Hauptinhalt
Under the topic of “Resilience & Adaptation”, we study why some individuals remain mentally healthy despite genetic or environmental risk factors for psychiatric disorders. Resilience is conceptualized not simply as the absence of symptoms, but as a set of adaptive processes that limit the impact of stress, adversity, and psychosis liability on everyday functioning. This work integrates neuroimaging, genetics, and clinical assessment to identify markers and mechanisms of psychological and biological resilience.
A key research focus is on individuals who carry an elevated polygenic risk for schizophrenia or other major psychiatric conditions, yet do not develop manifest illness. By examining brain structure, network organization, and cognitive characteristics in these individuals, our group aims to identify protective patterns that counterbalance risk-related alterations. For example, specific configurations of hippocampal volume, prefrontal integrity, or network connectivity may support adaptive emotion regulation and cognitive flexibility, even in the presence of vulnerability factors.
We also study subclinical and remitted depression to understand how adaptation occurs across the affective spectrum. Research suggests that structural and functional features, such as hippocampal volume, may reflect not only illness-related change but also compensatory processes associated with recovery or protection from relapse. By linking such imaging markers to longitudinal symptom trajectories and psychosocial variables, we aim to distinguish state-dependent changes from more stable resilience indicators.
On the psychological and behavioural level, we explore how coping styles, cognitive styles, and social resources interact with biological factors. This includes investigating how flexible thinking, emotion regulation skills, and supportive environments modulate the relationship between genetic liability and symptom expression. Dimensional models also play a role here, as resilience is studied across continuous distributions of risk and symptomatology rather than only in extreme groups.
Genetic studies within this topic draw on emerging concepts such as polygenic resilience scores, which quantify genetic variants associated with better-than-expected outcomes given a high-risk background. By integrating these scores with imaging and clinical data, we aim to contribute to a new paradigm where resilience is viewed as partially heritable and biologically instantiated, rather than purely psychosocial.
Another overarching goal is to translate insights on resilience into preventive and therapeutic strategies. This includes identifying individuals who may benefit from early psychosocial interventions, as well as developing resilience-informed targets for psychotherapy and brain-based interventions. In the long term, we aim to encourage psychiatry moving towards models that prioritize not only symptom reduction but also the promotion of enduring mental health in the face of chronic stressors and vulnerability.