# Understanding Functional Connectivity Abnormalities In Individual Patients with Psychosis

> **NIH NIH K01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2021 · $186,147

## Abstract

Abstract
This is an application for a K01 award for Dr. Danhong Wang, a physician-scientist at Massachusetts General
Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Wang is establishing herself as a young investigator in patient-
oriented neuroimaging research on psychiatric disorders. This K01 award will provide Dr. Wang with the
support necessary to accomplish the following goals: (1) to become an expert in patient-oriented research in
psychiatric neuroimaging; (2) to conduct experimental investigations of neurobiological correlates in patients
with psychosis; (3) to implement revolutionary individual-level functional mapping techniques in clinical
studies; and (4) to develop an independent clinical research career. To achieve these goals, Dr. Wang has
assembled a mentoring team comprised of three mentors: Dr. Dost Öngür, Chief of the McLean Hospital
Psychotic Disorders Division, who leads a neuroimaging laboratory studying the biology of psychotic illness;
Dr. Randy Buckner, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Harvard University and Director of
Psychiatric Neuroimaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the pioneers in functional MRI research;
and Dr. Suzanne Haber, Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester, a leading
scientist in the field of neuroanatomy. In addition, Dr. Hesheng Liu, Associate Professor of Radiology at
Harvard Medical School and a computational neuroscientist with expertise in functional imaging, will
collaborate on this project.
Dr. Wang will engage in multiple career development activities to expand her ability to develop mechanistic
insights about psychiatric disorders. These include new training in patient-oriented experimental research, a
better understanding of the psychopathology of psychosis, and a stronger grasp of neuroanatomy. She will also
receive advanced training in cognitive and clinical neuroscience.
Determining the disconnected neural circuits underlying psychosis has proved elusive. Dr. Wang's research
project aims to reveal circuitry abnormalities in psychotic patients using a subject-specific, cross-diagnostic
approach. In Aim 1, Dr. Wang will establish methods for accurately characterizing the cortical and subcortical
functional connectivity networks in individual patients. In Aim 2, leveraging a cross-diagnostic cohort of
psychotic patients that will be scanned using the protocol optimized for individual-level functional analyses, as
well as an existing patient data set, Dr. Wang will identify and validate cortical and subcortical functional
connectivity abnormalities related to the severity of psychotic symptoms. In Aim 3, Dr. Wang will investigate
the temporal variations of connectivity in individual patients and reveal abnormalities in dynamic functional
connectivity related to symptoms. A series of preliminary studies conducted by Dr. Wang have laid the solid
foundation for each specific aim. This research will form the basis of a study for identifying the “con...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10213601
- **Project number:** 5K01MH111802-05
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Danhong Wang
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $186,147
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-18 → 2023-05-01

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10213601

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10213601, Understanding Functional Connectivity Abnormalities In Individual Patients with Psychosis (5K01MH111802-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10213601. Licensed CC0.

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