LATEST NEWS
🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Martha Shenton and Dr. Ofer Pasternak for securing a $33M NIMH/FNIH grant! This funding will support their clinical trial aimed at identifying drug compounds to prevent psychosis in individuals at clinical high risk, addressing a critical gap in psychiatric treatment.
Read the full announcement
🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Marek Kubicki and the research team for securing the 5R01MH112748-05 grant! This funding will support the development of high-resolution, comprehensive atlases of human brain morphology, advancing our understanding of neuroanatomy.
🎉 A big achievement for Dr. Nikos Makris and colleagues on their latest publication! Their study explores brainstem-hypothalamic connectivity using combined T1-weighted MRI and diffusion MRI tractography, providing new insights into the neural pathways of the paraventricular nucleus, locus coeruleus, and dorsal vagal complex.
PMID: 39839090
ABOUT
Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory (PNL) is the large research laboratory within the Departments of Psychiatry and Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. The main mission of the PNL is to understand brain abnormalities, both structural and functional, and their role in neuropsychiatric disorders. Members of the PNL have developed state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques for acquiring imaging data for harmonization of imaging data across sites, and for the processing and analyzing imaging data. With these advances the goal is to make neuropsychiatric disorders more tractable and thereby more amenable to diagnosis, to new treatments, and ultimately to prevention.
OUR COLLABORATORS
The PNL works closely with many investigators from diverse backgrounds located at research institutions around the world
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is clinical research?
Clinical research is the study of health and illness, with a focus on improving knowledge of diseases, and developing diagnostic methods or new treatments to ensure better patient care and outcomes. Studies are often designed to answer specific questions, such as elucidating disease progression. They involve human participants and help to translate basic research (conducted in labs) into new treatments and information to benefit patients. Thus, clinical research helps find new and better ways to detect, diagnose, treat, and/or prevent disease.
How can MRI inform diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders?
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) provides detailed images of the brain. Different MR “sequences” now make it possible not only to observe deviations from healthy brain anatomy, but also to observe changes in blood flow, blood-brain barrier permeability, brain metabolism, iron depositions, and more. Most medical conditions for which MRI is used have an MRI “signature,” which when detected can lead to better treatment. Repeated MRIs can also be used to monitor treatment efficacy as well as disease progression, as for example in multiple sclerosis which is observed to wax and wane over time in some individuals.
Is MRI safe?
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is not associated with any known adverse effect except for people with metal or magnetic implants (such as metallic clips in the brain or cardiac pacemakers), or possibly to pregnant women. Metal objects can heat up or possibly move in the patient’s body. Some types of (home-made) tattoos can also heat up and cause discomfort. Those who may have such risk factors should not be recruited into MRI studies. At this time, though there is no indication of an adverse effect, pregnant women, or possibly pregnant women, should also not be in MRI studies. Metal objects can also become projectile when placed near the magnetic field. This has been reported at a few sites, but it is a very rare occurrence. Protection from magnetic objects can be safeguarded by the usual safety techniques that are practiced in MRI sessions such as having subjects and researchers take all metal objects off their person before entering the environment. Another potential risk is psychological distress caused by being in the enclosed space such as the MRI scanner. Individuals who become severely anxious when in enclosed spaces will not be tested. Additionally any subject who finds that they are anxious or uncomfortable during the procedure will be taken out of the scanner and not tested.
How does the PNL lead the way to brain discovery?
The Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory (PNL) has been at the forefront of several discoveries and inventions, whether it be to detect hallmarks of mental disorders and or developing new MRI technologies to better understand the structure and function of the brain. [SMEP1] Researchers from the PNL were among the first to propose increased neuroinflammation during early psychosis (or first episode schizophrenia). MRI imaging of the brain can take a long time (up to an hour or more), which is quite uncomfortable to certain types of patients. Dr. Rathi and his team were among the early groups who proposed to reduce the scan time of diffusion MRI by 2-3 fold to about 10 minutes (US Patent: 10302727). They also developed new “sequences” to speed-up the acquisitions of new types of imaging methods such as joint relaxation-diffusion (US Patent pending) that allow better characterization of the biological tissue properties of the brain. Dr. Ning is also leading the way to develop a new real-time tool for precision targeting and visualization of brain targets for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-guided therapy (US Patent pending) for psychiatric disorders such as depression, OCD, etc. Several MRI techniques developed at the PNL can be used for biomarker discovery as well as for monitoring treatment response due to newer therapies and interventions as part of clinical trials.