From circuits to symptoms in psychopharmacology

• Malfunctioning loops
• Stress and the normal circuit
• Stress sensitization
• Progression from stress sensitization
• Preemptive treatments
• Is mental illness damaging to your brain?
• Diabolical learning
• Imaging malfunctioning circuits
• fMRI and PET
• Provoking cognitive circuits
• Imaging genetics: the role of dopamine in cognitive processing by DLPFC circuits
• Provoking fear circuits
• Imaging genetics: the role of serotonin in fear processing by the amygdala
• Provoking circuits for attention
• Seeing your grandmother in your brain
• CNS-I (Central nervous system investigators in the psychopharmacology of tomorrow may model crime scene investigators of today)
• Symptoms and circuits for the psychopharmacologist
• Summary

From circuits to symptoms in psychopharmacology

Psychiatric symptoms are increasingly linked to the malfunction of specific brain circuits. Genetic and environmental influences conspire to produce inefficient information processing in these circuits, and can increasingly be detected with modern neuroimaging techniques. Brain imaging combined with genetics has thus given birth to the new discipline of “imaging genetics,” which is transforming how we think about psychiatric disorders and their treatments. Therefore it is important to understand current theories about how psychiatric disorders are linked to neuronal circuitry and how this can potentially be detected in patients with modern genetic and imaging technologies. This background also provides the rationale for using and combining current treatments for the symptoms of psychiatric disorders as well as for strategies leading to new drug development in psychopharmacology.