My previous research has been focused on investigating the functional development of the brain in healthy children and adolescents linked to differences in the personality trait neuroticism - a well-known risk factor for anxiety and mood disorders that typically have their onset in childhood and adolescence. I have analyzed resting-state functional MRI to study the functional brain network that subserves communication between regions of the brain. To quantify properties of the brain network, I have applied graph theory to e.g. assess how efficiently information is exchanged throughout the brain.

Neuroscience; Brain development; Psychiatric disorder; Functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging; Network analysis; Graph theory;  

My current research aims at investigating the course of illness in schizophrenia. This long-term follow-up study of initially antipsychotic-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients offers a unique opportunity to investigate and identify outcome biomarkers based on brain structure as well as cognition and behavior.

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