LABORATORY OF CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE, BEHAVIOR AND NEUROTECHNOLOGIES
Institute Structure
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Head of the Laboratory
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Chief Research Scientist, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
Lyubomir I. Aftanas
ORCID: 0000-0003-3605-5452
RSCI AuthorID: 81023
Scopus ID: 7003280598
Web of Science Researcher IDF-7082-2015
Research Directions
The laboratory’s research direction is biological psychiatry, with the methodological platform grounded in the concept of "precision mental health" based on research domain criteria. According to these criteria, the study of mental disorders is carried out by integrating biological, behavioral, and genetic data using a matrix of functional domains (negative valence, positive valence, cognitive functions, social processes, arousal/regulatory systems, sensorimotor systems, stress and emotion regulation, consciousness management) and units of analysis (genes, molecules, cells, neuronal networks, physiology, behavior, self-reports) to assess processes along the continuum from health to disease.
The objects include healthy individuals and patients.
The research methodology adopts a translational approach, explaining pathology in terms of the degree of deviation from fundamental normative parameters of the systems under study.
The goal of translation is to assess the potential for application and clinical implementation of neurobiological biotyping methods for the diagnosis and subtyping of depressive and related anxiety disorders as a basis for personalizing individual choices of therapeutic and preventive interventions.
The objects include healthy individuals and patients.
The research methodology adopts a translational approach, explaining pathology in terms of the degree of deviation from fundamental normative parameters of the systems under study.
The goal of translation is to assess the potential for application and clinical implementation of neurobiological biotyping methods for the diagnosis and subtyping of depressive and related anxiety disorders as a basis for personalizing individual choices of therapeutic and preventive interventions.
Research Tasks
- Analysis of multimodal (molecular‑genetic, neurophysiological, neuroimaging, and neurovegetative) endophenotypes and markers of the individual organization of functional brain domains / mental health matrices and of the brain‑body‑consciousness interactions; assessment of their contribution to the pathogenetic mechanisms of affective (depression, anxiety spectrum disorders), neurodegenerative, and psychosomatic diseases.
- Exploratory and translational studies in healthy individuals and patients aimed at developing personalized biomedical psychoneurotechnologies of non‑invasive brain stimulation (including immersive technologies, e.g., virtual reality) – diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic – in the field of mental health and brain‑body‑consciousness interactions. The research is based on the concept of “neuroenhancement” using non‑invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) of the brain's main information‑processing systems by mobilizing the mechanisms of perception, attention, conceptualization, memory, thinking, motor functions, emotional competence, and emotion regulation.
- In patients with affective pathology (depression, anxiety spectrum disorders including OCD), chronic pain, chronic insomnia, post-stroke conditions, and neurodegenerative diseases – development of effective NIBS technologies personalized under the control of genetic, neurophysiological, humoral, and neuroimmune markers/predictors of individual response to stimulation, aimed at improving neuronal plasticity, resilience, slowing disease‑related decline of cognitive‑emotional competence, and optimizing neuroimmune status.
- In healthy individuals – development of effective NIBS technologies (rTMS, transcranial alternating and direct current stimulation – tACS and tDCS), personalized under the control of genetic, neurophysiological, humoral, and neuroimmune markers/predictors of individual response to stimulation. These are aimed at achieving peak performance in the mental, emotional, and motor domains, increasing resilience, slowing age‑related degradation of neuronal plasticity and cognitive decline, thereby ensuring effective functioning and extending active healthy longevity.
- Development of personalized technologies for transforming maladaptive cognitive‑affective stress response strategies (emotion‑oriented and avoidance coping) into adaptive strategies (task‑oriented coping) in healthy individuals and patients with anxiety‑depressive and psychosomatic disorders, using patterned forms of rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) under the control of genetic, neurophysiological, humoral, and neuroimmune predictors of individual response to this stimulation.
- Study of neurobiological markers and endophenotypes of altered states of consciousness (during an acute meditation session), the effects of long-term meditation practice, as well as endophenotypes of a predisposition to voluntary regulation of emotions and somatic reactions.
Staff