Volunteers Required for Brain Imaging Research

A leading medical research centre in Wales is calling on volunteers to come forward and help it gain a greater understanding about the causes of mental illness.

The National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH) brings together world-leading researchers, healthcare professionals, patients and carers to improve and supoprt our understanding of mental health and illness.

The Centre is looking for people aged between 18 and 65 years who do not personally have a mental health condition to take part in their Neuroimaging Research programme.

Neuroimaging - or brain imaging - covers a range of methods which provide a snapshot of a person’s brain through the use of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and MEG (magneto-encephalo-graphy) techniques.

In turn, this helps define the structure of the human brain and how it functions when someone performs a task and NCMH hopes to use this information to find out how genetic risk factors affect our mental health.

The Centres hopes this help it to better identify those at greatest risk of suffering from mental health problems and develop treatments targeted at biological causes rather than only the symptoms of mental illness.

The research is set to take place at Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC) and if you're interested in taking part please email Lisa Brindley at brindley@cardiff.ac.uk or call her on 029 2087 6506.

Established in 2011, NCMH is Wales' first biomedical research centre and is part of the Welsh Government's research infrastructure funded by National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (NISCHR).