Freiburg Brain Imaging - FBI

Experimental Neuropsychiatry

Group Leader: Prof. Ludger Tebartz van Elst, MD, Simon Maier, PhD

In recent years, studies from various research areas, including large-scale magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and genetic studies, have shown that neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, but also schizophrenia, are not monolithic etiological entities but subsume many subforms with different causes and pathomechanisms. Research focus has therefore shifted from the search for disorder-specific biomarkers to the identification of subgroups with similar etiological and neurobiological patterns, that are not necessarily linked to a single mental disorder. By identifying similar neurobiological subgroups, we hope to make progress in the search for biomarkers and new therapeutic approaches in the future. For this endeavour, our research group uses various MR-methods to identify subgroups of mental conditions based on structural, functional and metabolic signals. Our special focus is on neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD as well as inflammatory brain diseases.