Brain Signaling in Psychiatric Disorders: What Can They Tell Us in the Absence of Behavioral Differences?

Jodi M. Gilman^1,2, James M. Bjork³, Timothy E. Wilens^2,4

¹Center for Addiction Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
²Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
³Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
⁴Clinical and Research Programs in Pediatric Psychopharmacology, Adult ADHD Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/jbbs.2015.58033                

Abstract

This is a commentary on the often-observed phenomenon of observing task-based brain signaling differences between clinical populations and healthy control participants in the absence of any behavioral decrements in the clinical group. We offer several explanations for why brain-based differences amid normative performance may be of interest to researchers and clinicians. First, neural processing in the clinical group may not be as efficient as that in the control group. Second, differences in activation could reveal important differences in the cognition behind the (normative) behavior. Third, differences in activation may be prognostic biomarkers of injury or decline. In addition, we contend that similar behavior between groups is important in properly interpreting brain data. Finally, we offer caveats and future directions to further clarify brain mechanisms underlying behavior in clinical populations.

Keywords

fMRI, Neuroimaging, Normative Behavior, Normative Performance, Neural Efficiency, Prognostic Biomarker

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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