Application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Diseases

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on the recent advances in the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of mental diseases. In recent years, the field has made extraordinary progress in to identify imaging biomarkers as potential tools to improve the prevention, diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of mental diseases. For example, different studies have attempted to use neuroimaging biomarkers for treatment response in psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorders using brain volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (resting-state and affective tasks), diffusion tensor imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, near-infrared spectroscopy, and molecular imaging (i.e., positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography). Some plausible regions for therapeutic response in major depressive disorders with their subsequent activation or structural normalization effect after treatment have emerged, namely the prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, and insula. However, issues related to sample size and differences in imagining techniques remain unresolved due to inconclusive findings. 

Potentially the use of neuroimaging biomarkers can also be clinically useful for their application to new biostatistical methods such as machine learning. This integration of artificial intelligence with 1H-MRS and 31P-MRS Brain Spectroscopy data could be a pivotal stride towards personalized medicine. Consequently, this not only enables the evaluation of drug efficacy and the development of new treatment strategies, but also the overall customization of effective drug treatment strategies.

In this Special Issue, we welcome preclinical and clinical studies that underscore the application of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of mental diseases using potential biomarkers to provide a better understanding of the pathophysiology and effective ways to personalize treatment in mental diseases as well as provide new insights into pharmacology in the psychiatric field.

Dr. Deborah A. Yurgelun-Todd
Dr. Douglas Kondo
Dr. Nicolas A Nunez
Dr. Perry Franklin Renshaw
Guest Editors

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• neuroimaging
• biomarkers
• 1h-mrs
• 31p-mrs
• brain spectroscopy
• mood disorders