Introduction

  Affective disorders comprise both those neuropsychiatric conditions that are associated with obvious changes of brain structure (organic affective disorders) as well as those that may only be associated with subtle structural changes (endogenous/psycho-reactive disorders). Unipolar depressive and bipolar disorders are widely conceived of as affective disorders. Socially inappropriate behaviour is a common symptom of manic episodes and there is a close link between affect and social behaviour. Socially inappropriate behaviour can also occur in people with brain lesions such as frontotemporal dementia.  

 Our long-term aim is to use translational cognitive neuroscience models of affective disorders to develop novel approaches to their nosology, prevention, and treatment.

By improving our understanding of mood disorders for example, we expect to deliver more precise predictors of prognosis which can be used in decision support systems to personalise treatment, as well as to develop hypothesis-driven neurocognitive treatments such as fMRI neurofeedback. 

 Our research mainly focusses on understanding the cognitive-anatomical underpinnings of major depression and of inappropriate social behaviour in neuropsychiatric conditions. We also work on innovative risk prediction tools, assessment methods, and personalised treatments based on our research into the neurocognitive architecture of social knowledge and moral motivations. Overlapping fronto-temporo-mesolimbic neural networks are involved in knowing about the needs of others or socio-cultural norms (i.e. social knowledge) as well as feeling motivated to act upon them (i.e. moral motivations). This complex neural system supports our ability to interpret our own as well as other people's behaviour and to guide our actions accordingly. 

One of the challenges that we face every day is the attribution of causal agency to ourselves (i.e. self-blame or -praise) or others (i.e. other-blame, or -praise). This attribution of causal agency determines how we feel about failure or success and this is of core importance to our overall affective state. Our work has aimed at identifying the neuroanatomical basis of self-blaming (guilt), other-blaming (indignation),  self-praising (pride), and other-praising (gratitude) feelings. We have applied these new insights for example to the understanding of vulnerability to major depression which is associated with overgeneralized self-blame and to the loss of the ability to anticipate self-blame in frontotemporal dementia.