Publications by authors named "Nils Winter"

The detection of norm deviations is fundamental to clinical decision making and impacts our ability to diagnose and treat diseases effectively. Current normative modeling approaches rely on generic comparisons and quantify deviations in relation to the population average. However, generic models interpolate subtle nuances and risk the loss of critical information, thereby compromising effective personalization of health care strategies.

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Background: Cognitive deficits are a key source of disability in individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and worsen with disease progression. Despite their clinical relevance, the underlying mechanisms of cognitive deficits remain poorly elucidated, hampering effective treatment strategies. Emerging evidence suggests that alterations in white matter microstructure might contribute to cognitive dysfunction in MDD.

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Background And Objective: Flow cytometry is a widely used technique for identifying cell populations in patient-derived fluids, such as peripheral blood (PB) or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Despite its ubiquity in research and clinical practice, the process of gating, i.e.

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Background: Brain extraction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data is an important segmentation step in many neuroimaging preprocessing pipelines. Image segmentation is one of the research fields in which deep learning had the biggest impact in recent years. Consequently, traditional brain extraction methods are now being replaced by deep learning-based methods.

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Multivariate techniques better fit the anatomy of complex neuropsychiatric disorders which are characterized not by alterations in a single region, but rather by variations across distributed brain networks. Here, we used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify patterns of covariance across brain regions and relate them to clinical and demographic variables in a large generalizable dataset of individuals with bipolar disorders and controls. We then compared performance of PCA and clustering on identical sample to identify which methodology was better in capturing links between brain and clinical measures.

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Data-based predictions of individual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) treatment response are a fundamental step towards precision medicine. Past studies demonstrated only moderate prediction accuracy (i.e.

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Although highly effective on average, exposure-based treatments do not work equally well for all patients with anxiety disorders. The identification of pre-treatment response-predicting patient characteristics may enable patient stratification. Preliminary research highlights the relevance of inhibitory fronto-limbic networks as such.

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Importance: Biological psychiatry aims to understand mental disorders in terms of altered neurobiological pathways. However, for one of the most prevalent and disabling mental disorders, major depressive disorder (MDD), no informative biomarkers have been identified.

Objective: To evaluate whether machine learning (ML) can identify a multivariate biomarker for MDD.

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Background: Controllability is a measure of the brain's ability to orchestrate neural activity which can be quantified in terms of properties of the brain's network connectivity. Evidence from the literature suggests that aging can exert a general effect on whole-brain controllability. Mounting evidence, on the other hand, suggests that parenthood and motherhood in particular lead to long-lasting changes in brain architecture that effectively slow down brain aging.

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Article Synopsis
  • Schizotypy, which indicates a person's vulnerability to psychosis, is linked to both childhood trauma and structural brain changes.
  • A study involving 1182 healthy adults found that interactions between schizotypy levels and childhood trauma exposure affect brain morphology, specifically in regions related to cognitive processing.
  • Results suggest that individuals with high levels of both schizotypy and childhood trauma show significant variations in brain regions important for cognition, indicating that trauma may intensify the effects of schizotypy on brain structure.
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Childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with changes in structural brain connectivity even in the absence of mental illness. Social support, an important protective factor in the presence of childhood maltreatment, has been positively linked to white matter integrity. However, the shared effects of current social support and CM and their association with structural connectivity remain to be investigated.

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Temporal neural synchrony disruption can be linked to a variety of symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD), including mood rigidity and the inability to break the cycle of negative emotion or attention biases. This might imply that altered dynamic neural synchrony may play a role in the persistence and exacerbation of MDD symptoms. Our study aimed to investigate the changes in whole-brain dynamic patterns of the brain functional connectivity and activity related to depression using the hidden Markov model (HMM) on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) data.

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Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is arguably the most effective intervention for treatment-resistant depression. While large interindividual variability exists, a theory capable of explaining individual response to ECT remains elusive. To address this, we posit a quantitative, mechanistic framework of ECT response based on Network Control Theory (NCT).

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  • Sphingolipids, a diverse type of lipid found in eukaryotic cell membranes, play a crucial role in organizing lipids into domains that affect membrane function.
  • Researchers developed photoswitchable sphingolipids that can transition between liquid-ordered and disordered states when exposed to specific light wavelengths, allowing for control of their organization in membrane models.
  • Investigations using advanced microscopy showed that different types of photoswitchable sphingolipids can either reduce or increase liquid-ordered domain areas upon light-induced isomerization, highlighting the importance of their structural properties in membrane dynamics.
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  • Cognitive dysfunction and changes in brain connectivity are prevalent in major depressive disorder (MDD), but their relationship is not well understood.
  • The study analyzed cognitive performance and brain connections in 805 healthy individuals and 679 MDD patients to explore how cognitive factors relate to brain structural networks.
  • Findings revealed a link between cognitive deficits and reduced connectivity in specific brain subnetworks, which was influenced by the severity of depressive symptoms, highlighting how MDD affects cognitive and brain functioning.
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  • The synthesis of four-membered carbocycles, important for medicinal chemistry, has been enhanced through a new method for producing spirocyclic epoxides and aziridines with a cyclobutane structure.
  • A two-step one-pot reaction involves lithiating bicyclo[1.1.0]butyl sulfoxide and reacting it with carbonyl compounds followed by cross-coupling to create the desired products efficiently.
  • The resulting compounds are versatile and can undergo ring-opening reactions, making them useful building blocks for creating complex three-dimensional molecular structures.
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  • Therapeutic approaches in psychiatry aim to affect the brain's dynamic network transitions, and Network Control Theory helps quantify how one brain region can influence others in this context.
  • A study using Diffusion Tensor Imaging data analyzed brain connectivity in 692 major depressive disorder (MDD) patients and 820 healthy controls, revealing differences in network controllability that aren't linked to current symptoms.
  • The research found that network controllability in MDD patients is associated with genetic risk factors, family history of mood disorders, and individual characteristics like body mass index, highlighting its potential for personalized mental health treatment strategies.
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The development of preparative methods for the synthesis of four-membered carbocycles is gaining increasing importance due to the widespread utility of cyclic compounds in medicinal chemistry. Herein, we report the development of a new methodology for the production of spirocyclic epoxides and aziridines containing a cyclobutane motif. In a two-step one-pot process, a bicyclo[1.

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Retrospective self-reports of childhood maltreatment (CM) are widely used. However, their validity has been questioned due to potential depressive bias. Yet, investigations of this matter are sparse.

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Background: Altered brain structural connectivity has been implicated in the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, it is unknown which part of these connectivity abnormalities are disorder specific and which are shared across the spectrum of psychotic and affective disorders. We investigated common and distinct brain connectivity alterations in a large sample (N = 1743) of patients with SZ, BD, or MDD and healthy control (HC) subjects.

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Former prospective studies showed that the occurrence of relapse in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is associated with volume loss in the insula, hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). However, these studies were confounded by the patient's lifetime disease history, as the number of previous episodes predict future recurrence. In order to analyze neural correlates of recurrence irrespective of prior disease course, this study prospectively examined changes in brain structure in patients with first-episode depression (FED) over 2 years.

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Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and partial least squares (PLS) are powerful multivariate methods for capturing associations across 2 modalities of data (e.g., brain and behavior).

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on understanding neurobiological differences between individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls, emphasizing the need for reliable brain alterations identification.
  • Researchers aimed to analyze different neuroimaging techniques to measure the effects of depression while considering genetic and environmental influences.
  • The study included 1,809 participants (861 patients and 948 controls) and assessed various characteristics, such as age and sex, to improve the accuracy of the findings.
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Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) represents a potent risk factor for major depressive disorder (MDD), including poorer treatment response. Altered resting-state connectivity in the fronto-limbic system has been reported in maltreated individuals. However, previous results in smaller samples differ largely regarding localization and direction of effects.

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