About us
The Neurocognition and Emotion Across Disorders of the Brain (NEAD) Centre employs a multidisciplinary cognitive neuropsychiatric approach that bridges neuropsychology, clinical psychiatry, and neuroscience research to achieve our overarching vision to enhance cognitive health. Our research in NEAD Centre is structured around five core goals:
Goal 1: Identification of neurocognitive biomarkers of neuropsychiatric conditions
Misdiagnosis in psychiatry is a critical challenge that impedes early adequate treatment of patients with mental health conditions. The first goal is therefore to improve diagnostic accuracy in psychiatry by identifying reliable objective neurocognitive and psychophysiological biomarkers. Studies at the NEAD Centre have shown both common and distinct neurocognitive and psychophysiological profiles across psychiatric disorders. For example, virtual reality (VR) studies demonstrated that negative emotional reactivity is common across mood, psychosis, and personality disorders, but also that diagnosis-specific patterns of neurocognitive and psychophysiological responses emerge in certain social VR scenarios. Further, longitudinal twin studies revealed that individuals at familial risk for mood disorders exhibit altered fronto-limbic activity during emotional processing and reward anticipation, suggesting potential en-dophenotypes for vulnerability.
Goal 2: Understanding neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive impairment and trajectories
The structural and functional brain differences contributing to cognitive impairments in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions remain poorly understood, hindering the devel-opment of effective treatments. To address this challenge, the second goal in the NEAD Centre focuses on exploring structural and functional brain changes and uncovering the neurobiological mechanisms driving cognitive impairments and their trajectories across various psychiatric conditions. NEAD research has shown that cognitively impaired individuals with mood disorders exhibit reduced global white matter volume and regional grey matter reduction. They also show less recruitment of cognitive control networks coupled with exaggerated default mode network activity during cognitive challenges. Cognitive impairments scaled with cerebrospinal fluid levels of erythropoietin (EPO) and oxidative stress. However, the transdiagnostic relevance of these findings remains unclear, as do the roles of immune and stress response systems in cognitive impairments.
Goal 3: Neurocognitive screening tools and prophylactic affective cognitive training
Postpartum depression (PPD) affects 30–50% of women with a history of depression or bipolar disorder and 8% of those without prior depression. Despite its impact, no tools currently exist to reliably predict who will develop PPD and who will remain unaffected. We aim to develop and test innovative tools to screen for PPD risk and implement preventive strategies, particularly targeting high-risk groups such as expectant parents. NEAD studies demonstrated that negative cognitive biases in the perception of infant cues and emotion regulation difficulties during pregnancy predict PPD, highlighting the potential for early neurocognitive screening and prophylactic intervention.
Goal 4: Design and testing of novel pro-cognitive interventions
Cognitive impairment constitutes a pressing treatment target to improve the lives of patients and reduce societal costs. For over two decades, NEAD has focused on developing innovative treatments for cognitive impairments in neuropsychiatric disorders. Despite limited efficacy of pharmacological treatments in mood disorders and schizophrenia, our trials showed that erythropoietin (EPO) may improve some aspects of cognition, which is linked to hippocampal growth and neural network normalization. We also recently demonstrated that virtual reality-based cognitive remediation improves both cognition and daily functioning in mood and psychosis-spectrum disorders. However, it remains to be investigated whether combining these approaches can enhance neuroplasticity and achieve sustained cognitive benefits.
Goal 5: Large-scale initiatives to promote understanding of cognitive health
A comprehensive population-based initiative is needed to address the limited understanding of cognitive impairments, including their neurobiological, genetic, environmental, and psycho-social contributors. This will enable better identification of risk factors and inform targeted prevention and treatment strategies. A key research goal in NEAD is therefore to investigate factors influencing cognitive health through internet-based cognitive testing across neuropsychiatric groups and individuals with chronic somatic conditions, integrating socio-demographic and health data from the Danish Registers. The ICAT, co-developed with collaborators at the Technical University of Denmark and validated for mood disorders, enables scalable, population-wide studies, overcoming logistical barriers of in-person assessments.