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Brain-Based Biomarkers for the Treatment of Depression: Evolution of an Idea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2017

Allison C. Waters  and
Helen S. Mayberg
Allison C. Waters*
Affiliation:
Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Helen S. Mayberg
Affiliation:
Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Allison C. Waters, 101 Woodruff Circle, WMB 4205, Atlanta, GA 30303. E-mail: alliwaters@emory.edu
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Abstract

An ambition of depression biomarker research is to augment psychometric and cognitive assessment of clinically relevant phenomena with neural measures. Although such applications have been slow to arrive, we observe a steady evolution of the idea and anticipate emerging technologies with some optimism. To highlight critical themes and innovations in depression biomarker research, we take as our point of reference a specific research narrative. We begin with an early model of frontal-limbic dysfunction, which represents a conceptual shift from localized pathology to understanding symptoms as an emergent property of distributed networks. Over the decades, this model accommodates perspectives from neurology, psychiatry, clinical, and cognitive neuroscience, and preserves past insight as more complex methods become available. We also track the expanding mission of brain biomarker research: from the development of diagnostic tools to treatment selection algorithms, measures of neurocognitive functioning and novel targets for neuromodulation. To conclude, we draw from this particular research narrative future directions for biomarker research. We emphasize integration of measurement modalities to describe dynamic change in domain-general networks, and we speculate that a brain-based framework for psychiatric problems may dissolve classical diagnostic and disciplinary boundaries. (JINS, 2017, 23, 870–880)

Type
Section 3 – Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 23 , Special Issue 9-10: Special Issue: Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the International Neuropsychological Society , October 2017 , pp. 870 - 880
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2017 

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