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Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD

Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD

Principal Investigator

Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School · Director, Data Organization Collaborative Service (DoCS), Boston Children's Hospital

Alexander Li Cohen is a physician-scientist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

He received his B.A. in Biology and Biomedical Physics and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where he focused on neuroimaging research that formed the basis for the Human Connectome Project. He then completed residency training in pediatrics and child neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and a clinical fellowship in pediatric behavioral neurology followed by a T32 postdoc fellowship translational research in neurodevelopmental disorders here at Boston Children’s Hospital.

His current research focuses on identifying which brain circuits are involved in specific symptoms seen in neurodevelopmental disorders using network neuroimaging techniques and coming up with ways to modulate these brain circuits with non-invasive neuromodulation such as TMS and real-time fMRI neurofeedback. His work has been supported by the Child Neurology Foundation Shields Award, a K23 from the NIMH, and soon by a Simons Foundation Bridge to Independence Award. He also continues to care for patients in the Autism Spectrum Center and Behavioral Neurology Clinic as part of the new multidisciplinary Brain, Mind, and Behavior Center at Two Brookline Place.

Selected publications

  1. Lesion network mapping in pediatric epilepsy

    Sánchez Fernández I , Kampman SL , Schaper FLWVJ , Fox MD , Warren AEL , Cohen AL , Peters J

    Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry · 2026

    Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen Jurriaan M. Peters, MD, PhD Jurriaan M. Peters
    Collaboration DOI Scholar

  2. Lesion network mapping of focal injury-related aggression finds two distinct network injury patterns

    Miller GN , Lu Z , Peng S , Kletenik I , Ortega-Márquez J , Tripathy S , Wall J , Darby RR , Cohen AL

    Brain Communications · 2026

    Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Zexia Lu, MS, BA Zexia Lu Shaoling Peng, PhD Shaoling Peng Isaiah Kletenik, MD Isaiah Kletenik Jorge Ortega Marquez, MD, MMSc Jorge Ortega Marquez Shreya Tripathy, BA Shreya Tripathy Juliana Wall Juliana Wall Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Mentee-led Cohen first/senior Open access DOI Scholar

  3. Lesions causing aphantasia are connected to the fusiform imagery node

    Kutsche J , Howard C , Palacin AC , Drew W , Michel M , Cohen AL , Fox MD , Kletenik I

    Cortex · 2026

    Alberto Castro Palacin, BS, MSc Alberto Castro Palacin Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen Isaiah Kletenik, MD Isaiah Kletenik
    Cited by 4 Collaboration DOI Scholar

  4. Naturalistic movie viewing is an effective functional localizer of the fusiform face area in adolescents with and without autism

    Steeby CJ , Miller GN , Castro Palacin A , Cohen AL

    Imaging Neuroscience · 2026

    Clara Steeby, BS Clara Steeby Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Alberto Castro Palacin, BS, MSc Alberto Castro Palacin Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Mentee-led Cohen first/senior Open access DOI Scholar

  5. The methodological foundations of lesion network mapping remain sound

    Siddiqi S , Horn A , Schaper FLWVJ , Khosravani S , Cohen AL , Joutsa J , Rolston JD , Ferguson MA , Snider SB , Winkler AM , Akram H , Smith SM , Nichols TE , Friston K , Boes AD , Fox MD

    bioRxiv (preprint) · 2026

    Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Cited by 7 Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  6. A generalized epilepsy network derived from brain abnormalities and deep brain stimulation

    Ji GJ , Fox MD , Morton-Dutton M , Wang Y , Sun J , Hu P , Chen X , Jiang Y , Zhu C , Tian Y , Zhang Z , Akkad H , Nordberg J , Joutsa J , Torres Diaz CV , Groppa S , Gonzalez-Escamilla G , Toledo M , Dalic LJ , Archer JS , Selway R , Stavropoulos I , Valentin A , Yang J , Isbaine F , Gross RE , Park S , Gregg NM , Cukiert A , Middlebrooks EH , Dosenbach NUF , Turner J , Warren AEL , Chua MMJ , Cohen AL , Larivière S , Neudorfer C , Horn A , Sarkis RA , Bubrick EJ , Fisher RS , Rolston JD , Wang K , Schaper FLWVJ

    Nature Communications · 2025

    Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Cited by 28 Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  7. Accumulated seizure burden predicts neurodevelopmental outcome at 36months of age in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex

    Ihnen SKZ , Alperin S , Capal JK , Cohen AL , Peters J , Bebin EM , Northrup HA , Sahin M , Krueger DA , TACERN Study Group

    Epilepsia · 2025

    Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen Jurriaan M. Peters, MD, PhD Jurriaan M. Peters
    Cited by 11 Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  8. Comparison of Brain Normalization Software and Lesion Compensation Techniques in Chronic Perinatal Stroke Imaging

    Miller GN , Steeby CJ , Ortega-Marquez J , Palacin AC , Chui C , Alhadid K , Sullivan AW , Boes AD , Musolino PL , Cohen AL

    Imaging Neuroscience · 2025

    Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Clara Steeby, BS Clara Steeby Jorge Ortega Marquez, MD, MMSc Jorge Ortega Marquez Alberto Castro Palacin, BS, MSc Alberto Castro Palacin Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Mentee-led Cohen first/senior DOI Scholar

  9. Convolutional neural networks for automatic tuber segmentation and quantification of tuber burden in tuberous sclerosis complex

    Sánchez Fernández I , Soldatelli MD , Miller GN , Gout CF , Broekhuizen EC , den Hertog ICJ , Pijs DA , Apostolopoulos E , Kaur P , Ouaalam A , Bebin ME , Northrup H , Krueger DA , Wu J , Cohen AL , Sahin M , Karimi D , Warfield SK , Peters J

    Epilepsia · 2025

    Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen Jurriaan M. Peters, MD, PhD Jurriaan M. Peters
    Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  10. Coordinate Network Mapping of Focal Brain Volume Differences in ADHD Reveals Common Patterns That Lack Specificity: A Systematic Review

    Wall J , Miller GN , Taylor JJ , Stubbs JL , Warfield SK , Cohen AL

    Annals of the Child Neurology Society · 2025

    Juliana Wall Juliana Wall Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Cited by 6 Mentee-led Cohen first/senior DOI Scholar

  11. Lesions associated with autism symptoms map to a cerebellar brain network in tuberous sclerosis complex

    Herman WX , Miller GN , Sahin M , Peters J , Warfield SK , Krueger DA , Bebin EM , Northrup H , Wu JY , Fox MD , Cohen AL , on behalf of the TACERN Group

    Annals of the Child Neurology Society · 2025

    Wendy Xiao Herman, MD, PhD Wendy Xiao Herman Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Jurriaan M. Peters, MD, PhD Jurriaan M. Peters Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Mentee-led Collaboration DOI Scholar

  12. Mapping Lesions That Cause Psychosis to a Human Brain Circuit and Proposed Stimulation Target

    Pines AR , Frandsen SB , Drew W , Meyer GM , Howard C , Palm ST , Schaper FLWVJ , Lin C , Butenko K , Ferguson M , Friedrich MU , Grafman JH , Kappel AD , Neudorfer C , Rost NS , Sanderson LL , Taylor JJ , Wu O , Kletenik I , Vogel JW , Cohen AL , Horn A , Fox MD , Silbersweig D , Siddiqi SH

    JAMA Psychiatry · 2025

    Isaiah Kletenik, MD Isaiah Kletenik Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Cited by 28 Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  13. Mapping Neuroimaging Findings of Creativity and Brain Disease Onto a Common Brain Circuit

    Kutsche J , Taylor JJ , Erkkinen MG , Akkad H , Khosravani S , Drew W , Abraham A , Ott DVM , Wall J , Cohen AL , Horn A , Neumann WJ , Kletenik I , Fox MD

    JAMA Network Open · 2025

    Juliana Wall Juliana Wall Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen Isaiah Kletenik, MD Isaiah Kletenik
    Cited by 19 Collaboration Open access DOI Scholar

  14. Network localization of altered auditory and somatosensory sensitivity based on causal brain lesions

    Tripathy S , Miller GN , Cohen AL

    Brain Communications · 2025

    Shreya Tripathy, BA Shreya Tripathy Gillian Miller, BA Gillian Miller Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Mentee-led Cohen first/senior Open access DOI Scholar

  15. Network Localization of Pediatric Lesion-Induced Dystonia

    Gelineau-Morel R , Dlamini N , Bruss J , Cohen AL , Robertson A , Alexopoulos D , Smyser CD , Boes AD

    Annals of Neurology · 2025

    Alexander Li Cohen, MD, PhD Alexander Li Cohen
    Cited by 9 Collaboration DOI Scholar