Multivariate patterns of brain-cognition associations relating to vulnerability and clinical outcome in the at-risk mental states for psychosis.

Background: Neuropsychological deficits are a core feature of established psychosis and have been previously linked to fronto-temporo-limbic brain alterations. Both neurocognitive and neuroanatomical abnormalities characterize clinical at-risk mental states (ARMS) for psychosis. However, structure-cognition relationships in the ARMS have not been directly explored using multivariate neuroimaging techniques.

Functional connectivity of emotional processing in depression.

Objectives: The aim of the study is to map a neural network of emotion processing and to identify differences in major depression compared to healthy controls. It is hypothesized that intentional perception of emotional faces activates connections between amygdala (Demir et al.), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) and that frontal-amygdala connections are altered in major depressive disorder (MDD).

Early recognition and disease prediction in the at-risk mental states for psychosis using neurocognitive pattern classification.

Background: Neuropsychological deficits predate overt psychosis and overlap with the impairments in the established disease. However, to date, no single neurocognitive measure has shown sufficient power for a prognostic test. Thus, it remains to be determined whether multivariate neurocognitive pattern classification could facilitate the diagnostic identification of different at-risk mental states (ARMS) for psychosis and the individualized prediction of illness transition.

Brain activation predicts treatment improvement in patients with major depressive disorder.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with alterations in brain function that might be useful for therapy evaluation. The current study aimed to identify predictors for therapy improvement and to track functional brain changes during therapy. Twenty-one drug-free patients with MDD underwent functional MRI twice during performance of an emotional perception task: once before and once after 4 weeks of antidepressant treatment (mirtazapine or venlafaxine).

Neural correlates of treatment outcome in major depression.

There is a need to identify clinically useful biomarkers in major depressive disorder (MDD). In this context the functional connectivity of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to other areas of the affect regulation circuit is of interest. The aim of this study was to identify neural changes during antidepressant treatment and correlates associated with the treatment outcome.