Publications and communications of Fermin Balda Aizpurua

Sharifpour, R., Balda Aizpurua, F., Paparella, I., Read, J., Leysens, Z., Letot, S., Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Collette, F., Phillips, C., Zubkov, M., & Vandewalle, G. (May 2026). Cortical excitability is affected by light exposure - Distinct effects in adolescents and young adults. Neurobiology of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, 20, 100138. doi:10.1016/j.nbscr.2025.100138

Balda Aizpurua, F., Sharifpour, R., Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Letot, S., Berger, A., Mortazavi, N., KOSHMANOVA, E., Collette, F., Lamalle, L., Jacobs, H., Zubkov, M., Talwar, P., & Vandewalle, G. (2026). In vivo modulation of locus coeruleus activity by light. ORBi-University of Liège. https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/344666. doi:10.64898/2026.04.28.721313

Campbell, I.* , Balda Aizpurua, J.* , Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Beckers, E., Mortazavi, N., Read, J., Phillips, C., Collette, F., Talwar, P., Lamalle, L., Zubkov, M., & Vandewalle, G. (2025). Regional activity within the human amygdala varies with season, mood and illuminance. Nature Communications. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-67715-3
* These authors have contributed equally to this work.

Sharifpour, R., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Beckers, E., Mortazavi, N., KOSHMANOVA, E., Read, J., Collette, F., Phillips, C., Talwar, P., Lamalle, L., Zubkov, M., & Vandewalle, G. (2025). Light Impact on Thalamo-Cortical Connectivity During an Executive Cognitive Task: Effects of Time of Day and Specificities of Teenagers. ORBi-University of Liège. https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/340100. doi:10.1101/2025.04.03.647005

Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Beckers, E., Berger, A., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Dardour Hamzaoui, I., Berthomier, C., Bastin, C., Phillips, C., Maquet, P., Collette, F., Zubkov, M., Lamalle, L., & Vandewalle, G. (11 March 2025). REM sleep quality is associated with balanced tonic activity of the locus coeruleus during wakefulness. Journal of Biomedical Science, 32 (1). doi:10.1186/s12929-025-01127-9

Balda Aizpurua, F., Sharifpour, R., Beckers, E., Letot, S., Campbell, I., Berger, A., Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Talwar, P., Lamalle, L., Zubkov, M., & Vandewalle, G. (2025). Impact of Light Illuminance on Locus Coeruleus Activity during an auditory Emotional Task: Insights from High-Resolution MRI Imaging [Poster presentation]. Marbel 2025.

Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Beckers, E., Berger, A., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Zubkov, M., Lamalle, L., & Vandewalle, G. (25 September 2024). Locus coeruleus activity during wakefulness is associated with sigma power prior to REM sleep [Poster presentation]. The 27th Conference of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS), Seville, Spain.

Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Berger, A., Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Lamalle, L., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (13 September 2024). Locus Coeruleus Activity during Wake Is Associated with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Intensity [Poster presentation]. GIGA DAY, Liege, Belgium.

Balda Aizpurua, F. (September 2024). Impact of Light Illuminance  on Locus Coeruleus Activity during an auditory Emotional Task: Insights from High-Resolution MRI Imaging [Poster presentation]. ESRS, Seville, Spain.

Sharifpour, R., Balda Aizpurua, F., Paparella, I., Read, J., Leysens, Z., Letot, S., Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Collette, F., Phillips, C., Zubkov, M., & Vandewalle, G. (2024). Cortical Excitability is Affected by Light Exposure – Distinct Effects in Adolescents and Young Adults. bioRxiv. doi:10.1101/2024.08.21.608922

Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Berger, A., Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Lamalle, L., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (23 June 2024). Locus Coeruleus Activity during Wake Is Associated with Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Intensity [Poster presentation]. Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Seoul, South Korea.

Balda Aizpurua, F. (21 June 2024). Impact of light illuminance on the activity of the locus coeruleus during emotional processing: insight from High-resolution MRI [Poster presentation]. SLTBR, Prague, Czechia.

Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Balda Aizpurua, F., Beckers, E., Paparella, I., Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Read, J., Zubkov, M., Talwar, P., Collette, F., Sherif, S., Phillips, C., Lamalle, L., & Vandewalle, G. (2024). Regional response to light illuminance across the human hypothalamus. eLife. doi:10.7554/eLife.96576

Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Berger, A., Balda Aizpurua, F., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., Jacobs, H. I. L., & Vandewalle, G. (2024). Impact of repeated short light exposures on sustained pupil responses in an fMRI environment. Journal of Sleep Research, 14085. doi:10.1111/jsr.14085

Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Berger, A., Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Lamalle, L., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (24 September 2023). Association between locus coeruleus activity during wakefulness and sleep features [Poster presentation]. ESRS sleep school.

Paparella, I., Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Beckers, E., Berger, A., Balda Aizpurua, F., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Degueldre, C., Lamalle, L., Sherif, S., Phillips, C., Maquet, P., & Vandewalle, G. (16 September 2023). Light modulates task-dependent thalamo-cortical connectivity during an auditory attentional task. Communications Biology, 6 (1), 945. doi:10.1038/s42003-023-05337-5

Koshmanova, E., Berger, A., Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Mortazavi, N., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Berthomier, C., Degueldre, C., Salmon, E., Lamalle, L., Bastin, C., Van Egroo, M., Phillips, C., Maquet, P., Collette, F., Muto, V., Chylinski, D., ... Vandewalle, G. (2023). Locus coeruleus activity while awake is associated with REM sleep quality in older individuals. JCI Insight. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.172008

Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Sharifpour, R., Berger, A., Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Lamalle, L., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (25 July 2023). Association between locus coeruleus activity during wakefulness and sleep features [Poster presentation]. The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Montreal, Canada.

Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Balda Aizpurua, F., Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Sherif, S., Lamalle, L., Phillips, C., & Vandewalle, G. (23 July 2023). Non-visual Impacts of Light on Effective Connectivity associated to executive brain responses [Poster presentation]. The Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Montreal, Canada.

Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Beckers, E., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Campbell, I., Mortazavi, N., Balda Aizpurua, F., Yi, Y.-J., Lamalle, L., Dricot, L., Phillips, C., Jacobs, H. I. L., Talwar, P., El Tahry, R., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (21 June 2023). Structural and functional characterization of the locus coeruleus in young and late middle-aged individuals. Frontiers in Neuroimaging, 2. doi:10.3389/fnimg.2023.1207844

Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Berger, A., Balda Aizpurua, F., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., Jacobs, H. I. L., & Vandewalle, G. (2023). Impact of repeated short light exposures on sustained pupil responses in an fMRI environment. Journal of Sleep Research. doi:10.1101/2023.04.12.536600

Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Sharifpour, R., Berger, A., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, J. F., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (2023). Impact of light on task-evoked pupil responses during cognitive tasks. ORBi-University of Liège. https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/305632. doi:10.1101/2023.04.12.536570

Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Berger, A., Balda Aizpurua, F., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., Jacobs, H., & Vandewalle, G. (2023). Frequency analysis of sustained pupil size under various melanopic irradiance in young healthy individuals [Poster presentation]. Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sharifpour, R., Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Balda Aizpurua, F., Mortazavi, N., Koshmanova, E., Paparella, I., Sherif, S., Phillips, C., & Vandewalle, G. (29 November 2022). Pitfalls in recording BOLD signal responses to light in small hypothalamic nuclei using Ultra-High-Field 7 Tesla MRI. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (49), 2212123119. doi:10.1073/pnas.2212123119

Balda Aizpurua, F., Sharifpour, R., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Mortazavi, N., Beckers, E., Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Lamalle, L., Phillips, C., Sherif, S., Maquet, P., & Vandewalle, G. (27 September 2022). Ultra high-field MRI indications that exposure to blue enriched light increases attention brain responses during an oddball task [Paper presentation]. The Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR).

Beckers, E., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Sharifpour, R., Koshmanova, E., Berger, A., Balda Aizpurua, F., Mortazavi, N., Talwar, P., Sherif, S., Jacobs, H., & Vandewalle, G. (27 September 2022). Characterisation of pupil responses to alternating light intensities across different cognitive tasks [Paper presentation]. The 26th Conference of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS).

Sharifpour, R., Campbell, I., Paparella, I., Beckers, E., Balda Aizpurua, F., Mortazavi, N., Berger, A., Talwar, P., Koshmanova, E., Lamalle, L., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (23 June 2022). Ultra High Field 7 Tesla fMRI potential in revealing hypothalamus responses to blue-enriched light exposure [Paper presentation]. Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Balda Aizpurua, F. (12 April 2022). Ultra high-field MRI indications that exposure to blue enriched light increases attention brain responses during an oddball task [Paper presentation]. ESRS Athens.

Campbell, I., Beckers, E., Sharifpour, R., Paparella, I., Balda Aizpurua, F., Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Lamalle, L., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (2022). Characterising the pupil response under different light conditions during a functional MRI protocol [Poster presentation]. SLTBR congress, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Campbell, I., Sharifpour, R., Balda Aizpurua, F., Beckers, E., Paparella, I., Berger, A., Koshmanova, E., Mortazavi, N., Lamalle, L., Phillips, C., Sherif, S., & Vandewalle, G. (2022). Ultra-high-field fMRI indications that exposure to light modulates emotional brain responses in the hypothalamus [Paper presentation]. SLTBR congress, Manchester, United Kingdom.