No one likes when I toss that sentiment around which I do all the time, and my 3 readers know this…but there you have it. From the Director’s blog ( Thomas Insel , MD) at the National Institute of Mental Health, introduces how they are “defining mental illness as a disruption of neural circuits”.

If "mental disorders appear to be disorders of brain circuits" then it would follow that, “mapping patterns of cortical activity [would] reveal mechanisms of mental function that are just not apparent by observing behavior.” Meaning, perhaps the behavior we see, is a result of a developmental circumstance - going beyond chemical imbalances.

So, the debates start, as they do, mainly relying on what we don’t know yet from neuroscience. Lot’s of questions, lots of room for research and lots of funding! (no, just kidding). But what we do have is this: various neuroimaging techniques have made it possible to identify biomarkers, or “patterns that predict response to treatment or possibly reflect changes in physiology prior to changes in behavior or mood”. A deeper knowledge of underlying neural circuitry in developmental stages can change the way we understand behavior, diagnose and develop treatments.

could imaging allow earlier detection and preemption of the behavioral and cognitive changes – from the social isolation of autism to the psychosis of schizophrenia? This preemptive approach, which has transformed outcomes in heart disease and cancer, could also transform psychiatry, by focusing on prevention for those at risk rather than the partial amelioration of symptoms late in the process. Via An important implication of this new approach is that abnormal behavior and cognition (e.g. mood, attention) may be late and convergent outcomes of altered brain development. This is a familiar lesson from neurodegenerative disorders: the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases emerge years after changes in the brain. Could the same be true of these circuit disorders that appear early in life? If so,– from the social isolation of autism to the psychosis of schizophrenia? This preemptive approach, which has transformed outcomes in heart disease and cancer, could also transform psychiatry, by

Game changa.