Department of Clinical Neuroscience

Professor Lars Alfredsson (CNS and IMM) is awarded funding from AFA Försäkring for his studies on how different types of airborne exposures interact with each other and with genetic risks of developing rheumatoid arthritis.

The project is expected to provide new knowledge about the importance of exposure to airborne substances in professional life regarding the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

It’s described as a technological advance in computed tomography and the hope is that this imaging technique will eventually become hospital standard. At the end of October, a new type of CT scanner will be unveiled in MedTechLabs, an interdisciplinary centre set up by Karolinska Institutet (KI), the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Region Stockholm. Staffan Holmin, Professor of Clinical Neuroimaging at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, is one of the researchers behind the initiative.

Viable predictors of psychiatric treatment response are often sought, but remain elusive. It remains a central challenge in psychiatry to reliably judge whether a patient will respond to treatment. In a new study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers show that moment-to-moment fluctuations in brain activity can reliably predict whether patients with social anxiety disorder will be receptive to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

The ability to detect and react to the smell of a potential threat is a precondition of our and other mammals’ survival. A study, published in PNAS by researchers at CNS, indicates that negative smells associated with unpleasantness or unease are processed earlier than positive smells and trigger a physical avoidance response.