Medical conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis, HIV, Dementia, Schizophrenia and some forms of Depression may share pathological characteristics such as neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation leading to specific psychiatric cognitive, mood and behavioural symptoms. Neuroimaging techniques such as MRI and fMRI have become essential in studying the molecular underpinnings of these higher cognitive functions, emotion processing and behaviour. This talk will focus on 1) the shared pathology of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation inducing neuropsychiatric symptoms across disorders; 2) the neuroimaging techniques used to display such neuropathologies and 3) the clinical and therapeutic implications.

Unravelling these underlying key pathologies involving neuroimaging techniques plays an important part of identifying biomarkers, developing new therapies and preventative strategies.