Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 2:00 pm EDT
Early identification of bipolar disorder (BD) is crucial to ensuring timely and appropriate treatment. Early detection of mood episodes--given their recurrent nature--is also essential for better management of the illness. Dr. Hafeman's lab uses neuroimaging (fMRI) and mobile sensing to identify neural and behavioral markers of BD and mood recurrence. In this webinar, she will introduce network instability as a potential neural marker of mood instability in BD and examine how network functional connectivity shifts with mood state. She will also discuss mobile sensing metrics—of factors including sleep, motion, and phone interaction—as potential early indicators of depressive and manic symptoms. Preliminary findings suggest that neuroimaging and mobile sensing could eventually become valuable clinical tools for earlier diagnosis and relapse detection.
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Presented by
Danella Hafeman, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
2023 Klerman Prize for Exceptional Clinical Research
2019 Young Investigator Grant
Dr. Danella Hafeman is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She earned her M.D. and a Ph.D. in Epidemiology at Columbia University and completed her psychiatry residency and child psychiatry fellowship in Pittsburgh. Her research program, supported primarily by NIMH and SAMHSA, is focused on youth with and at-risk for bipolar disorder. Her studies employ a combination of comprehensive clinical assessments, neuroimaging measures of functional connectivity, and technology-based in vivo assessments of mood and energy (e.g., through ecological momentary assessment and mobile sensing). Clinically, she is Medical Director of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Services outpatient clinic, where she evaluates and treats youth with and at-risk for bipolar disorder. She also serves as Director of the Psychiatry Research Pathway, the research-focused psychiatry residency pathway at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and has a strong interest in mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists.
Moderated by
Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., serves as the President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the largest private funder of mental health research grants. Dr. Borenstein developed the Emmy-nominated public television program “Healthy Minds,” and serves as host and executive producer of the series. The program, broadcast nationwide, is available online, and focuses on topics in psychiatry in order to educate the public, reduce stigma and offer a message of hope. Dr. Borenstein served as Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatric News, the newspaper of the American Psychiatric Association from 2012 - 2023.
Dr. Borenstein is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and serves as the Chair of the Section of Psychiatry at the Academy. He also has served as the President of the New York State Psychiatric Association. Dr. Borenstein earned his undergraduate degree at Harvard and his medical degree at New York University.
