UW team receives $10 million to discover secrets of emotion

The University of Wisconsin received $10.7 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to research the causes of emotions in hopes of advancing developments in the treatment of mood disorders.

The study, which will receive funding for five years, has three main parts. It will focus on different reactions to stress and other emotions, said UW psychiatry professor Ned Kalin.

Kalin, who is involved with the project, said the researchers at UW plan to begin by investigating the basic brain functions during emotional distress at times like depression. The second stage will try to identify indications for children at risk of emotional problems.

Kalin said the ultimate goal of the grant is to find new treatments for individuals, especially children, who are at risk of unhealthy mental developments.

“It is not clear yet what those treatments will be,” Kalin said, adding that young people’s brains are highly susceptible to change, so non-medication methods will be studied extensively. “We’ve found that the brain is a very malleable thing — it’s very plastic.”

The studies will also focus on why some people cope with stress and loss more quickly than others do.

“For many psychiatric disorders, abnormalities in emotion regulation is essential to understanding what is wrong,” UW psychologist Richard Davidson said in a UW press release. Davidson is the principal investigator and will also direct the research endeavor. “Yet we know relatively little about why some individuals show abnormalities and others do not.”

The brain, the center for all nerve activity, directs signals for emotional responses to unique incidents. When researchers investigate the differences in these responses among people, they will use brain-imaging equipment and other technologies.

Davidson said in the release that this research could help researchers understand why some individuals can continue to lead happy and productive lives despite the life stresses they encounter, while others develop depression or stay sad for long periods of time.

Research will also look into the genetic impact versus the environmental influence of emotional disorders and the role both have in humans.

“In most problems there is a combination (of nature and nurture impacts),” Kalin said.

The $10.7 million follows a $3.7 million grant from NIMH in previous years that helped plant the seeds needed to research this new project.

Kalin said UW is an attractive candidate to NIMH grants because of its links to the Keck Laboratory and Health Emotions Research Institute. Kalin said the support from the chancellor, administration and private donors helped make UW a world-class emotional research center.

“There are unique resources at Wisconsin … probably the best in the country,” Kalin said.