Grant: Project Grant

Schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are severe mental illnesses affecting 1% of the population, associated with significant disability and reduced quality of life. Traditional approaches to examining the neurobiology of mental illnesses such as SSD have largely relied on 'case-control comparisons', examining average differences between groups of individuals with an SSD and 'control' samples. While this approach has been informative, even advanced methods such as neuroimaging case-control comparisons have failed to provide the hoped for breakthroughs in understanding the neurobiology of SSD. A core challenge has been individual variability; case control comparisons assume within group similarity and consistent differences between groups. But even within healthy individuals, high variability is the rule rather than the exception. As a result of a limited appreciation for individual variability and a tendency for research studies to examine specific but limited measures of brain function in isolation, we have struggled to build new diagnostic tools and clinical interventions. We have gathered a large and diverse team of investigators representing major Canadian research centres from coast-to-coast. We will gather a large, multi-site, multi-modal structural and functional neuroimaging dataset on SSD and 'controls' using data from existing and ongoing studies. We will use state of the art data preprocessing and statistical analytical tools to examine heterogeneity in SSD. This one of a kind large and well characterized dataset will allow novel examinations of brain structure and function, and represent a valuable resource for the research team to conduct a series of studies into the neurobiology of SSD. Further, this initiative will serve as a bridge across several Canadian research centres doing neuroimaging in SSD, build future collaborative efforts, and enhance open science efforts across Canada.