Welcome to E/I Balance

We’re not a sneaker company. And no, we have nothing to do with the latest Apple device or movie on extraterrestrials.

E/I Balance is a community blog on mental health research, set up by the Conte Center at Harvard University. Funded by National Institute of Mental Health, the Conte Center is dedicated to basic neuroscience research that probes the origins of mental illness.

In collaboration with the Center for Brain Science, the Conte Center is debuting a monthly, interdisciplinary lecture series called the Conte-CBS Colloquium on Mental Health. We hope this blog can serve as a place where people who attend these talks share their thoughts, ideas, questions or research findings with each other.

Some Blog Sparkers

Need inspiration? Here are some questions to get your creative juices flowing:

• What was the most interesting or unexpected piece of data, idea, or comment in the talk you attended? Why did it grab your attention and what questions did it raise?
• Did the talk make you think of anything interesting you’ve learned in other seminars, in classes, or in the lab? What was the connection?
• Have you read an exciting article or book related to the talk, or related to mental health research in general?
• Is there a new trend in thinking or new method of analysis in your field that might impact understanding of mental illness?
• What do you think is one of the most compelling questions or problems in mental health research? Why?

• Is there a mental health researcher or clinician you know and admire? Consider a Q&A with him/her.
• Do you have any ideas as to how people in the life sciences and social sciences, or basic and clinical researchers can collaborate better on mental health? Alternatively, would you like to share the story of a successful collaboration?
• Could you provide a clinical profile of a specific mental illness? Perhaps dispel common myths or share little known facts about the symptoms.
• What are some of the challenges of studying mental illness in animals? Are there any improvements you’ve heard of? Or simply an interesting behavioral test you could describe for those who are not familiar?
• Could you explain how some of the drugs—either on the market or in development—for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, or other mental illnesses work?
• How do you think the issue of stigma affects mental health research, and what can be done to improve the situation?

[Image courtesy of digitalart at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2280]