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Mapping Brain Circuits Provides Clues to Schizophrenia, Earlier Detection of Psychosis: Science Update • February 26, 2013

A newly identified brain circuit could lead to earlier detection of psychosis in patients with schizophrenia.
Brain Imaging Predicts Psychotherapy Success in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder: Science Update • February 01, 2013

Brain imaging might soon predict which treatment options would work best for patients with social phobia.
NIH Common Fund Announces Awards for Single Cell Analysis: Press Release • October 15, 2012

NIH plans to invest more than $90 million over five years to accelerate the development and application of single cell analysis across a variety of fields. The goal is to understand what makes individual cells unique and to pave the way for medical treatments.
NIH Researchers Use Brain Imaging to Understand Genetic Link between Parkinson's and a Rare DiseaseExternal Link: Please review our disclaimer.: Science Update • July 30, 2012

A rare metabolic disorder is helping researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) uncover new clues about the biology underlying Parkinson’s disease.
Pattern Recognition Technology May Help Predict Future Mental Illness in Teens: Science Update • April 02, 2012

Computer programs that automatically spot patterns in data may help predict a person’s risk for future mental disorders.
Brain Wiring a No-Brainer?: Press Release • March 29, 2012

Researcher Van Wedeen MD and colleagues report new evidence of the brain’s elegant simplicity March 30, 2012 in the journal Science. New high resolution scans reveal an astonishingly simple 3D grid structure.
Friendly-to-a-Fault, Yet Tense: Personality Traits Traced in Brain: Press Release • March 19, 2012

NIH scientists have used three different types of brain imaging to pinpoint a circuit hub buried deep in the front center of the brain in people with Williams syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized by overly gregarious yet anxious behavior.
$40 Million Awarded to Trace Human Brain’s Connections: Press Release • September 15, 2010

The National Institutes of Health today awarded grants totaling $40 million to map the human brain’s connections in high resolution. Better understanding of such connectivity promises improved diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders.
Study Shows Possibilities for Predicting How Patients Will Respond to Antidepressants: Science Update • July 22, 2010

In a study of an experimental treatment for major depression, pretreatment testing to probe the function of a specific brain center predicted how patients would respond to ketamine, a medication that can lift depression rapidly in some people.
Imaging Reveals Abnormal Brain Growth in Toddlers with Fragile X: Science Update • June 08, 2010

Differences in brain growth patterns between preschool-aged boys with Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability, and their healthy peers suggest that the disorder may affect brain development both before and after birth, according to NIMH-funded researchers. In addition, their findings indicate ages 1–5 are an important window for better understanding the effects of FXS on brain development. The study was published May 18, 2010, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Imaging Studies Help Pinpoint Child Bipolar Circuitry: Science Update • April 08, 2010

A series of imaging studies are revealing that the brain works differently in youth with bipolar disorder (BD) than in chronically irritable children who are often diagnosed with pediatric BD.
Family History of Depression Alters Brain’s Response to Reward and Risk: Science Update • April 06, 2010

Girls at high risk for depression but without current or past clinically significant symptoms showed abnormal brain function related to anticipating and receiving either a reward or loss, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Behavioral Training Improves Connectivity and Function in the Brain: Press Release • December 09, 2009

Children with poor reading skills who underwent an intensive, six-month training program to improve their reading ability showed increased connectivity in a particular brain region, in addition to making significant gains in reading, according to a study funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The study was published in the Dec. 10, 2009, issue of Neuron.
Kids’ Brain Development Charted as They Grow Up: Science Update • November 03, 2009

A landmark, multisite NIH-funded neuroimaging study of brain development in healthy, normally-developing children has posted its third release of data. This is the first release from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to include data from very young children – birth to 4 years old – and snapshots of brain chemistry at key developmental milestones. The data is accessible to qualified researchers via the NIH Pediatric MRI Data Repository website.
Brain Emotion Circuit Sparks as Teen Girls Size Up Peers: Press Release • July 15, 2009

What is going on in teenagers’ brains as their drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations? Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion circuit activating more in girls as they grow older, but not in boys. The study by Daniel Pine, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, shows how emotion circuitry diverges in the male and female brain during a developmental stage in which girls are at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders.
Thinning Tissue in Right Half of Brain Signals Increased Risk of Inherited Depression: Science Update • May 08, 2009

In cases of familial depression, changes in tissue thickness in key brain structures in the right half of the brain may increase a person’s risk for developing depression, according to NIMH-funded researchers. Similar changes in the left half of the brain were linked to the severity of a person’s existing depression or anxiety symptoms. Based on their findings, the researchers proposed a possible mechanism for how these brain changes affect depression risk in the April 14, 2009, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Flow of Potassium Into Cells Implicated in Schizophrenia: Press Release • May 05, 2009

A study on schizophrenia has implicated machinery that maintains the flow of potassium in cells and revealed a potential molecular target for new treatments. Expression of a previously unknown form of a key such potassium channel was found to be 2.5 fold higher than normal in the brain memory hub of people with the chronic mental illness and linked to a hotspot of genetic variation.
Brain Scanning Gives Clues to How Genes Shape Behavior, Disease Risk: Science Update • February 27, 2009
In an experiment in which people viewed changing images of slot machines, inherited differences in brain chemistry predicted the magnitude of responses in the brain to the prospect and receipt of reward.
Impaired Brain Activity Underlies Impulsive Behaviors in Women with Bulimia: Science Update • January 12, 2009
Women with bulimia nervosa (BN), when compared with healthy women, showed different patterns of brain activity while doing a task that required self-regulation. This abnormality may underlie binge eating and other impulsive behaviors that occur with the eating disorder, according to an article published in the January 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Anxious and Depressed Teens and Adults: Same Version of Mood Gene, Different Brain Reactions: Science Update • December 02, 2008
An NIMH study using brain imaging shows that some anxious and depressed adolescents react differently from adult patients when looking at frightening faces.
Anxious and Healthy Adolescents Respond Differently to an Anxiety-provoking Situation: Science Update • November 05, 2008
Brain scans show heightened activity among anxious adolescents exposed to an anxiety-provoking situation when compared with normal controls, according to an NIMH study published in the November 2008 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Brain’s Response to Scary Faces Imaged Faster Than You Can Say “Boo!”: Science Update • October 31, 2008
Scientists have captured the split-second workings of the brain’s fear circuitry in people viewing frightful faces.
Brain's Wiring Stunted, Lopsided in Childhood Onset Schizophrenia: Science Update • October 30, 2008
Growth of the brain's long distance connections, called white matter, is stunted and lopsided in children who develop psychosis before puberty, NIMH researchers have discovered.
Social Phobia Patients Have Heightened Reactions to Negative Comments: Science Update • October 22, 2008
In a study using functional brain imaging, NIMH scientists found that when people with generalized social phobia were presented with a variety of verbal comments about themselves and others ("you are ugly," or "he's a genius," for example) they had heightened brain responses only to negative comments about themselves.
Millisecond Brain Signals Predict Response to Fast-Acting Antidepressant: Press Release • October 02, 2008
Images of the brain's fastest signals reveal an electromagnetic marker that predicts a patient's response to a fast-acting antidepressant, researchers have discovered.
Emotion-Regulating Circuit Weakened in Borderline Personality Disorder: Science Update • October 02, 2008
Differences in the working tissue of the brain, called grey matter, have been linked to impaired functioning of an emotion-regulating circuit in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Why “My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went”: Science Update • September 15, 2008
If, as the song laments, our "get up and go" fades as we get older, it may stem from aging-related changes in a brain reward circuit.
Borderline Personality Disorder: Brain Differences Related to Disruptions in Cooperation in Relationships: Science Update • August 12, 2008
Different patterns of brain activity in people with borderline personality disorder were associated with disruptions in the ability to recognize social norms or modify behaviors that likely result in distrust and broken relationships, according to an NIMH-funded study published online in the August 8, 2008 issue of Science.
Depression Patients’ Brain Circuitry Makes Them Vulnerable to Relapse: Science Update • August 01, 2008
Using brain imaging, NIMH researchers have produced direct evidence that people prone to depression -- even when they're feeling well -- have abnormal mood-regulating brain circuitry.
Abnormal Surge in Brain Development Occurs in Teens and Young Adults with Schizophrenia: Science Update • July 08, 2008
Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because brain development goes awry during adolescence and young adulthood, when the brain is eliminating some connections between cells as a normal part of maturation, results of a study suggest. The new report appears online July 8, 2008 in Molecular Psychiatry.
Anxious Youth Have Disturbed Brain Responses When Looking at Angry Faces: Science Update • June 20, 2008
When looking at angry faces so quickly that they are hardly aware of seeing them, youth with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have unchecked activity in the brain’s fear center, say NIMH researchers.
The Maturing Brain Parallels its Evolution: Science Update • June 05, 2008
Evolutionarily older areas of the human brain that mature earliest follow a simple, straight-line growth pattern.
Imaging Identifies Brain Regions and Chemicals Underlying Mood Disorders; May Lead to Better Treatments: Science Update • May 06, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC, May 6 — Recently developed imaging techniques allow the mapping of the brain circuits and chemical systems believed responsible for a range of mood abnormalities including depression and bipolar disorder, and hold promise for improved treatments, scientists say.
Human Brain Appears “Hard-Wired” for Hierarchy: Press Release • April 23, 2008
Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order – or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money.
Bipolar Youths’ Misreading of Faces May be Risk Marker for Illness: Science Update • March 04, 2008
Youngsters with pediatric bipolar disorder and healthy peers who have first-degree relatives with bipolar disorder share the same difficulty labeling facial emotions, NIMH researchers have discovered. Reporting in the February 2008 online edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry, the scientists suggest that the facial emotion recognition impairment might be part of an inherited predisposition to the illness.
Scans Reveal Faulty Brain Wiring Caused by Missing Genes: Science Update • February 20, 2008
An NIMH study using an emerging imaging technology has discovered faulty wiring in the brains of people with Williams Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects some aspects of thinking.
Depression’s Flip Side Shares its Circuitry: Science Update • November 14, 2007
Humans tend to be overly optimistic about the future, sometimes underestimating risks and making unrealistic plans, notes NIMH grantee Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D., New York University.
Brain Matures a Few Years Late in ADHD, But Follows Normal Pattern: Press Release • November 12, 2007
In youth with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the brain matures in a normal pattern but is delayed three years in some regions, on average, compared to youth without the disorder.
Bipolar Youth Show Distinct Pattern of Brain Development: Science Update • August 28, 2007
The first picturess of the brain changing before-and-after the onset of pediatric bipolar disorder reveal a distinct pattern of development, when compared to that seen in healthy youth or in childhood onset schizophrenia.
New Technique Pinpoints Crossroads of Depression in Rat Brain: Science Update • August 02, 2007
NIMH-funded scientists have developed a new high-speed technique for imaging brain activity and used it to pinpoint a circuit signal in rats that may be at the crossroads of depression — a possible "final common pathway" where different causes of, and treatments for, the disorder appear to converge.
Cortex Area Thinner in Youth with Alzheimer’s-Related Gene: Press Release • April 24, 2007
A part of the brain first affected by Alzheimer’s disease is thinner in youth with a risk gene for the disorder, a brain imaging study by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has found.
Adolescent Brains Show Lower Activity in Areas That Control Risky Choices: Science Update • March 15, 2007
A new NIMH study could help explain why adolescents are so prone to make risky choices. When contemplating risky decisions, they show less activity in regions of the brain that regulate processes involved in decision-making, compared with adults.
Brain’s Reward Circuit Activity Ebbs and Flows with a Woman’s Hormonal Cycle: Press Release • February 02, 2007
Fluctuations in sex hormone levels during women’s menstrual cycles affect the responsiveness of their brains’ reward circuitry, an imaging study at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has revealed.
Brain’s Fear Center Likely Shrinks in Autism’s Most Severely Socially Impaired: Press Release • December 04, 2006
The brain’s fear hub likely becomes abnormally small in the most severely socially impaired males with autism spectrum disorders, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) have discovered.
More Direct Way to Map Brain Activity Deemed Feasible: Science Update • October 30, 2006
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to directly detect the electrical activity emitted by neurons, NIMH scientists and colleagues have demonstrated.
Shy Temperament: More than Just Fearful: Science Update • August 07, 2006
Compared to others, children with extremely shy temperament have heightened brain activity in response to any prominent event, whether the event is positive or negative, a new imaging study suggests.
Brain Changes Mirror Symptoms in ADHD: Science Update • July 19, 2006
The severity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in youth appears to be reflected in their brain structure, recent NIMH-supported brain imaging studies are finding.
Fear Circuit Flares as Bipolar Youth Misread Faces: Press Release • May 29, 2006
Youth with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and show heightened neural reactions when they focus on emotional aspects of neutral faces, NIMH researchers have discovered.
Cortex Matures Faster in Youth with Highest IQ: Press Release • March 29, 2006
Youth with superior IQ are distinguished by how fast the thinking part of their brains thickens and thins as they grow up, researchers at NIMH have discovered.
Aggression-Related Gene Weakens Brain’s Impulse Control Circuits: Press Release • March 20, 2006
A version of a gene previously linked to impulsive violence appears to weaken brain circuits that regulate impulses, emotional memory and thinking in humans, researchers at NIMH have found.
Trust-Building Hormone Short-Circuits Fear In Humans: Press Release • December 07, 2005
A brain chemical recently found to boost trust appears to work by reducing activity and weakening connections in fear-processing circuitry, a brain imaging study at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has discovered.
Scientists Uncover New Clues About Brain Function in Human Behavior: Press Release • July 10, 2005
Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a genetically controlled brain mechanism responsible for social behavior in humans — one of the most important but least understood aspects of human nature.
Brain Scans Reveal How Gene May Boost Schizophrenia Risk: Press Release • April 21, 2005
Clues about how a suspect version of a gene may slightly increase risk for schizophrenia are emerging from a brain imaging study by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Perceptual Decision-Making Hub Pinpointed in Human Brain: Press Release • October 18, 2004
A perceptual decision-making hub at the front of the brain makes the call on whether you’re looking at a face or a house — and likely many other things — scientists at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered.
Rare Deficit Maps Thinking Circuitry: Press Release • September 01, 2004
Using brain imaging, neuroscientists at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have pinpointed the site of a defect in a brain circuit associated with a specific thinking deficit.
Depression Traced to Overactive Brain Circuit: Press Release • August 02, 2004
Press Release August 2, 2004 Depression Traced to Overactive Brain Circuit A brain imaging study by the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found that an emotion-regulating brain circuit is overactive in people prone to depression — even when they are not depressed.
Imaging Study Shows Brain Maturing: Press Release • May 17, 2004
The brain's center of reasoning and problem solving is among the last to mature, a new study graphically reveals.
Brain Signal Predicts Working Memory Prowess: Press Release • April 16, 2004
Some people are better than others at remembering what they have just seen—holding mental pictures in mind from moment to moment.
Monkey Talk, Human Speech Share Left-Brain Processing: Press Release • January 29, 2004
Scans have pinpointed circuits in the monkey brain that could be precursors of those in humans for speech and language.
Brain Shrinkage in ADHD Not Caused by Medications: Press Release • October 08, 2002
A 10-year study by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) scientists has found that brains of children and adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are 3-4 percent smaller than those of children who don't have the disorder—and that medication treatment is not the cause.
Placebo, Antidepressant May Lift Depression Via Common Mechanism: Press Release • May 01, 2002
Whether it's a widely prescribed medication or a placebo, a successful treatment for depression must trigger a common pattern of brain activity changes, suggests a team of researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Scans Link 2 Key Pieces of Schizophrenia Puzzle: Press Release • January 28, 2002
Using functional brain imaging, National Institute of Mental Health scientists for the first time have linked two key, but until now unconnected, brain abnormalities in schizophrenia.