The Neurocognition and Emotion in Affective Disorders Centre (NEAD) aims to improve the understanding, prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment and affective disorders.

To achieve this overarching ambition, we conduct multidisciplinary research into cognitive impairments and affective disorders (depression and bipolar disorder) that aims to:

1. Identify neurocognitive and neuroimaging biomarkers of affective disorders

2. Create neurocognitive screening tools and methods to reduce the risk of affective disorders

3. Develop new biological and psychological treatments targeting cognitive impairment​

4. Delineate the neurocognitive and neuronal mechanisms of established and novel treatments 

Identifi​​​cation of neurocognitive and neuroimaging biomarkers of affective disorders

Affective disorders are characterized by a high rate of misdiagnosis which results in delay in appropriate treatment and thus a high rate of recurrence and disability. In studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and ...read more 

Creation of neurocognitive screening tools and methods to reduce the risk of affective disorders​

Pregnancy and childbirth are among the strongest risk factors for depression, but the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this enhanced risk are unknown. We found in a study of asymptomatic pregnant women with and without a history of affective ...read more

Development of new biological and psychological treatments targeting cognitive impairment​

Cognitive dysfunction in attention, memory and executive function occurs across a range of neuropsychiatric disorders including depression and bipolar disorder and is a key therapeutic target. However, there is currently no approved effective treatment for cognitive dysfunction in ..read more​​

​Delineation of the neurocognitive and neuronal mechanisms of established and novel treatments 

A key obstacle in the detection of new pro-cognitive interventions is the limited insight into the neurocircuitry changes involved in cognitive improvement. Using prospective MRI in the EPO trials, we demonstrated that EPO-treatment  ...re​ad more