Michael Datko, PhD is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion, and has a dual appointment at the MGH Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging.  Mike conducts functional MRI scans to investigate changes that take place in the brain as participants learn to practice mindfulness and meditation.  Mike earned a B.S. in Biopsychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego.  For his dissertation he used functional MRI, electroencephalography, and magnetoencephalography to study the development of functional and structural brain organization in children and adolescents with autism, as well as how neurofeedback training affects brain networks and behaviors related to social imitation in children with autism.  In his first postdoctoral position he studied the development of functional brain networks in toddlers with an early diagnosis of autism.  As a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School's Center for Mindfulness, he used fMRI to understand how mindfulness training affects the brains of individuals attempting to quit cigarettes.  While not working to collect and analyze neuroimaging data, Mike can be found biking or walking around the city, making music or other creative endeavors, and sharing good food with good company.