Handout for Biology of Mental Disorders (BCS 246)
Session 17 (11/12)

• Challenge studies (give substance and examine behavioral/neurobiological effects)
• Ex. Growth hormone response to apomorphine (dopamine agonist)
• Apomorphine -> GH rise (examine if this is "normal" in patients)
• Behavioral response to serotonin agonist/antagonist, serotonin depleting diet etc.
• Response to yohimbine (NE agonist)
• Yohimbine -> behavioral responses similar to "anxiety" even "panic"; examine normal vs. excessive response
• EEG and ERP studies (cortical brain electrical activity, averaged EEG due to stimuli)
• Abnormalities, relation to clinical picture, prediction of response, challenge studies
• "Spontaneous" EEG
• Localization of changes with up to 128 channels (sites on scalp)
• Specific localization
• Right vs. left dominance
• Frontality (hypofrontality much discussed for period in schizophrenia research)
• Power, coherence, neural network work
• Probe studies with pre and post exposure to stimulus paradigms (imagery, actual visual cues, etc.) examine for nl vs. abnormal EEG response
• "Evoked" potentials (averaged EEG activity after repeated stimuli)
• Localization of changes with up to 128 channels (sites on scalp)
• "Recovery" functions (i.e. time frame to when waveform amplitude back to normal)
• Sensory gating paradigms (probably very similar to recovery; usually paired stimuli)
• Early to late waves; examining peripheral neural function to cognitive waveforms
• Neuroimaging for structural and functional changes
• CT scan (computed x-ray tomography)
• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
• MRS (magnetic resonance spectroscopy)
• fMRI (functional MRI)
• PET (Positron Emission Tomography)
• SPECT scanning (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography)
• Basic research approaches (small sample)
• Definition of neural circuits thought critical to cognition/emotion
• Tracer techniques (substances taken up by neurons and visualized)
• Retrograde and anterograde tracers
• Early gene expression after behavioral/pharmacologic probes
• cFOS most commonly used (?which cells "light up" in terms of protein synthesis)
• Single or multiple cell recording
• Neuropharmacologic effects on behavior/physiology thought relevant to psych syndromes
• Recovery functions, "sensory gating" paradigms after pharmacologic probes
• Reversal of psychotomimetic effects as predictor of drug efficacy
• In vivo microdialysis and voltametry (regional neurochemical assessment in living animal)