Editorial Preface

Extract

The introduction of neuroimaging techniques for the study of brain structure and function has revolutionised the endeavour to elucidate the pathology of psychiatric disorder, the Holy Grail in psychiatry (Krishnan, 1990). Emil Kraepelin discovered the two major mental disorders, dementia praecox and manic-depression, and conceived their aetiology in brain pathology. It was Alois Alzheimer, however, his most successful student, who discovered the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease. Sigmund Freud, who started his inquiries in brain science, lost faith and shifted to the study of the mind. Brain science and mind ‘science’ rapidly became odd bed fellows and parted company. The breakdown in communication fostered a mistrust in both parties, aborting endeavours of reconciliation. The evidence for the neuropathology of the ‘functional’ psychoses has, however, been inconclusive. It was the advent of brain-imaging techniques that rejuvenated brain sciences and modern neurosciences. The introduction of neuroimaging techniques, such as the electroencephalogram (EEG) in the 1920s and the whole-brain blood-flow techniques (Berger, 1929; Kety & Schmidt, 1948), antedated the discovery of psychotropic drugs. Pneumoencephalography was also applied to study brain structure in schizophrenia (Storey, 1966). The true methodological leap, however, was the introduction of computerised methods to construct three-dimensional images from two-dimensional data, enabling the development of computerised tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron-emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT).