The main goals of the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory are to generate neuroimaging tools to enable a new window on the brain and a more comprehensive understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders. Our projects include animal models (mouse, non-human primate) to characterize changes in the brain tissue due to disease as well as large-scale human population studies to understand circuit and microstructural characteristics of these mental disorders. We develop and use the latest in-vivo neuroimaging tools to better investigate neuropsychiatric disorders.

Our team has developed novel mathematical and AI (machine learning) algorithms that enable better and faster MRI scanning, high quality data reconstruction at an unprecedented spatial resolution, multi-site and multi-center data harmonization for increased statistical power for joint analysis of very large datasets and biomarker discovery using modern statistical, machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. A detailed list of the tools developed by our lab are given below and the associated software can be downloaded from our software page.

The PNL is also leading several large consortia for collecting high quality data, such as the INTRuST consortium, the Human Connectome Project in Early Psychosis (HCP-EP), and the recently launched NIMH program called Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Schizophrenia (AMP-SCZ). The overall aim of AMP Schizophrenia (SCZ) is to generate tools that will considerably improve our success in developing early-stage interventions for patients who are at risk of developing schizophrenia as well as to help stage the progression of neuropsychiatric disorders that will make possible more efficacious interventions.

The PNL and its members have been actively involved in developing several state-of-the-art computational and mathematical tools to solve problems in neuroimaging. In particular, our multi-tensor tractography algorithm for tracing white matter connectivity was one of the winners of the Fiber Cup Challenge held during the highly influential MICCAI 2009 conference. Our algorithm on robustly recovering the full diffusion MRI data from sparse samples was also one of the best performing algorithms among 16 competing methods from the community. Our recent effort on harmonization of diffusion MRI data from multiple sites and scanners also received several awards from the international community for the best performing algorithm. Several students, post-doctoral fellows and faculty have received national and international recognition for their contributions to the field of neuroscience and neuroimaging.

Neuroimaging tools

The PNL investigators are at the forefront of developing cutting edge mathematical, statistical, and machine learning tools to better understand the structure and function of the brain in health and disease. In particular, our toolset includes:

• Fast and ultra high-resolution (700 µm or better) diffusion MRI data acquisition and reconstruction ( Drs. Rathi, Ning)
• Fast relaxation and diffusion scanning (Drs. Ning, Rathi)
• Vendor-agnostic MRI pulse sequence development platform and unified reconstruction for harmonized multi-site data acquisition (Dr. Rathi and his team of collaborators)
• Algorithms for harmonization of multi-site diffusion MRI data (harmonized ABCD and HCP datasets are openly available on the NDA website) (Drs. Rathi, Cetin-Karayumak)
• Tissue microstructure modeling and analysis (Drs. Ning, Rathi)
• Joint structure-function analysis of brain networks using dMRI and fMRI data (Dr. Ning)
• Microstructure driven multi-tensor tractography algorithm (Dr. Rathi)
• Free-water imaging and analysis (Dr. Pasternak)
• Anatomically validated cortical and subcortical gray matter atlas (Drs. Bouix, Makris, Kubicki)
• Anatomically curated white matter atlas (Drs. O’Donnell, Rathi, Makris)
• Personalized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) targeting algorithm for treatment of major depression (Dr. Ning)
• Structural and diffusion MRI processing pipeline (Drs. Bouix, Rathi, Pasternak)

Disorders being investigated

The PNL is at the forefront when it comes to investigation of several mental disorders:

• Schizophrenia and early psychosis (Drs. Shenton, Kubicki, Pasternak, Seitz-Holland, Kikinis)
• Mild traumatic brain injury (Drs. Shenton, Koerte, Kikinis)
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (Dr. Shenton)
• Aging (Drs. Kubicki, Makris)
• Eating Disorders (Drs. Kubicki, Breithaupt)
• Substance abuse disorder (Dr. Cetin-Karayumak)
• 22q11 deletion syndrome (Drs. Kikinis, Pasternak, Seitz-Holland)
• Major depression (Drs. Ning, Kubicki, Cetin-Karayumak)
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Drs. Makris, Rathi)
• Long COVID (Drs. Kikinis, Makris, Kubicki)
• ADHD, Autism (Dr. Rathi)
• Women’s Health (Dr. Kikinis)
• Other Neuropsychiatric disorders (Drs. Shenton, Rathi, Pasternak)