Contact Us:
Mood Disorders Laboratory
Northwestern University
Cresap Hall Rm 321
mdlab@northwestern.edu
Lab: 847-467-4143
Overview
Mood disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder can have a dramatic impact on a person’s life. The World Health Organization considers major depressive disorder to be the leading cause of disability worldwide, and bipolar disorder to be the 6th leading cause of disability. Research in the Mood Disorders Laboratory (MDL) is devoted to examining the causes and consequences of mood disorders from an integrative biopsychosocial perspective. Current projects focus on examining abnormalities in positive emotion, reward-processing, and reward-related brain function in mood disorders. The goal of this research is threefold:
1) Increase our understanding of the etiology of hypo/manic and depressive symptoms
2) Identify neurophysiological and neurobiological markers to help identify and differentiate depression and bipolar disorder
3) Inform the development of neurally inspired interventions for depression and bipolar disorder
A related focus of the MDL is integrating cognitive models of depression and bipolar disorder with neurobiological perspectives. Research in the MDL takes a multi-modal perspective involving psychosocial indices, neurophysiology (EEG, ERP) and neuroimaging (fMRI).
