PhD Simona Spinelli

 

Main Goals, Keywords

The focus of our research is to understand how exposure to stressful life events and genotype interact to increase the risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders. In particular, our interest is in understanding how differences in brain development may predispose certain individuals to major depression and anxiety disorders, and how these changes may be related to dysfunctions of the serotonin system. One goal is to help developing better pharmacological treatments for mood and anxiety disorders. To this aim, we use a translation approach, conducting research in depressed and healthy control subjects and, implementing animal models to investigated new pharmacological targets.

Keywords: Major depression, anxiety, translational research, serotonin, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), genetic, stress, pharmacology, animal model.

Group Members

1 group leader, 1 postdoc

Previous and current research

In humans, we are investigating the brain-behavior correlates of negative feedback processing using fMRI and how genetic differences may influence negative feedback processing in patients with major depression and controls. In mice, we use pharmacological fMRI to investigate whether stress and genotype alter serotonin receptor's function and functional connectivity between brain regions known to be important for antidepressant's action.

Techniques and Equipment

Behavioral and neuropsychological tests for humans and mice, pharmacological challenges, and neuroimaging (fMRI data analysis).

Selected Publications

• Goldberg, M., Spinelli, S., Joel, S., Pekar, J.J., Denckla, M.B., Mostofsky, S.H. Children with High Functioning Autism show increased prefrontal and temporal cortex activity during error monitoring. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. In press (2010).
• Spinelli, S., Chefer, S., Carson, R., Heilig, M., Suomi, S.J., Higley, J.D., Barr, C.S., Stein, E. Effects of early-life stress on 5-HT_1A receptors in juvenile Rhesus monkeys measured by PET. Biological Psychiatry, 67(12): 1146-53 (2010).
• Spinelli, S., Chefer, S., Suomi, S.J., Higley, J.D., Barr, C.S., Stein, E. Early life stress induces long-term morphological changes in primate brain. Archives of General Psychiatry 66 (6): 658-65 (2009).

Funding

Swiss National Science Foundation

URL

http://www.dcp.uzh.ch/index.html