Mental Health Neural Dynamics Lab – Kristoffer Månsson's research group

Our research group currently has several ongoing projects. 

Flagship projects:

• TREVAR: TREVAR is a large-scale study primarily investigating whether neural variability can predict treatment outcomes following internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT). The study currently includes more than 330 participants. Patients with social anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and insomnia are recruited through Internetpsykiatri in Region Stockholm and receive treatment through the same clinic. Following diagnostic assessment and prior to the start of treatment, participants undergo a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, a baseline measure that is subsequently examined as a predictor of treatment outcome. Before starting treatment, participants rate their expectancy of treatment outcome, which is evaluated as an additional potential predictor of outcome. We use Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) that participants answer multiple times during seven days to capture fluctuations and variation in, for example, mood, emotional state, and sleep habits. Additionally, we examine participants' perception of emotional face ambiguity via a computer-based task. The project was initiated in 2022, and data collection is planned to continue through 2027. During autumn 2026, an extension of the study is planned for participants with insomnia.  

• AXON: This project investigates how individual differences in expectations and anxiety responses contribute to the prediction of treatment outcomes following internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT). The study will include approximately 50 individuals with social anxiety disorder. Participants will complete several experimental sessions involving psychological assessments, a public speaking task, and brain imaging (fMRI). Following the experimental sessions, participants will undergo a 9-week iCBT treatment programme. The study aims to increase our understanding of why individuals respond differently to CBT and to contribute to the development of more personalized treatments for social anxiety disorder.  

• LUMEN: LUMEN is an upcoming project in which patients with depression and anxiety will be offered internet-based psychological treatment (iCBT) while undergoing multiple fMRI scans before, during, and after treatment. LUMEN will partly employ a Single-N study design, in which a small number of individuals undergo a large number of scanning sessions, as well as a design in which approximately 70 participants undergo a smaller number of scans. The aim of the project is to investigate both how neural dynamics are related to mental health problems and how neural dynamics are affected by treatment. 

• NEURO4C: This project evaluates the effects of an 8-week clinician-guided iCBT intervention for adolescents, as well as why some adolescents benefit more from treatment than others. The study includes adolescents with anxiety and/or depression, as well as healthy control participants. Participants complete psychological assessments, brain imaging, and psychophysiological measurements. Using fMRI, we investigate brain-related and clinical characteristics that may predict treatment response and contribute to more personalized psychological treatments. The project is conducted in collaboration with Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca). 

• VOX: The VOX study examines how internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) influences the brain in individuals with social anxiety. It investigates changes in epigenetic aging and fMRI-derived markers of brain aging to clarify the molecular and neural mechanisms associated with treatment response. 

• SOFIE-8: This study investigates variability in brain activity during anticipation of a stressful social situation in individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and healthy individuals. Using fMRI, participants completed a task in which they prepared for a public speaking task, as well as a neutral condition serving as a baseline. In individuals with SAD, we further investigated whether pre-treatment neural variability can predict symptom improvement, whether it changes following psychological treatment (iCBT), and whether these changes are related to clinical improvement. 

   

Collaborative projects 

The research group collaborates with researchers from universities around the world. Below is a brief description of our ongoing collaborative projects. 

• Pramipexole treatment for depression: This double-blind, placebo-controlled study investigates the effects of adjunctive treatment with pramipexole and changes in neural dynamics in a sample of patients with depression and pronounced anhedonia. Participants were randomized to receive either adjunctive pramipexole or placebo for a period of 9 weeks. Neuroimaging data were collected before and after treatment, while symptom severity was assessed repeatedly throughout the treatment period. This project is conducted in collaboration with PI Daniel Lindqvist, Lund University. 

Selected publications: 

Ventorp, F., Asp, M., Olsson, S., Lindahl, J., Möller, S., Svensson, M., Ängeby, F., Pravdinske, A., Tjernberg, J., Schrey, S., Ståhl, D., Magnusson, V., Eliasson, E., Agelii-Weber, A., Stålhammar, E., van Westen, D., Deierborg, T., Månsson, K. N. T., Pizzagalli, D. A., … Lindqvist, D. (2026). Efficacy and target engagement of dopamine agonist pramipexole for anhedonic depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Nature Medicine, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-026-04465-9  

• Ketamine treatment for treatment-resistant depression: This project investigates neural variability using data from two separate clinical trials, Vasavada et al. (2021) and Tiger et al. (2020), in which treatment-resistant depression was treated with ketamine. We investigate whether neural variability differs before and after treatment, whether neural variability characterizes depression, and whether neural variability can predict treatment outcomes. The overall aim is to investigate whether findings from one study can be replicated and generalized to the other study. This project is conducted in collaboration with Johan Lundberg and Mikael Tiger at Karolinska Institutet. 
   
• ENIGMA (https://enigma.ini.usc.edu): Our lab collaborates with the Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) consortium, an international network that brings together researchers worldwide to advance large-scale, collaborative studies of brain structure, function, genetics, and mental health. Within ENIGMA, our group contributes data and expertise to collaborative analyses of sleep, anxiety, major depressive disorder (MDD), and brain age, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of brain age. We have also initiated work within the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group on the cerebellum in social anxiety disorder, investigating the role of cerebellar structure and function in anxiety-related psychopathology. Through these collaborations, our lab contributes to large, harmonized datasets and international analyses, helping to advance reproducible and generalizable insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental health and brain ageing. 

Selected publications: 

Groenewold, N. A., Bas-Hoogendam, J. M., et al. (2023). Volume of subcortical brain regions in social anxiety disorder: Mega-analytic results from 37 samples in the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group. Molecular Psychiatry, 28(3), 1079–1089. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-022-01933-9  

Koenig, J., Abler, B., Agartz, I., Åkerstedt, T., Andreassen, O. A., Anthony, M., Bär, K.-J., Bertsch, K., Brown, R. C., Brunner, R., Carnevali, L., Critchley, H. D., Cullen, K. R., de Geus, E. J. C., de la Cruz, F., Dziobek, I., Ferger, M. D., Fischer, H., Flor, H., … Månsson, K. N. T., … Quintana, D. S. (2021). Cortical thickness and resting-state cardiac function across the lifespan: A cross-sectional pooled mega-analysis. Psychophysiology, 58(7), e13688. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13688  

Bruin, W. B., Zhutovsky, P., van Wingen, G. A., Bas-Hoogendam, J. M., Groenewold, N. A., Hilbert, K., Winkler, A. M., Zugman, A., Agosta, F., Åhs, F., Andreescu, C., Antonacci, C., Asami, T., Assaf, M., Barber, J. P., Bauer, J., Bavdekar, S. Y., Beesdo-Baum, K., Benedetti, F.,... Månsson, K. N. T… Aghajani, M. (2024). Brain-based classification of youth with anxiety disorders: transdiagnostic examinations within the ENIGMA-Anxiety database using machine learning. Nature Mental Health, 2(1), 104–118. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-023-00173-2 Blake, K. V., Ipser, J. C., et al. (2026). Brain ageing in social anxiety disorder: An ENIGMA-Anxiety mega-analysis across 26 international cohorts. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.02.26357108  

• Mental health trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic among individuals with a history of psychiatric care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Centre for Psychiatry Research established a longitudinal online questionnaire database to investigate the impact of rapid societal changes on mental health in individuals with and without psychiatric difficulties. Participants living in Sweden were recruited between July 2020 and June 2021 and completed comprehensive assessments covering demographics, psychiatric history, depression and anxiety symptoms, somatic health, healthcare contacts, and changes in mental health during the pandemic. Participants were invited to complete follow-up assessments monthly for up to one year, enabling the study of within-person changes in mental health over time. The database contains more than 400 assessment items at baseline, together with repeated longitudinal measurements, providing a rich resource for studying trajectories of psychological wellbeing and psychiatric symptoms during periods of major societal disruption. 

Selected publications: 

Ojala, O., Garke, M. Å., El Alaoui, S., Forsström, D., Hedman-Lagerlöf, M., Jangard, S., Lundin, J., Rozental, A., Shahnavaz, S., Sörman, K., Lundgren, T., Hellner, C., Jayaram-Lindström, N., & Månsson, K. N. T. (2024). The trajectory of anxiety and depressive symptoms and the impact of self-injury: A longitudinal 12-month cohort study of individuals with psychiatric symptoms. PloS One, 19(11), e0313961. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313961  

Balter, L. J. T., Hedman-Lagerlöf, M., Ojala, O., Sörman, K., Forsström, D., Jangard, S., Manzouri, A., El Alaoui, S., Rozental, A., Shahnavaz, S., Lundgren, T., Jayaram-Lindström, N., & Månsson, K. N. T. (2026). Depression symptom trajectories and self-care variability over the year in 4801 Swedish adults. Journal of Affective Disorders, 410(121942), 121942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2026.121942 

Publications 

• Tsikonofilos, K., Kumar, A., Ampatzis, K., Garrett, D. D., & Månsson, K. N. T. (2025). The promise of investigating neural variability in psychiatric disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 98(3), 195–207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.02.004 
• Månsson, K. N. T., Waschke, L., Manzouri, A., Furmark, T., Fischer, H., & Garrett, D. D. (2022). Moment-to-moment brain signal variability reliably predicts psychiatric treatment outcome. Biological Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.09.026 
• Olivo, G., Lövdén, M., Manzouri, A., Terlau, L., Jenner, B., Jafari, A., Petersson, S., Li, T.-Q., Fischer, H., & Månsson, K. N. T. (2022). Estimated Gray Matter Volume Rapidly Changes after a Short Motor Task. Cerebral Cortex. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab488 
• Månsson, K. N. T., Cortes, D. S., Manzouri, A., Hau, S., Fischer, H. (2019) Viewing pictures triggers rapid morphological enlargement in the human visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz131 
• Månsson, K. N. T., Lasselin, J., Karshikoff, B., Axelsson, J., Engler, H., Schedlowski, M., Benson, S., Petrovic, P., & Lekander, M. (2021). Anterior insula morphology and vulnerability to psychopathology-related symptoms in response to acute inflammation. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2021.09.007 
• Verhoeven, J. E., Wolkowitz, O. M., Barr Satz, I., Conklin, Q., Lamers, F., Lavebratt, C., Lin, J., Lindqvist, D., Mayer, S. E., Melas, P. A., Milaneschi, Y., Picard, M., Rampersaud, R., Rasgon, N., Ridout, K., Söderberg Veibäck, G., Trumpff, C., Tyrka, A. R., Watson, K., … Han, L. & Månsson, K. N. T. (2024). The researcher’s guide to selecting biomarkers in mental health studies. BioEssays, 46(10), e2300246. https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202300246  
• Lindqvist, D., Furmark, T., Lavebratt, C., Ohlsson, L., & Månsson, K. N. T. (2022). Plasma circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA in social anxiety disorder. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 148, 106001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.106001 

The research group has received funding from the following funders: 

• Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) 2018, 2023 and 2025 
• European Union 2023-2026 
• KIRI Fellow at Karolinska Institutet (2024-2026) 
• Karolinska Institutet 2023-2028 
• Centre for Innovative Medicine (CIMED) 2022, 2026 
• Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden) 2022 
• Region Stockholm 2022, 2024

Selected collaborators 

• Andreas Frick, Uppsala University 

• Brjánn Ljótsson, Karolinska Institutet 

• Daniel Lindqvist, Lunds University 
• Douglas D Garrett, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany 
• Gerhard Andersson, Linköping University 
• Håkan Fischer, Stockholm University 
• Julie Lasselin, Karolinska Institutet 
• Mats Lekander, Stockholm University 
• Tomas Furmark, Uppsala University 
• Tor D Wager, Dartmouth College, NH, United States 
• Torbjörn Åkerstedt, Stockholm University 
• Owen Wolkowitz, University of California, San Francisco, CA, United States 
• Viktor Kaldo, Karolinska Institutet 
• Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Leiden University Medical Center 
• Vilte Baltramonaityte, University of Bath 

We welcome motivated students from universities in Sweden and abroad who would like to join our group for an internship or conduct their thesis research as part of one of our ongoing projects. Visiting students need to have their own funding; many of our international students join us through the Erasmus+ programme. 

Students are an important part of our research group. During your time with us, you will be fully integrated into the lab and take an active role in our ongoing research. You will participate in lab meetings, receive weekly supervision, and work closely with researchers and other members of the group. 

Depending on the project, you will also receive relevant training and gain hands-on experience with the methods and equipment used in our research. This may include training required to work with MRI scanners, as well as experience with psychophysiological and other laboratory equipment. 

Our aim is for your time in the group to be more than an internship or thesis project: we want you to contribute to the research, develop your scientific skills, and become a valued member of our research environment. 

A few words from previous interns 

“I started my master's thesis project at the lab, relatively new to neuroimaging as a Biomedical Sciences student at KI. I was actively involved in many parts of the lab, from analysing neuroimaging data for my thesis project, attending lab meetings, and participating in data collection (which I was particularly excited about!). Through my time here, I had the opportunity to immerse myself in a type of research far out of my comfort zone, and  found an environment that was both very welcoming and scientifically stimulating.” - Camila Postigo Romero, 2026 

“Doing my Erasmus Traineeship in this lab gave me valuable hands-on experience that I will be able to use in my future career! I felt a strong sense of responsibility for the work I was involved in, and being part of such a supportive environment made the experience truly rewarding.” - Isabel Cobelli, 2026 

“I started my Erasmus Traineeship back in January 2025 with no expectations whatsoever but ended up with hands-on experience and active involvement in data collection and ongoing lab projects. It was a really valuable introduction to what applied research means in an environment of collaboration and expertise!” - Eleni Lazaridou, 2026 

Research intern alumni: 

Adam Yngve, Amanda Gruvstad, Anna Stavenberg, Arian Jafari, Arvid Anagrius, Björn von Gegerfelt, Bo Jenner, Hjalmar Lindström, Camila Postigo Romero, Jennie Åberg Syed, Johannes Mogren, Markus Söderqvist, Naira Sardarian, Nils Isacsson, Sara Rajjala, Simon Höglund, Örn Kolbeinsson. 

Laura Terlau (Osnabrück University, Germany), Liisbeth Pirn (University of Munich, Germany), Virginia Berlose (University of Padoa, Italy), Alice Clerouin (Ecole Normale Supérieure, France), Katarzyna Karpa (Universität Heidelberg, Germany), Sara Halmans (University of Lübeck, Germany), Susanna Girino (University of Padova, Italy), Federica Mazzilli (Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy), Vanessa Ruggiero (University of Padova, Italy), Eleni Lazaridou, Isabel Cobelli. 

Contact 

Are you a bachelor's or master’s level student and interested in joining our group to gain research experience? 

Contact Kristoffer via mail: kristoffer.mansson@ki.se. Attach a resume and a personal letter describing previous experience and future ambitions.