Juliane Kopf

Full member:  November 2010 - January 2014

Dissertation title: Differences  in severity of bipolar disorder: neuropsychological and genetic determinants.

Abstract: Bipolar Disorder is a disorder characterized by severe dysfunctions in mood regulation presenting itself as oscillating manic and depressive states. Impairments of working memory and general cognitive function have been reported even in the euthymic phase of the illness. The aim of this PhD project is it to develop a method to distinguish the underlying mechanisms that cause some patients to be severely impaired even in their euthymic phases from those patients who are able to live normal lives even though suffering from terrible acute symptoms in the acute phases. The idea is to use a verbal n-back paradigm using emotional stimuli to test whether differences in performance might be modified by altered perception and processing of emotional cues. Considering the high heritability of BPD, it is likely that genetic variants play a role in the development of BPD. One promising risk gene is DGKH . The risk haplotype is genotyped in all participants and it is tested whether this influences performance or blood flow in the brain. We also want to use the genotyping to control for genetic influences on the severity of the disorder, and with this draw a line from the molecular basis of the disorder, test for endophenotypes such as brain oxygenation and combine that with the phenotype of cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder. For the brain oxygenation measurement, it is planned to administer near infrared spectroscopy. This method has the additional advantage to be able to detect differences in the timeline of the activation. Bipolar Patients are often slower in their reaction to stimuli. Maybe this fact is attributed not only to the frontal hypometabolism, but also to a slower increase in the BOLD response.

Principal Investigator:

Prof. Dr. A. Reif

Dept. of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy
Psychiatric Neurobiology and Bipolar Disorder Program
Füchsleinstr. 15, 97080 Würzburg

Current position:

Klinik für Psychiatrie, Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik, Goethe Universität Frankfurt

http://www.psychiatrie.uni-frankfurt.de/mitarbeiter/index.html

Publications:

Kopf, J., Schecklmann, M., Hahn, T., Dresler, T., Dieler, A.C., Herrmann, M.J., Fallgatter, A.J., Reif, A., 2011. NOS1 ex1f-VNTR polymorphism influences prefrontal brain oxygenation during a working memory task. NeuroImage 57, 1617-1623.

Kopf, J, Schecklmann M, Hahn T, Dieler AC, Herrmann, MJ, Fallgatter AJ, Reif A. (in press). NOS1 ex1f-VNTR polymorphism affects prefrontal oxygenation during response inhibition tasks. Human Brain Mapping. 2011.

Weber, H., Kittel-Schneider, S., Gessner, A., Domschke, K., Neuner, M., Jacob, C.P., Buttenschon, H.N., Boreatti-Hummer, A., Volkert, J., Herterich, S., Baune, B.T., Gross-Lesch, S., Kopf, J., Kreiker, S., Nguyen, T.T., Weissflog, L., Arolt, V., Mors, O., Deckert, J., Lesch, K.-P., Reif, A., 2011. Cross-Disorder Analysis of Bipolar Risk Genes: Further Evidence of DGKH as a Risk Gene for Bipolar Disorder, but also Unipolar Depression and Adult ADHD. Neuropsychopharmacology.