IMAGEN
A large‐scale, longitudinal, imaging genetic study that combines brain imaging, genetics, and psychiatry to increase our understanding of adolescent brain development and behaviour – namely, sensitivity to rewards, impulsivity, and emotional processing. Research teams from London, Nottingham, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Mannheim and Dresden have been following 2,000 young people and their parents from the age of 14, collecting data from brain imaging, cognitive and behavioural assessments, questionnaires and blood sampling.
STRATIFY
25 out of 100 persons will develop a mental illness at some point during their life-time. Often these mental disorders are strongly linked to each other. We are interested in understanding the connections between certain behaviours such as negative emotions, difficulties with attention, and unusual experiences. In this project we will investigate biological and social causes of mental disorders linked with such neurobehavioural processes. We expect that the results of this study will develop better treatments for people who have mental health difficulties, by tailoring treatments to precisely target those symptoms that cause suffering in each individual patient.
cVEDA
Aims to investigate if environmental and genetic risk factors in industrialised countries and emerging societies shape brain function and behaviour in distinct ways, thus leading to different risk constellations and neurobehavioural trajectories for substance misuse and externalising disorders. Participants have been recruited from multi-site tertiary care mental health settings, local communities, schools and colleges in India.
environMENTAL
Climate change, pollution, urbanization, socioeconomic inequality, and psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused massive changes in environmental conditions that affect brain health during the life span, both on a population level as well as on the level of the individual. We will study how these environmental factors influence the brain, behavior, and mental illness.