Psychiatric and neurological disorders attributable to disorders of higher brain functions, such as cognition and emotion, are an issue of high social demand in Japan, which is increasingly affected by a declining birthrate, aging, and social tension. This Research Area aims at the creation of a novel technology for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy for psychiatric and neurological disorders.
More specifically, it targets research towards evidence-based objective diagnosis and curative therapy based on the understanding of molecular pathogenesis of psychiatric and neurological disorders that engender higher brain function disorders. Exemplary research objects include: development of diagnostic methods using, for example, biological markers, which are available as an objective index from biochemical or molecular genetic points of view, or functional markers such as non invasive brain imaging technology; analysis of animals used in disease modeling reproducing gene mutation or environmental change; and search for and identification of target molecules towards innovative drug development for implementing basic treatment.
This Research Area also deems important those studies that aim at organic fusion of different research areas or study methods, including clinical study for disorders vs. fundamental study like brain science, psychiatric disorder study vs. neurological disorder study, and intermediate phenotype analysis studies like brain imaging vs. gene analysis study, to advance these studies.