RESEARCH PROJECTS - Full Description

Project TitleConnectomics of auditory hallucinations in young peopoe: relationship to trauma
Project DescriptionIn this application, I will focus on detailed brain connectivity analyses or “connectomics” among young people who were known to have reported psychotic symptoms in adolescence. I will focus on the role of trauma in increasing risk for these symptoms and the effect of trauma on brain connectivity. This approach will provide exciting information about the neurocircuitry of the brain in young people with a propensity to experience hallucinations using a population-based cohort followed up into their early twenties (the time of greatest risk for onset of psychotic disorder). Since my background is in epidemiology, I have grounded this imaging study in a robust population-based sampling frame of 1110 young people previously assessed for psychopathology in mid adolescence. This proposal represents a valuable opportunity to reassess these young people as they cross into their twenties and thus enter the period of greatest risk for onset of clinical psychosis. It will allow me to continue to develop as a researcher at the forefront of investigating early risk factors and developmental trajectories for mental illness and provide me with the opportunity to develop my interests in new directions, marrying clinical epidemiology with frontier neuroscience.
Leading PICannon Mary, RCSI
Co investigators Alexander Leemans, University Medical Centre, Utrecht
Sukhwinder Shergill, Institute of Psychiatry London
Louise Arseneault, Institute of Psychiatry London
Eileen Williamson, National Suicide Research Foundation, UCC
Funding SourceEnterprise Ireland Proposal preparation support for coordinator


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