Through brain imaging and laboratory research, Brigham investigators are examining how lithium affects the brain at the individual neuron and brain-circuit levels. Psychiatrist Amit Anand, MD, explains how it may increase the growth of certain areas of the brain and influence the organ functionally and structurally.

Kathryn V. Papp, PhD, and Reisa A. Sperling, MD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues recently determined that very early Alzheimer’s disease is associated with a decline in existing measures of processing speed and memory retrieval.

Ofer Pasternak, PhD, and Johanna Seitz-Holland, MD, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues conducted the first study to compare white matter in 22q-del and 22q-dup, and report finding opposing abnormalities that might indicate distinct pathologies.

Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a novel brain mapping method that suggests lesions, TMS and DBS converge on a common brain circuit for depression—which may represent a better target for therapeutic neurostimulation. The approach seems to be generalizable to other neuropsychiatric diseases.

By using a newer technique called lesion network mapping, Michael Ferguson, PhD, Michael D. Fox, MD, PhD, of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues have identified a specific brain circuit that seems to be a neural substrate for spirituality and religiosity.