Josselin Houenou, MD, PhD

• RoleProfessor of Psychiatry; Chief Investigator, MODE-BD
• AffiliationDept. of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
• Clinical baseNorthern Health, Melbourne
• PhDAwarded 2013

Josselin Houenou is a professor of psychiatry working at the intersection of neuroimaging, dynamical systems theory and clinical care for bipolar disorder. He proposed the HDBD (Homeostatic Dysregulation in Bipolar Disorder) model, among the first integrated multi-scale models of the illness, and chaired the ENIGMA-BD DTI mega-analysis — the largest diffusion-MRI study of bipolar disorder to date, whose harmonised dataset is now reused by independent teams worldwide.

He held a joint clinical–academic position (the French PU-PH professorship track), combining research with an ongoing clinical role in adult psychiatry. He has directed the French national neuroimaging-in-psychiatry network, co-edited the 700-page French reference handbook on bipolar disorder, and built an independent bipolar-disorder neuroimaging team of four tenured researchers — two of his former trainees now lead their own independent programmes, one holding an ERC Starting Grant.

Selected milestones

• 2013PhD awarded — Apport de la neuroimagerie à l'étude du trouble bipolaire ("Contributions of neuroimaging to the study of bipolar disorder").
• 2014–2019Led the ENIGMA-BD DTI Working Group; coordinated data collection across 26 centres for the largest diffusion-MRI mega-analysis in bipolar disorder to date.
• 2020–2023Directed the French national neuroimaging-in-psychiatry network; co-edited the 700-page French reference handbook on bipolar disorder.
• 2025Proposed the HDBD model, formalising homeostatic dysregulation as an integrated, multi-scale account of bipolar disorder.
• 2026–Leads MODE-BD at the University of Melbourne and Northern Health, extending HDBD and brain-criticality models into prospectively validated digital twins.

PhD thesis (2013)

Apport de la neuroimagerie à l'étude du trouble bipolaire — "Contributions of neuroimaging to the study of bipolar disorder." Three papers from this work:

• 2007

  Houenou J, Wessa M, Douaud G, Leboyer M, Chanraud S, Perrin M, Poupon C, Martinot JL, Paillère-Martinot ML. Increased white matter connectivity in euthymic bipolar patients: diffusion tensor tractography between the subgenual cingulate and the amygdalo-hippocampal complex. Molecular Psychiatry. 2007;12(11):1001–1010. DOI: 10.1038/sj.mp.4002010

• 2007

  Wessa M, Houenou J, Paillère-Martinot ML, Berthoz S, Artiges E, Leboyer M, Martinot JL. Fronto-striatal overactivation in euthymic bipolar patients during an emotional go/nogo task. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2007;164(4):638–646. DOI: 10.1176/ajp.2007.164.4.638

• 2014

  Sarrazin S, Poupon C, Linke J, Wessa M, Phillips M, Delavest M, Versace A, Almeida J, Guevara P, Duclap D, Duchesnay E, Mangin JF, Le Dudal K, Daban C, Hamdani N, D'Albis MA, Leboyer M, Houenou J. A multicenter tractography study of deep white matter tracts in bipolar I disorder: psychotic features and interhemispheric disconnectivity. JAMA Psychiatry. 2014;71(4):388–396. DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.4513

Key papers since

A selection of work since the thesis, spanning bipolar disorder, autism, and the ENIGMA-BD consortium.

• 2018

  d'Albis MA, Guevara P, Guevara M, Laidi C, Boisgontier J, Sarrazin S, Duclap D, Delorme R, Bolognani F, Czech C, Bouquet C, Ly-Le Moal M, Holiga S, Amestoy A, Scheid I, Gaman A, Leboyer M, Poupon C, Mangin JF, Houenou J. Local structural connectivity is associated with social cognition in autism spectrum disorder. Brain. 2018;141(12):3472–3481. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awy275

• 2019

  Sarrazin S, Poupon C, Teillac A, Mangin JF, Polosan M, Favre P, Laidi C, D'Albis MA, Leboyer M, Lledo PM, Henry C, Houenou J. Higher in vivo cortical intracellular volume fraction associated with lithium therapy in bipolar disorder: a multicenter NODDI study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 2019;88(3):171–176. DOI: 10.1159/000498854

• 2019

  Favre P, Pauling M, Stout J, Hozer F, Sarrazin S, et al.; ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group; Houenou J. Widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities in bipolar disorder: evidence from mega- and meta-analyses across 3033 individuals. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2019;44(13):2285–2293. DOI: 10.1038/s41386-019-0485-6

• 2022

  Laidi C, Floris DL, Tillmann J, et al.; EU-AIMS LEAP Group; Houenou J. Cerebellar Atypicalities in Autism? Biological Psychiatry. 2022;92(8):674–682. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.05.020

• 2025

  Houenou J. Homeostatic Dysregulation: A Multi-Level Integrated Model of Bipolar Disorder. PsyArXiv. 2025. osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9yrma_v1