WP3: Development of software for data analysis

Objectives of the Work Package

The main aim of PSYSCAN is to produce a tool for the analysis of neuroimaging and other data that would aid in the diagnosis and prediction of the trajectory of psychosis. If successful, this could identify those individuals at higher risk of becoming psychotic and the consequent concentration of treatment efforts on these people. My own work over the last few years has been in the use of machine learning ( pattern recognition) programmes for psychosis diagnosis/trajectory prediction but we have mainly concentrated on brain structure rather than function. The aim of WP3 is to build on the observation that there appears to be a problem with brain connectivity in schizophrenia and to develop machine learning methods that can operate in combination with methods for analysing connections between brain regions ( network analysis/connectivity analysis).

Description of the tasks

Professor Ed Bullmore at Cambridge is one of the major international authorities in the latter area. In WP3, Ed and I will work together to combine our expertise and develop ( in combination with IXICO) a tool for psychosis diagnosis/prediction that uses current state of the art practice in imaging/machine learning/network analysis.