Introduction N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (NMDAR) hypofunction is hypothesised to underlie psychosis but this has not been tested early in illness. Objectives Our aim was to determine if NMDAR availability was lower in patients with first episode psychosis compared to healthy controls. Methods To address this, we studied 40 volunteers (21 patients with first episode psychosis and 19 matched...
Abstract Background The neurobiological mechanisms underlying the effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) remain unclear. Here, we examined the spatial acute effect of THC on human on regional brain activation or blood flow (hereafter called ‘activation signal’) in a ‘core’ network of brain regions that subserve a multitude of processes. We also investigated whether the neuromodulatory...
Abstract N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) hypofunction is hypothesised to underlie psychosis but this has not been tested early in illness. To address this, we studied 40 volunteers (21 patients with first-episode psychosis and 19 matched healthy controls) using PET imaging with an NMDAR selective ligand, [18F]GE-179, that binds to the ketamine binding site to index its distribution volume...
One of the main limitations of pharmacological fMRI is its inability to provide a molecular insight into the main effect of compounds, leaving an open question about the relationship between drug effects and haemodynamic response. The aim of this study is to investigate the acute effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on functional connectivity (FC) using a novel multimodal method...