Lexicon

Co-morbidity, sometimes called co-occurence, is a medical term decribing the existence of more than one condition in a person at the same time. For example, a neurodivergent person can suffer from epilepsy.

In a longitudinal study, scientists regularly assess the same individuals to detect any changes during the (long) period of time considered. Ususally, researchers will focus on a couple of variable and evaluate if there have been changes since the last visit, and try to correlate the changes with specific factors.

When we talk about mental health conditions in R2D2-MH, we refer to stress, anxiety, depression or mood disorders.

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology focusing on human thoughts, feelings and behaviors involved in well-being and happiness. It focuses on positive experiences in life, on strengths rather than weaknesses or problems.

Resilience means adapting well to adversity and remaining healthy even in the presence of risk-factors. Resilience is associated with well-being and functioning. Examples of resilience factors are:

• Genetic factors, 
• Factors related to life-style, school environment
• Environmental factors 

A signature is a group of biological characteristics found in an individual, or in a group of individuals sharing the same condition. For example, one objectives of R2D2-MH is to characterize brain signatures of neurodevelopmental diversities and mental health conditions. This means identifying in groups of people with NDDs mutations in certain genes, structure of particular regions of the brain or a specific (electrical) activity of the brain under different stimuli.

A stakeholder is a person, a group or an organization that is impacted by the results and knowledge generated by a project. In R2D2-MH, we have identified different groups of stakeholders:

• Citizens, including neurodivergent people, people with mental health conditions and their families
• Researchers
• Healthcare givers
• Policy makers
• Industrial partners

Whole Genome Sequencing is a method used by scientists to analyze the entire genome (DNA) of individuals. It is used to detect changes in particular regions of the genome called genes. Genes carrying such changes are called variants.