What we do
About our project
In this project, individuals with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, their first-degree relatives, and individuals without psychotic or mood disorders were invited to participate in either an MRI study or an online study.
MRI Study
Participants were invited to visit Erasmus MC (Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology). During the visit, they underwent MRI scanning, while performing the Monetary Incentive Delay task inside the scanner. Outside the scanner, they also completed the EEfRT task, as well as a social and non-social Bandit task, using a computer.
Additionally, participants took part in a psychiatric interview, completed symptom severity questionnaires, provided information on neuroleptic medication use, and filled out a self-report instrument assessing anticipatory and consummatory pleasure.
A total of 278 individuals participated in the MRI study:
- 138 patients.
- 63 first-degree relatives.
- 77 control subjects.
Online Study
Participants received an email with a link to online questionnaires assessing psychiatric symptom severity, neuroleptic medication use, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. The same tasks described in the MRI study were also administered online. A total of 322 individuals (197 patients, 81 relatives, and 54 controls) participated in the online study and completed at least one component of the full online protocol. For the majority of these participants, extensive clinical and cognitive data had previously been collected through studies such as GROUP and Bipolar Genetics.
Our research focus
Our Aims
Our objectives are three-fold:
1. Develop and validate online and/or in-laboratory screening of PVS. We will examine: (a) trait covariation of primary PVS components within the overall cohort; (b) heritability of both primary and newly derived PVS measures; (c) associations between PVS measures and specific candidate gene variants identified in previous studies, as well as with polygenic risk profiles derived from large-scale genome-wide association studies.
2. Characterize reward circuit responses using functional MRI (fMRI) during the Monetary Incentive Delay (MID) task. Analyses will focus on activity in the ventral striatum (VS) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) during both reward anticipation and receipt.
3. Integrate neural and behavioral data to refine cognitive response profiles. Based on data from Aim 2, we will derive cognitive response indicators from PVS tasks that exhibit the highest concurrent validity in relation to individual differences in neural circuit function (i.e., VS and vmPFC responsivity observed via fMRI). We will then assess how these newly generated indicators perform in parallel analyses to those outlined in Aim 1, specifically evaluating: (1) their relative heritability, and (2) their associations with candidate gene variants and PVS components - compared to original behavioral measures that were extracted without prior knowledge of their links to neural circuitry.
Funds & Grants
The project is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Collaborations
Collaboration outside of Erasmus MC
The project is a collaboration with the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Many of the participants were recruited from existing cohorts (i.e. the GROUP study and Bipolar Genetics) that are hosted by the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).
Our team
Alumni
- Annabel Vreeker
- Laura van de Brink
- Marisha Meijer
- Sofie Paludanus
- Fotis Savvopoulos
Team
- Monique Germann
- Anne Snijders
- Marit Boers
