Unifying top-down and bottom-up error signals: a role for interneurons and neuromodulation across psychiatric disorders

Over 950 million people worldwide are affected by mental disorders, with those individuals having a 2.22 times higher mortality rate than the general population; highlighting the importance of gaining a better understanding of their physio-pathological mechanisms to improve their treatment and prevent their occurrence. The aetiology and pathogenesis of most psychiatric diseases remain unclear but are undoubtedly multifactorial, and affect the brain's components as well as its dynamic processes. For instance, various studies have correlated inhibitory interneurons (IN) activity disruption to schizophrenic and depressive disorders in human postmortem and rodent models. GABAergic inhibitory interneurons (IN) are the main components of several neocortical microcircuits, in combination with the principal neocortical excitatory cells, the pyramidal (Pyr) neurons.
This project falls within the EPSRC research areas of "Artificial intelligence technologies" and "Biological informatics".