Prof. Dr. Dr. Danilo Bzdok Awarded 2016 DGPPN Prize
In 2016, the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) once again honoured outstanding early-career scientists for research into psychiatric disorders. We congratulate Prof. Dr. med. Dr. rer. nat. Danilo Bzdok from the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, who was awarded the prize at the end of November 2016 during the DGPPN Congress in Berlin.
The macroscopic brain default mode network is associated with various processes such as complex social cognition (change of perspective, language, moral judgement) and the conception of events and places in the past and future. This network is also closely connected with psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, autism, and depression.
By combining machine-learning statistics and multicentre clinical data sets, the group headed by Prof. Dr. Dr. Bzdok from University Hospital Aachen's Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, which collaborates with Forschungszentrum Jülich as part of the JARA-BRAIN research alliance, obtained new insights into depressive disorders. In particular, the left part of the medial prefrontal cortex in the default mode network plays a major role in depression.
The 2016 DGPPN prize for research into psychiatric disorders recognizes the highly innovative nature of the work undertaken by Prof. Dr. Dr. Bzdok’s group and the outstanding methodological quality. This year, the DGPPN awarded the prize with a total of € 15,000 for work in the fields of basic research and clinical research.
About DGPPN
The DGPPN is a medical professional society with more than 8,000 members. It is thus the largest and oldest scientific association of doctors and scientists working in the fields of psychiatry, psychotherapy, and psychosomatics in Germany. The Association awards a number of prestigious prizes once a year for outstanding work and projects in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy.