. Here, we focused on region that has gained only little attention in ASD neuroimaging: the superficial white matter (SWM) immediately beneath the cortical interface, a compartment playing a prominent role in corticogenesis that incorporates long- and short-range
Neuroimaging studies have consistently shown distributed brain anomalies in epilepsy syndromes associated with a focal structural lesion, particularly mesiotemporal sclerosis. Conversely, a system-level approach to focal cortical dysplasia has been rarely considered, likely due to methodological difficulties in addressing variable location and topography. Given the known heterogeneity in focal cortical dysplasia histopathology, we hypothesized that lesional connectivity consists of subtypes with
Childhood experiences play a profound role in conferring risk and resilience for brain and behavioral development. However, how different facets of the environment shape neurodevelopment remains largely unknown. Here we sought to decompose heterogeneous relationships between environmental factors and brain structure in 989 school-aged children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. We applied a cross-modal integration and clustering approach called 'Similarity Network Fusion', wh
Clinical heterogeneity has been one of the main barriers to develop effective biomarkers and therapeutic strategies in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recognizing this challenge, much effort has been made in recent neuroimaging studies to find biologically more homogeneous subgroups (called 'neurosubtypes') in autism. However, most approaches have rarely evaluated how much the employed features in subtyping represent the core anomalies of ASD, obscuring its utility in actual clinical diagnosis.
A notable characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is co-occurring deficits in low-level sensory processing and high-order social interaction. While there is evidence indicating detrimental cascading effects of sensory anomalies on the high-order cognitive functions in ASD, the exact pathological mechanism underlying their atypical functional interaction across the cortical hierarchy has not been systematically investigated. To address this gap, here we assessed the functional organisati
This study details the improved ceria abrasive removal on SiO2 wafer during the post CMP water polishing (buff clean) process. Initially, the zeta potentials of the wafer and ceria abrasive were measured according to pH and compared with the zeta potential and pH change during water polishing. From these measurements, it was determined that the zeta potential difference between the ceria abrasive and the wafer decreased during water polishing. The electrical repulsion between them decreased as w
Research Areas
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