Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

In Canada, the burden of mental illness is more than 1.5 times that of all cancers. Social anxiety disorder and schizophrenia are among the most debilitating illnesses worldwide and place a substantial financial burden on the Canadian health care system. Perhaps surprisingly, these two disorders often co-occur and share remarkable similarities. Both are characterized by social avoidance, maladaptive thought patterns, irrational fears, and enhanced processing of threatening stimuli. Both conditions also share similar genes, neurochemistry, and abnormal brain activity. My research aims to investigate the neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms that account for enhanced threat response in social anxiety and paranoia. Identification of novel biomarkers that explain this overlap in pathology can lead to more effective treatments. Participants in this study will complete measures of threat sensitivity, using electroencephalograph (EEG) and eye-tracking technology to tap brain mechanisms involved in threat processing, as well as measures of coping strategies, flexible thinking, and social skills. My research project can help identify specific cognitive and neural mechanisms that will help explain differences in the manifestation of symptoms in these two disorders. The results of this study will provide a fuller understanding of the mechanisms that relate to everyday behaviour, as it is the underlying brain mechanisms and presenting clinical features, not simply diagnosis, that act as a barrier to functional recovery in Canadians with mental health problems. Identifying underlying mechanisms of illness will improve knowledge about the treatment of chronic mental disorders. The promotion and dissemination of evidence-based research can aid future endeavours in the prevention and treatment of mental illness, ultimately increasing the health of Canadians.