Deanna M. Barch, Ph.D.
Chair, Professor, Psychology & Brain Sciences

Much work toward understanding the etiology of neurological and psychiatric disorders has been aided by advances in neuroimaging technologies that were novel at the time they were introduced, including the use of magnetic resonance imaging to assess both structural and functional imaging of the human brain. The focus of this talk will be how we currently measure functional human brain connectivity and the ways in which understanding brain connectivity has informed our knowledge of the mechanisms that lead to the development and maintenance of various behavioral impairments associated with psychiatric and neurological disorders. A brief history of the methods developed to measure functional brain connectivity as part of the Human Connectome Project will be provided. Secondly, the current knowledge about core, “intrinsic” brain connectivity networks in humans developed using data from brain connectivity will be reviewed. Third, some of the key work using brain connectivity to understand the neurobiology of neurological and psychological disorders will be selectively described, with a specific focus on psychosis and depression, as these are domains with considerable existing literature concerning brain connectivity impairments. In particular, a line of research illustrating relationships between cognitive function, psychosis and connectivity of brain networks involved in control across the spectrum of psychosis will be overviewed.