Martina was a PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, and part of the imaging group at the Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT). She completed her PhD in 2022.

Bio:
My PhD research is part of Dr. Tobias Kaufmann’s project “A lifespan perspective on mental illness: toward robust translational psychiatry using multimodal brain imaging and genetics (LifespanHealth). Here, brain disorders across the lifespan are examined, using data driven methods with a big data approach in an effort to ascertain the intermediate endophenotypes and the role of genetics in brain disorders.

A more basic understanding of the factors that influence the brain’s neural circuits can provide more knowledge about the biological basis for neurodiversity. As part of this PhD project, we aim to contribute with analyses on lifespan changes in brain networks and examine associations between functional connectivity and variables such as age, sex, cognitive abilities, and psychopathology. Communication between networks is examined in large datasets by applying novel statistical methods and pattern recognition approaches to functional imaging data. In this manner we can examine the extent to which developmental and age-related processes in the brain change the connection between networks, and how this is associated with mental health. As effective communication between different parts of the brain is a key feature of normal brain function, and conditions that affect these brain networks can cause different symptoms and difficulties, examining the functional connectome could potentially be of aid in producing robust characteristics of mental disorders that help to inform in the diagnosis and treatment response.