Full Description
The advent of non-invasive neuro-imaging (computerized tomography) marked the beginning of a new era in our understanding of psychiatric illness. A variety of neuroimaging techniques have since become available which made it possible to detect subtle structural brain abnormalities in the major psychiatric disorders, to identify dysfunctional brain circuits that may be disease or symptom specific, and to study underlying neurotransmitter abnormalities and how they can be pharmacologically modified. Much remains to be done to establish the biological basis of psychiatric illness and to identify disease phenotypes that may cut across the present diagnostic boundaries. Future advances in neuroimaging will undoubtedly play a key role, but they will need to be integrated within the wider framework of systems neuroscience. This text brings together clinical and basic scientists who have applied various neuroimaging techniques to the study of the normal and abnormal brain and those with expertise in relevant cognitive and biological fields. It aims to promote cross-fertilization of ideas and harnesses the differing expertise from each centre.
