AIBN Seminar Series Rethinking Mental Illness: Insights from Brain Injury, the Power of Big Data, and the Renaissance of Psychedelic Therapy

We are pleased to present Dr. Lena Oestrich to speak on the topic: 

Rethinking Mental Illness: Insights from Brain Injury, the Power of Big Data, and the Renaissance of Psychedelic Therapy

When: Thursday 22nd February 2024

Where: AIBN level 1 Seminar room or online via zoom. Click here to join

Time: 11am-12pm

Abstract:

Decades of research have underscored the inherent heterogeneity characteristic of mental illness. This complexity poses significant challenges to the identification of biomarkers and the advancement of early, personalized therapeutic interventions. I will present a series of studies, which use innovative approaches aimed at improving our understanding of neuro-mechanistic underpinnings of mental illness, particularly depression. Specifically, I will discuss (1) the effects of ischemic stroke lesions on the brain associated with the development of depression (2) how big data provides better-powered studies and multimodal data required to unravel the complex nature of mental illness, and (3) the promising potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy to provide curative treatments for mental illness.

Bio:

I am a Group Leader at the Centre for Advanced imaging (CAI) within the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, at the University of Queensland. My primary research interest lies at the intersection of clinical neuroimaging and computational neuroscience. I am particularly interested in studying mental illness using big data and advanced, multimodal neuroimaging methods. More recently, one of my research areas focuses on the neural mechanisms underpinning psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, to improve our understanding of their profound potential to offer rapid and long-lasting relief from severe psychiatric symptoms.