Humans are innately social beings and, in almost all cultures, vocal communication is the dominant mode for social interactions. It is, therefore, not surprising that voices became the most salient auditory signal. We often use voices to communicate verbal information but voices are much more than that: they convey a wealth of socially relevant information about the speaker (e.g., age, sex, emotional state, social traits), which can be decoded from the briefest of utterances. Voices are, therefore, fundamental for social experience. My research is focused on understanding how humans make sens ..read more

Leandro Valiengo, University of Sao Paulo We are excited to share that the SIRS 2020 Research Fund Awardee, Leandro Valiengo, has agreed to a SIRS Q&A. View our questions and his answers below! What were you able to achieve with the SIRS Research Fund Award?  The negative symptoms of schizophrenia are very hard to treat and very disabling. If photobiomodulation is demonstrated to be effective in future clinical trials, then it may help patients and their families to cope with the disease and improve their life quality. How has your work shaped today's ongoing research?   T ..read more

Parsa Ravanfar, University of Melbourne I am a medical graduate and PhD candidate in neuropsychiatry, aiming to pursue a career in clinical psychiatry and neuroscience. During my clinical training, I learned about the large impact of schizophrenia on the individual and community, which attracted me to the research of schizophrenia. I am impressed by the complex phenomenology of psychosis and how little we still know about it. In my research, I am particularly passionate about the biological underpinnings of psychiatric illnesses, including schizophrenia. I believe that by understanding the c ..read more

Cecilie K. Lemvigh, Copenhagen University Hospital My interest in schizophrenia began already as a young university student and was motivated by a growing curiosity of how the human mind works. I am particularly interested in the developmental perspective on cognitive and brain maturation to examine trajectories leading to psychopathology. Currently, a precise understanding of the abnormal processes resulting in psychosis is lacking. I strongly believe that a better understanding of complex developmental trajectories may help progress the field in terms of more effective prevention programs ..read more

Cecilie K. Lemvig, Copenhagen University Hospital My interest in schizophrenia began already as a young university student and was motivated by a growing curiosity of how the human mind works. I am particularly interested in the developmental perspective on cognitive and brain maturation to examine trajectories leading to psychopathology. Currently, a precise understanding of the abnormal processes resulting in psychosis is lacking. I strongly believe that a better understanding of complex developmental trajectories may help progress the field in terms of more effective prevention programs ..read more

Maria Fransisca Alonso Sanchez, Western University One of the factors that has inspired me to work in psychosis and schizophrenia research is the challenge to improve the functional impairment of persons with schizophrenia and the current therapeutic approaches available. As a speech and language pathologist (SLP) I have a particular interest in the functionality, quality of life, and social inclusion of people, and as a researcher, I know that we must put efforts into generating evidence-based therapeutic mechanisms that help us to address these issues.   In this context, my work ..read more

Teresa Vargas, Northwestern University Psychotic disorders are complex, debilitating, and not very well understood. Symptoms are often debilitating, and the gaps in care are astonishing. Psychosis and severe mental illness take a toll on both an individual, and societal level. Though we experience the world on an individual level, structural, societal, and cultural features permeate everything that we do. In other words, our physical and social environments shape our every experience. Though our brains have evolved to be sensitive to the environments we inhabit, the degree of sensitivity var ..read more

Bobana Samardžija, University of Rijeka My interest in mental health research spawned from my surroundings - many of my friends and family are living with various mental illnesses, so I became very sensible to these issues from a young age. Every day we are making progress in researching major mental illnesses, but we still do not know how they start or what can be done from early stages to delay its progress. To provide some insight, our lab starts from the very beginning - from cells itself and its proteins. We rely on previous genetic research to identify possible gene candidates and inve ..read more

Sachin Nagendrappa, St. John's Medical College Hospital My interest in psychiatry started in medical school. I was fortunate to get a teacher Dr. Sanjay, a Psychiatrist who sparked my interest in the field of psychosis. As Dr. Sanjay knew my interest in psychiatry, he would take me to government-run mental health rehabilitation centers where most people with untreated psychosis were admitted. During the visits, he taught me about Schizophrenia in detail and I saw the majority of patients with severe symptoms whom he treated were getting better and also realized the stigma they face and sever ..read more

E. Fuller Torrey When I was in college I was introduced to schizophrenia by my younger sister, Rhoda, who was so diagnosed at age 17. As a young psychiatrist I was introduced to infectious agents as a possible cause of schizophrenia by Dr. Carlton Gajdusek, who was subsequently awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on prion diseases of the brain. From the 1890s until the 1920s there had been some interest in infectious agents as a possible cause of schizophrenia, especially after the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic which was followed by many cases of a schizophrenia-like psychosis. However, for th ..read more