David Linden (D.E.J.)
David Linden is Professor of Translational Neuroscience and Scientific Director of the School for Mental Health and Neuroscience. He is a psychiatrist at Maastricht University Medical Centre. His specialist clinical areas include neuropsychiatry, genetic syndromes in psychiatry, mood disorders, psychosis and alcohol dependence. His research focuses on mechanisms and treatment of mental and neurodegenerative disorders. His group combines neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience, genetics and clinical research in order to develop new biological models and find new treatment targets. Research is conducted along four thematic lines:
1. Genetic imaging - using neuroimaging and neurophysiology data from large population or patient cohorts to understand mechanisms of genetic risk. We collaborate with the Maastricht Study, a unique resource of deep phenotyping data from middle-aged to older people, including neuroimaging.
2. Clinical neurofeedback - developing and evaluating functional MRI-based neurofeedback protocols for depression, Parkinson's disease, addiction, eating disorders and chronic pain. This work, conducted in close collaboration with the group of Professor Rainer Goebel (FPN), was funded by the European Commission's FP7 programme through the BRAINTRAIN consortium (www.braintrainproject.eu) and is now funded by the Joint Programme Neurodegenerative Diseases (NEURIPIDES consortium: https://neuripides.eu/). It is also linked to the Gravitation programme "New Science of Mental Disorders" coordinated by Prof Anita Jansen (FPN).
3. Translational research on copy number variants - studying the mechanisms from gene to clinical phenotype of these highly penetrant risk variants for neurodevelopmental disorders. This work is linked to several international initiatives, including the MINDDS COST action (https://mindds.eu/), the Genes to Mental Health network (https://genes2mentalhealth.com/) and the EC-funded STREAMLINE project (https://streamlineproject.rs).
4. Mechanisms of psychopathology - investigating symptoms such as hallucinations or mood fluctuations with neurophysiology (EEG), neuroimaging (functional MRI) and experience sampling methodology (ESM). Collaboration with the group of Prof Sonja Kotz at FPN and with ESM groups internationally.
