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Biomarkers in Psychology

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  • 31-10-2011 6:17am
    #1
    TheyKnowMyIP
    Closed Accounts Posts: 568 ✭✭✭


    Why hasn't research into biomarkers within Psychology/Psychiatry caught up with other medicine practices? I understand the mind is vastly more complex, but are there any noteworthy studies that go beyond the simple "disorder x is associated with gene y, yet not caused by it"? Apart from paid journals which I intend looking into, is there any credible data out there to support biomarkers that influence the processes of mind?

    http://www.innovationscns.com/beyond-reliability-biomarkers-and-validity-in-psychiatry/


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    #2
    TrollHammaren
    Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭TrollHammaren


    Psychological processes are ridiculously hard to pin down, which is why it's so infantile at this stage. Neuroimaging technology is incredibly limited in its scope at the moment. I'm shattered at this stage, so I'm only going to give a very quick run-down, but I'll get back to you with a better answer when I've had the chance to sleep.

    In vivo neuroimaging broadly falls into functional and structural categories. fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) works by detecting increases in bloodflow (haemodynamic response) in the brain associated with function. The problem is that you're constantly using your brain for every single passive and active experience. By that I mean the only way to determine that the prefrontal cortex is associated with attention or inhibition control is by presenting a task that is taxing for either one of those cognitive functions and isolating the activation that isn't associated with anothing function. The problem with that is that it's incredibly difficult, as you if you present someone with a visual stimulus testing attention or impulse control, you're going to see activation in the cortices or regions of the brain associated with visual processing, language etc. One single function is highly impractical to isolate.

    Structural neuroimaging such as volumetric MRI, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), or positron emmission tomography can only show differences in physiological structures between brains. With this, biomarkers can only conceivably (I reckon) be found for disorders - comparing people with a deficit/illness to healthy controls - or by looking for physiological changes associated with a measurable or observable change in function, a perfect example being skill acquisition. An example would be conducting a volumetric MRI on someone, teaching them to play the clarinet, performing another MRI, and comparing the before and after scans (it's obviously much, much more complicated than this).

    There's a wealth of research out there looking at biomarkers of basic and complex functions. I can think of several off the top of my head. Do understand, though, that biomarkers is such a massively broad topic in psychology/cognitive neuroscience/molecular neuroscience/neuropsychology that in order to recommend any papers I'll need you to narrow it down a good bit - then I'll be happy to help!!

    Sorry if this post isn't very coherent - I'm horribly sleep deprived.


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