The worlds' first computational psychiatry centre has opened in London with a mission to shine a new light on human cognition and understand how it becomes disrupted in disorders such as depression and dementia. The centre aims to use computational models to bridge the gap between neuroscience and the phenomena seen in psychiatric disorders.The centre, which is named after its funders and will be based in London and Berlin, will use powerful modern technology in an effort to create more detailed models than ever before of how the human brain works.Professor Ray Dolan, academic co-leader of the centre, said: "The brain is at some level an information processing machine and we have to understand what it's doing and how that information processor is working. We are trying to understand normal cognition with respect to the type of processes that go awry in psychiatric disorders and in ageing, we then intend to apply these models to understand ageing, depression or any other psychiatric disorders where we think the models may be appropriate. "
Ulman Lindenberger, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, said: "If you have a whole, functioning, normal model of how decision-making or emotional responses work in the normal functioning brain, you can look at what are the early indicators in the brain [in disorders] and even try to stop them."
One of the priorities is to move from simply describing psychiatric disorders to understanding how they develop. The scientists hope that this will yield benefits in the same way that with cancer, understanding how different processes give rise to the disease has opened up new personalised treatment strategies.
Doland said that there may also be progress in a more controversial field, noting that while there is recognition that becoming less physically capable is an unavoidable part of ageing there is not the same recognition that mental capability will also deteriorate, save in the case of dementia. He said that by understanding this reduction in mental capability, there could possibly be drugs to treat it, although there are ethical issues around such intervention. "Who at the age of 75 would not like to think like people at the age of 30?" he said.
In this photo is illustrated the professor Ray Dolan in a congress.
In my opinion when the people have de
possibility to found new forms to investigate the most important thing, for
example, the brain and the development of mental disorders, have the need to
exploit this resource and have the best result. And with this best result,
continue for the advance for the humanity.
