Computational Psychiatry: Opportunities and Challenges for the Future

The NIMH Office of Director held a scientific workshop on computational psychiatry. The overarching goal was to determine how NIMH can support the development of computational approaches to improve the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses. NIMH envisions computational psychiatry perspectives, tools, and models as having utility for a wide range of clinical and fundamental science applications. The specific goals of this workshop were to: identify how computational psychiatry as a field can move forward; foster the development of a community of scholars working in fields related to computational psychiatry; and to ensure alignment of perspectives between investigators and NIMH to foster this nascent field. To achieve these goals, NIMH brought together scientists from a wide range of relevant research sectors. The workshop largely consisted of breakout groups facilitated by the workshop participants and addressed questions regarding the current opportunities and challenges in four key areas: evaluation of the field, computation, psychiatry, and basic/fundamental science research. Approximately 90 investigators and program staff attended.

Participants List

Alison Adcock, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Core Faculty, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Duke University

Alan Anticevic, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
Yale University 

Antonio Artés, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Signal Theory and Communications
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 

Bruno Averbeck, Ph.D.
Section Chief
Section on Learning and Decision Making
Laboratory of Neuropsychology
National Institute of Mental Health 

Shelli Avenevoli, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
National Institute of Mental Health 

Deanna Barch, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair
Psychological & Brain Sciences
Washington University

Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D.
Robert Bendheim and Lynn Bendheim Thoman Professor in Neuroscience
Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Princeton University

Daniel Durstewitz, Ph.D.
Full Professor
Theoretical Neuroscience
Heidelberg University and Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim

Michele Ferrante, Ph.D.
Program Officer
Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Program
National Institute of Mental Health 

Michael Frank, Ph.D.
Professor, Director, Initiative for Computation in Brain and Mind
Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown Institute for Brain Science
Brown University 

Hanga Galfalvy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biostatistics
Departments of Psychiatry and Biostatistics
Columbia University

Claire Gillan, Ph.D.
School of Psychology
Trinity College Dublin 

Joshua Gordon, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
National Institute of Mental Health

Quentin Huys, M.D., Ph.D.
Translational Neuromodeling Unit and Hospital of Psychiatry
University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

Steve Hyman, Ph.D.
Director
Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
Broad Institute

Megan Kinnane, Ph.D.
Acting Senior Advisor to the Director
National Institute of Mental Health 

Nancy Kopell, Ph.D.
William Fairfield Warren Professor of Mathematics
Department of Mathematics
Boston University 

John Krystal, M.D.
McNeil Professor and Chair of Psychiatry
Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience
Yale University 

Julio Licinio, Ph.D.
Deputy Director
Translational Medicine and Head, Mind and Brain Theme
South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute 

Silvia Lopez-Guzman, M.D.
Center for Neural Science
New York University 

Angus MacDonald, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Psychology
University of Minnesota 

Tiago Maia, Ph.D.
Faculty of Medicine
University of Lisbon 

Helen Mayberg, M.D.
Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Emory University

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Institute Director, Medical Director
Clinical Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
Central Institute of Mental Health Mannheim

Read Montague, Ph.D.
Professor, Director
Physics, VTC Research Institute
Virginia Polytechnic Institute

John Murray, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Yale University School of Medicine 

Yael Niv, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Psychology Department and Princeton Neuroscience Institute
Princeton University

John O’Doherty, D.Phil.
Professor of Psychology
Div. Humanities and Social Sciences
California Institute of Technology

Todd Ogden, Ph.D.
Professor of Biostatistics
Department of Biostatistics
Columbia University

Maria A. Oquendo, M.D., Ph.D.
Ruth Meltzer Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Martin Paulus, M.D.
Scientific Director
Laureate Institute for Brain Research

Elizabeth Phelps, Ph.D.
Professor
Psychology/Neural Science
New York University 

Daniel Pine, M.D.
Senior Scientist
Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience
Emotion and Development Branch
National Institute of Mental Health

Diego A. Pizzagalli, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
Department of Psychiatry
Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research
Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital 

Sharad Ramanathan, Ph.D.
Llura and Gordon Gund Professor of Neurosciences and of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Professor of Applied Physics
Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University

David Redish, Ph.D.
Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Department of Neuroscience
University of Minnesota 

Robb Rutledge, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry
University College London 

Peggy Seriès, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Department of Informatics
University of Edinburgh 

Leah Somervillle, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Harvard University 

Klaas Enno Stephan, Ph.D.
Translational Neuromodeling
University of Zurich and ETH Zurich

Argyris Stringaris, M.D., Ph.D., MRCPsych
Chief
Mood Brain and Development Unit
National Institute of Mental Health

Sophia Vinogradov, M.D.
Department Head, Professor
Department of Psychiatry
University of Minnesota Medical School 

Valerie Voon, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry
University of Cambridge

Xiao-Jing Wang, Ph.D.
Professor
Center for Neural Science
New York University 

Angela Yu, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Cognitive Science
University of California, San Diego