Projects

IMAGEN Reinforcement-related behaviour in normal brain function and psychopathology -

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Duration:

Jan 2007 - Dec 2012

Funding body:

European Commission

Contact:

Speiser, Claudia, Dr.

GABO:mi GmbH

Oskar-von-Miller-Ring 29

80333 Muenchen

Germany

E-Mail: claudia.speiser@gabo-mi.com
URL: http://www.imagen-europe.com

Head:

Schumann, Gunter

Kings College, London, UK

Short Description:

IMAGEN aims to investigate the causes of psychological illness and develop effective treatments. A fundamental function of the brain is to evaluate motivational and emotional significance of stimuli and to adapt behaviour accordingly. IMAGEN hypothesizes that genetically influenced individual differences in brain responses to reward, punishment and emotional cues in adolescents mediate risk for mental disorders with a major public health impact. Neuroimaging permits the measurement of specific brain functions implicated in the etiology of mental disorders and link them to genetic variations and behavioural characteristics relevant to disease processes. The goal of the present study is to identify the neurobiological and genetic basis of these traits and to assess their relevance for mental disorder. To this end, IMAGEN will perform the first multicentre functional and structural genetic-neuroimaging study of a large cohort of adolescents. The IMAGEN study will help elucidate the neural basis of mental disorders and will lay the groundwork for development of treatments that target specific pathological processes across mental disorders rather than heterogeneous categories of mental illness.

Keywords

brain research – psychiatry