Psych · Foundations — basic neuroscience for psychiatry
Basic neuroscience for psychiatry
Also known as Psychiatric neuroscience · Biological psychiatry foundations · Neurobiology for psychiatrists · Brain networks psychiatry · Synaptic plasticity psychiatry · RDoC neuroscience · Neuroimaging for psychiatrists
Exam-exhaustive fellowship foundation on basic neuroscience for psychiatry: neuron and synapse, transmitter systems, LTP/LTD plasticity, large-scale networks (DMN, salience, frontoparietal), methods (MRI/fMRI, EEG, PET occupancy, lesions), and translation to clinical syndromes without chemical-imbalance oversimplification. FRANZCP-primary, globally tagged.
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Red flags
- New psychosis or behavioural change with fever, seizures, dysautonomia, or focal neurology — organic/autoimmune work-up, not 'pure functional' labelling
- Fluctuating attention and arousal — treat as delirium/network failure until proven otherwise
- Do not use group-level fMRI or GWAS findings as individual diagnostic tests
- Never explain antidepressants to patients solely as 'fixing a serotonin deficiency'
- NMDA-antagonist psychotomimesis and therapeutic ketamine are context- and dose-dependent — do not conflate them in viva answers
- Neuroscience never replaces structured suicide and violence risk assessment
Meet the patient — and the question her mother asks
A 19-year-old is admitted with a first episode of psychosis. She is frightened, hearing a voice narrating her actions, and convinced the traffic lights are signalling to her about her.[4][17]
Her mother waits until you are alone and asks the question every family asks: "Is it a chemical imbalance?"[6][17]
You need an answer that is true, honest and useful — one that names dopamine without lying, admits genetics without prophesying, and gets the family back to the treatment plan. This topic is that answer, at five levels.[4][6][18]
References18ShowHide
- [1]Bliss TV, Lomo T Long-lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate area of the anaesthetized rabbit following stimulation of the perforant path J Physiol, 1973.PMID 4727084
- [2]Malenka RC, Bear MF LTP and LTD: an embarrassment of riches Neuron, 2004.PMID 15450156
- [3]Scoville WB, Milner B Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesions J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 1957.PMID 13406589
- [4]Howes OD, Kapur S The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia: version III--the final common pathway Schizophr Bull, 2009.PMID 19325164
- [5]Abi-Dargham A, Rodenhiser J, Printz D, et al. Increased baseline occupancy of D2 receptors by dopamine in schizophrenia Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2000.PMID 10884434
- [6]Nestler EJ, Barrot M, DiLeone RJ, et al. Neurobiology of depression Neuron, 2002.PMID 11931738
- [7]Duman RS, Monteggia LM A neurotrophic model for stress-related mood disorders Biol Psychiatry, 2006.PMID 16631126
- [8]Santarelli L, Saxe M, Gross C, et al. Requirement of hippocampal neurogenesis for the behavioral effects of antidepressants Science, 2003.PMID 12907793
- [9]Berman RM, Cappiello A, Anand A, et al. Antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients Biol Psychiatry, 2000.PMID 10686270
- [10]Zarate CA Jr, Singh JB, Carlson PJ, et al. A randomized trial of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in treatment-resistant major depression Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2006.PMID 16894061
- [11]Krystal JH, Karper LP, Seibyl JP, et al. Subanesthetic effects of the noncompetitive NMDA antagonist, ketamine, in humans. Psychotomimetic, perceptual, cognitive, and neuroendocrine responses Arch Gen Psychiatry, 1994.PMID 8122957
- [12]Drevets WC, Price JL, Simpson JR Jr, et al. Subgenual prefrontal cortex abnormalities in mood disorders Nature, 1997.PMID 9126739
- [13]Mayberg HS, Lozano AM, Voon V, et al. Deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression Neuron, 2005.PMID 15748841
- [14]Raichle ME, MacLeod AM, Snyder AZ, et al. A default mode of brain function Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2001.PMID 11209064
- [15]Menon V Large-scale brain networks and psychopathology: a unifying triple network model Trends Cogn Sci, 2011.PMID 21908230
- [16]Logothetis NK, Pauls J, Augath M, et al. Neurophysiological investigation of the basis of the fMRI signal Nature, 2001.PMID 11449264
- [17]Insel T, Cuthbert B, Garvey M, et al. Research domain criteria (RDoC): toward a new classification framework for research on mental disorders Am J Psychiatry, 2010.PMID 20595427
- [18]Sullivan PF, Kendler KS, Neale MC Schizophrenia as a complex trait: evidence from a meta-analysis of twin studies Arch Gen Psychiatry, 2003.PMID 14662550