Neuroimaging

Section committee

PIGONI Alessandro , Chair

ENRICO Paolo, Co-Chair

ROSSETTI Maria Gloria, Secretary

BELLANI Marcella, Councillor

MAGGIONI Eleonora, First Other Councillor

BRAMBILLA Paolo, Second Other Councillor

Section mission

This Section's mission is to:

The EPA Section of Neuroimaging means at inspiring a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders employing multimodal neuroimaging techniques. Advances in MRI techniques in particular have made it possible to elucidate brain network dysfunction and neurostructural changes in psychiatric disorders. The neuroimaging investigation will contribute to improving risk assessment, diagnosis, treatment and outcome prediction in major psychiatric disorders.

Section objectives

Our Section aims to promote the knowledge and diffusion of neuroimaging techniques to explore the location and amplitude of morpho-functional changes of the brain in psychiatric diseases.
To improve the evaluation of validity and reliability of neuroimaging biomarkers.
To boost learning on connections between neurobiology symptomatology, cognition and global functioning to mitigate the impact of the mental disease on the people’ quality of life.
To promote testing of specific hypotheses regarding the functional integrity of neural systems implicated in cognition by using ad-hoc tasks designed for functional MRI.
To promote longitudinal neuroimaging research on at-risk populations to study the timing and development of neurobiological changes associated with the onset of psychiatric disorders and, ultimately,
To improve cooperation between practitioners and scientists for the application of neuroimaging techniques in psychiatry (e.g. enrich knowledge about the potential advantages of applying neuroimaging
To collaborate with European consortia on data sharing for high-quality mega-analyses, and, thereby, to increase the quality and reliability of the research findings.
To improve machine learning, artificial intelligence methods and statistical learning in psychiatric neuroimaging for diagnosis classification and prediction of treatment response and prognosis.

Annual reports

Future Activities

symposium

34th European Congress of Psychiatry; 28-31 March 2026, Prague, Czech Republic

31 March 2026 - 31 March 2026 / Prague

Description :

Organized by the section of Neuroimaging and the section of Digital Psychiatry

Title: Loneliness in a digital world: from neurobiology to interventions

Partners :

Chair: Umberto Volpe (Italy)

Co-Chair: Marcella Bellani (Italy)

Speakers:

- Siirnaz Kukurt (Türkiye): Formulating Hikikomori: Social Withdrawal in the Digital Age.

- Maria Gloria Rossetti (Italy): Digital Interventions for Socially Isolated Youth: Exploring Clinical and Cognitive Outcomes from an Italian Multicentric Study.

- Laura Orsolini (Italy): Treatment of social withdrawal and digital addictions.

- Leonhard Schilbach (Germany): Using fMRI-guided TMS to modulate social cognition in adults with/without autism.

symposium

34th European Congress of Psychiatry; 28-31 March 2026, Prague, Czech Republic

31 March 2026 - 31 March 2026 / Prague

Description :

Organized by the section of Neuroimaging and the section of Consultation Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics

Title: Pain disorders: a mind and body perspective

Partners :

Chair: Giorgio Mattei (Italy)

Co-Chair: Paolo Brambilla (Italy)

Speakers:

- Cecilia Maria Esposito (Italy): Lived illness experience in fibromyalgia.

- Krzysztof Krysta (Poland): Recognizing atypical depression in patients with chronic pain syndromes in general hospitals.

- Cinzia Perlini (Italy): Interaction between psychological features and response to antalgic treatments in chronic pain.

- Diogo Telles Correia (Portugal): How can brain imaging reshape our understanding of chronic pain?

symposium

34th European Congress of Psychiatry; 28-31 March 2026, Prague, Czech Republic

31 March 2026 - 31 March 2026 / Prague

Description :

Organized by the section of Neuroimaging and the section of Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities

Title: Factors of risks and resilience in bipolar disorders: from biomarkers to treatments

Partners :

Chair: Judit Balazs (Hungary)

Co-Chair: Paolo Brambilla (Italy)

Speakers:

- Annabel Vreeker (Netherlands): Mood and Resilience in Offspring; the impact of type, severity and timing of exposure to parental psychopathology

- Jair Soares (United States): Viable Biomarkers of Disease in Bipolar Disorders

- Eleonora Maggioni (Italy): Stratification prediction of bipolar disorders using multimodal measures

- Manpreet Singh (United States): Building on the Science of Resilience in Youth at Familial Risk for Bipolar Disorder