Central Institute of Mental Health

Attractor dynamics underlie sequence working memory in data-constrained recurrent neural networks

Sequences of stimuli can be maintained in working memory by encoding each item, together with its position, as a distinct pattern of neural population activity. Competing hypotheses about the underlying dynamics have been proposed: patterns of activity might be supported either b...

Neuropsychobiological transdiagnostic risk mechanisms for aggression in mental disorders across the life span

Abstract Background Aggression in mental disorders (AMD) is a prevalent symptom, poses difficulties to the clinical setting and has far-reaching societal implications. The biological basis of different manifestations, developmental courses, and disease-specific mechanisms remains...

Green space exposure predicts manic episodes in bipolar disorder: one year longitudinal analysis using smartphone-derived GPS data

Abstract Urban living is linked to increased psychiatric morbidity, while green spaces may protect mental health via stress-buffering effects. Yet, the role of green space exposure in the onset of affective episodes in bipolar disorder (BD) remains unclear. Using 12 months of GPS...

A Statistical Perspective on Transformers for Small Longitudinal Cohort Data

ABSTRACT Modeling of longitudinal cohort data typically involves complex temporal dependencies between multiple variables. There, the transformer architecture, which has been highly successful in language and vision applications, allows us to account for the fact that the most re...

Annual Research Review: Sex differences in conduct disorder – revisiting existing evidence and exploring future directions

Conduct disorder (CD) is a common psychiatric disorder in youth, characterized by severe and recurrent aggressive and antisocial behaviors and associated with substantial healthcare and societal costs. Rates of CD increase during adolescence in both sexes, with the male‐to‐female...

Adults have rather stable, yet domain-specific tendencies in social and temporal comparisons

Abstract Past research on how people evaluate and compare themselves in central characteristics focuses strongly on preconditions, processes, and consequences of such comparisons while neglecting individual differences. The current study bridges social and personality research by...

Ecological momentary insights into cannabis use and its contexts: a pre-post legalization study in Germany

Abstract Globally, cannabis ranks third in psychoactive substance prevalence after nicotine and alcohol, with heavy use linked to psychosis, anxiety, and depression. However, real-time data on how legal reforms influence consumption remain scarce. This Ecological Momentary Assess...

Reproducible human reward imaging phenotypes exhibit differential sensitivity to dopamine D2 receptor antagonism

Abstract Human reward processing varies along cue-centric and outcome-centric axes, but a reproducible mechanistic account of individual variation in incentive salience attribution has been lacking. Using fMRI across five cohorts (N-total=1,251; N1=890; N2=245; N3=34; N4=48; N5=3...

Clinical and neurobiological correlates of tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and mood disorders

Abstract Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a persistent sensorimotor syndrome associated with antipsychotic exposure in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and mood disorders (MOD), yet its neurobiological basis remains poorly understood. We investigated whether TD represents a disti...

Estimating differing causal roles of glutamate and GABA genes on brain and behavior in autism

Abstract The excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance theory suggests that excitatory and inhibitory alterations underlies autism characteristics. However, genetic underpinnings of this imbalance and its impact on brain function and behavior remains unclear. We explored causal links...

Modulation of neuronal excitability and plasticity by BHLHE41 conveys lithium non-responsiveness

Abstract Many bipolar disorder (BD) patients are non-responsive to lithium. The mechanisms underlying lithium (non-)responsiveness are largely unknown. By using gene-set enrichment analysis methods, we found that core clock gene-sets are significantly associated with lithium resp...

Homicide at home: setting the agenda for an international collaboration to improve support for children bereaved due to family violence

Background: Bereavement due to fatal family violence (e.g. intimate partner homicide, filicide, parricide, siblicide) is a profoundly disruptive experience for children, with lifelong psychosocial consequences. Although the need for fatal family violence prevention is increasingl...

Procalcitonin as a predictor of length of stay in patients with odontogenic infections

OBJECTIVES: Our study aimed to evaluate procalcitonin (PCT) as a prognostic marker in advanced odontogenic infections. In addition, we sought to identify further prognostic markers that could be used to predict the length of hospital stay (LOS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospe...

Mental Health Disorders, Suicide Attempts, Substance Use, and Substance Use Disorders in Adults with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Gender-Separated Study

Abstract Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders caused by alcohol exposure during pregnancy. FASD is associated with various neurocognitive disorders over the entire lifespan. Comorbid mental health disorders seem to be highly prevalen...