About the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory

Who We Are

We began our work in neuroimaging studies in schizophrenia in the late 1980's in the Surgical Planning Laboratory (SPL), MRI Division, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital. This research collaboration grew out of early conversations between Drs. Robert McCarley, Director of the Neuroscience Laboratory, and Professor and Chair of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Brockton VAMC, and Ferenc Jolesz, Holman Professor of Radiology and Head of the MRI Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. This research moved from CT studies in 1986 to MRI, with the latter studies put on solid ground in the late 1980's with a Research Scientist Development Award (K01) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to Dr. Martha Shenton, and Dr. Ron Kikinis' arrival to the MRI Division, with expertise in neuroradiology and neuroimaging. Dr. Shenton became the lead person for the schizophrenia research program in the SPL.

Brigham and Women's Hospital

These four investigators have collaborated on MR studies of schizophrenia since 1988, and the project has grown to include a large number of junior faculty, post-doctoral fellows, visiting scholars, research assistants, undergraduates and volunteers. The project is well funded through grant support from private foundations, NIMH, and VA Merit Awards to Drs. Shenton and McCarley at the VA Boston Healthcare System, Brockton Division. The new laboratory, Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, was created on October 1st 2005, with Dr. Martha Shenton as Director. This laboratory continues to work closely with both the Surgical Planning Laboratory at BWH and the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the VA Boston Healthcare System. In 2008, Dr. Marek Kubicki and Dr. Sylvain Bouix became Associate Directors of the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory. The main mission of this laboratory is to understand brain abnormalities and their role in psychiatric disorders using state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques.