Projects


 

DEPRESSION

  • Examining biomarkers of fast acting therapies in major depression
    Funded in part by NIH/NIMH K24MH102743
    This project aims to target neurobiological correlates and predictors of response to fast-acting treatment interventions in major depressive disorder.
  • Examining ketamine response in major depression
    Funded in part by and UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
    This project is investigating imaging, gene expression and PNI biomarkers of ketamine infusion therapy in major depressive disorder.
  • Establishing imaging biomarkers of ECT response in major depressive disorder
    Funded by NIH/NIMH R01MH092301 (Narr, Espinoza, co-PIs)
    • Also see: http://depression.bmap.ucla.edu
    • Click to read Vital Signs Article
    This project is leveraging multiple imaging modalities including structural, functional, diffusion and perfusion and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, sensitive to different aspects of brain pathology and plasticity, to identify biomarkers predictive of ECT treatment response and relapse in major depressive disorder.
  • Gene expression and treatment response in major depressive disorder
    Funded in part by NIH/NIMH R01MH092301
    This project is examining peripheral lymphocyte gene expression levels and psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) measures of inflammation in patients with major depressive disorder followed prospectively while receiving ECT and in controls.
  • MRS biomarkers of treatment response in major depressive disorder
    Funded in part by the UCLA Integrative Mood Disorders Center
    This project employs proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to characterize clinical and neurochemical biomarkers of response and relapse in patients undergoing treatment of major depression.
  • PNI and brain imaging biomarkers of ECT response in major depression
    Funded in part by the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)
    This project is examining immune system response in patients with major depressive disorder in association with treatment and relationships with imaging measures.
  • Brain aging and treatment response in geriatric depression
    Funded by R01MH097892 (Lavretsky, PI)
    This project evaluates the predictors and moderators of treatment response to the combination of escitalopram and memantine compared to escitalopram and placebo in a 6 month randomized double- blind placebo controlled trial.
  • Mapping brain structure to function in euthymic subjects with bipolar disorder and unipolar depression
    Funded by R01MH084955 (Altshuler, PI)
    This project uses novel computational anatomy techniques to clarify whether orbitofrontal gray and/or white matter structural deficits are primarily associated with the reduction in neural activity seen in functional imaging studies.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

  • Mapping the medial temporal lobe memory system in schizophrenia
    Funded in part by K01MH073990
    This project examines multiple aspects of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system in schizophrenia and the contribution of disease-related genetic liability effects.
  • Atlas-based fMRI studies in schizophrenia using a standardized task battery
    Funded in part by NARSAD
    This project investigates abnormal patterns of brain activation using a broad range of fMRI tasks in patients with schizophrenia and control subjects
  • Establishing the transmission of vulnerability factors for schizophrenia
    Funded in part by NIH/NIMH R01MH49716 (Nuechterlein, PI)
    This project tests key hypotheses regarding the transmission of measurable non-symptomatic characteristics, including imaging correlates, of individuals that reflect their predisposition to schizophrenia.
  • Visual tuning and performance in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
    Funded in part by NIH/NIMH R01MH095878 (Green, PI) This project is examining visual neural tuning in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using specialized EEG and fMRI methods as well as diffusion imaging.

NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS

  • Mapping the brain, the face and neurocognitive function in FASD
    Funded by U01AA017122 (Sowell, imaging PI)
    A goal of this consortium is to determine if innovative techniques can be used to identify brain alterations, neurobehavioral deficits and facial characteristics and relationships between these variables to help define prenatal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).
  • Collaborative studies of FASD in neurodevelopmental cohorts in South Africa
    Funded by local and NIH sources
    These collaborative studies include the investigation altered brain structure, function and chemistry in neonates exposed to alcohol in utero and in children diagnosed with FASD.
  • Neuroimaging and neurochemical biomarkers in ADHD
    Funded in part by RC1MH088507 (Levitt and Loo, PIs)
    This project uses magnetic resonance spectroscopy, structural and diffusion imaging to identify biomarkers of attention deficit/hyper-activity disorder (ADHD) in children diagnosed with ADHD and their siblings.

 

 

Imaging Modalities

 

 

  • Structural MRI
  • Diffusion MRI
  • Functional MRI
  • Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Arterial Spin Labeling
  • Other