The former PSYM research unit is now part of SPEC. Our unit is mainly involved in research in the field of depression. In close collaboration with the Cyclotron Unit of the V.U.B. and the Nuclear Medicine Department of the Academic Hospital of the V.U.B., brain imaging techniques, more in particular single photon emission tomography (SPET), are used to investigate receptor function in vivo in depressed patients and to study the effects of antidepressant therapy on different receptors. SPET is also used to investigate the differential effects of typical and so-called atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenic patients. Our group is also particularly interested in the psychobiology of personality (disorders).