MHCRC NEUROBIOLOGY AND PHENOMENOLOGY OF MAJOR PSYCHOSES

爱荷华大学心理健康临床研究中心的重点是了解心理现象和疾病过程的神经生物学，其长期目标是将我们的发现“回”到机制和原因的基础层面，并“向前”到临床治疗层面。我们的主要重点是精神分裂症谱系障碍。然而，由于精神分裂症和许多其他主要精神疾病之间的界限尚不清楚，我们也试图通过研究其他已知机制的疾病来深入了解正常和异常精神现象的神经机制，这些疾病可以作为“模型综合征”，如亨廷顿病，或具有共同现象学和神经发育起源的疾病，如自闭症。中心由四个核心单位和六个研究单位组成。行政核心负责维护所有方案的集中记录，管理一个有五个床位的住院研究单位，并在他们之间以及与整个机构协调调查人员的工作。评估和培训核心维持一个核心评估组，为CRC协议中使用的各种仪器提供培训和校准计划，进行可靠性研究，并开发新的评估技术。生物统计核心在研究工作的各个阶段为研究人员提供生物统计咨询和合作，维护一个集中的核心数据库，并在所有级别的核心数据处理中提供质量保证。图像分析核心为成像数据的分析提供了一个集中的资源，包括开发新的软件和图像分析技术，培训工作站的使用，以及质量保证计划。诊断和现象学组检查改善表型定义的方法。结构成像组检查精神分裂症和相关疾病的解剖学方面，重点是识别神经回路，并通过神经病理学研究将MR结果与基础神经生物学联系起来。功能成像单元强调使用150水技术来探索正常人的认知系统（即注意力、记忆、语言和情绪）和各种疾病过程，包括精神分裂症、自闭症和药物滥用。认知神经科学单元使用实验认知心理学和神经心理学的技术，专注于认知系统和疾病过程之间的关系。基础和临床神经药理学单元通过PET和fMR研究药物代谢、药代动力学的遗传调控以及药物对认知和血流的影响。

The focus of The University of Iowa Mental Health Clinical Research Center is on understanding the neurobiology of mental phenomena and disease processes, with the long-term goals of translating our findings "back" to the basic level of mechanisms and causes, and "forward" to the clinical level of treatment. Our primary emphasis is on schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Because the boundaries between schizophrenia and many other major mental illnesses are not clear, however, we also seek to gain insights about the neural mechanisms of normal and abnormal mental phenomena by studying other conditions with known mechanisms that can serve as "model syndromes" such as Huntington's disease or conditions with shared phenomenology and neurodevelopmental origins such as autism. The CRC consists of four core units and six research units. The Administrative Core is responsible for maintaining centralized records of all protocols, managing a five bed inpatient research unit, and coordinating the efforts of investigators between themselves and with the institution as a whole. The Assessment and Training Core maintains a core assessment battery, provides a training and calibration program for the various instruments used in CRC protocols, conducts studies of reliability, and develops new assessment techniques. The Biostatistics Core provides biostatistical consulting and collaboration to investigators at all stages of the research effort, maintains a centralized core data base, and provides quality assurance at all levels of core data processing. The Image Analysis Core provides a centralized resource for the analysis of imaging data, including the development of new software and image analysis techniques, training on the use of workstations, and a quality assurance program. The Diagnosis and Phenomenology Unit examines approaches to improving the definition of the phenotype. The Structural Imaging Unit examines anatomical aspects of schizophrenia and related disorders, with an emphasis on identifying neural circuits and linking MR findings to basic neurobiology through neuropathology studies. The Functional Imaging Unit emphasizes the use of 150 water technique in order to explore cognitive systems in normal individuals (i.e., attention, memory, language, and mood) and in various disease processes, including schizophrenia, autism, and substance abuse. The Cognitive Neuroscience Unit uses the techniques of experimental cognitive psychology and neuropsychology to focus on the relationship between cognitive systems and disease processes. The Basic and Clinical NeuroPharmacology Unit studies genetic regulation of drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and the effects of medications on cognition and blood flow through the use of PET and fMR.