Dissertation / PhD Thesis FZJ-2026-02256

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Computational Modelling of Brain Network Dynamics in Psychotic and Affective Disorders



2025

143 pp. () = Dissertation, Universität zu Köln, 2025

Abstract: his dissertation explores the role of dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) as an intermediate phenotype linking neurobiological characteristics and clinical outcomes in psychotic and affective disorders. The thesis aims to reveal alterations in dFC in psychotic and affective patients, study the impact of neurobiology on static and dynamic FC patterns, and identify neurobiological processes which might contribute to static and dynamic FC changes in psychotic and affective disorder. Study I, which compared dFC patterns of patients with recent-onset psychosis (ROP), patients with recent-onset depression (ROD), individuals with a clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR), and healthy individuals, found diagnosis-specific alterations in ROP and ROD patients as well as transdiagnostic alterations exhibited by all patient groups. We also identified a dFC pattern which was significantly correlated with psychosis symptom severity across the patient groups. Study II investigated the relationship between neurobiological characteristics and static and dynamic FC using brain network modelling, identifying FC correlates of global coupling and excitatory synaptic coupling, as well as model fits. In addition, this study investigated the effect of altering regional model parameters on global FC, showing that distinct small subsets of regions produced outsized effects on static and dynamic FC and regional effects were correlated with network structure. Study III employed brain network modelling of static and dynamic FC to reveal an increase in regional recurrent excitation in CHR individuals and ROD patients compared to healthy controls and ROP patients. Integrating the findings from these three studies, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of the role of dFC in psychotic and affective disorders, providing evidence for neurobiological underpinnings and clinical consequences of alterations to dFC.


Note: Dissertation, Universität zu Köln, 2025

Contributing Institute(s):
  1. Kognitive Neurowissenschaften (INM-3)
Research Program(s):
  1. 5251 - Multilevel Brain Organization and Variability (POF4-525) (POF4-525)

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Institute Collections > INM > INM-3
Document types > Theses > Ph.D. Theses
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 Record created 2026-04-20, last modified 2026-04-20



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