unhide® Project: Mood and Behavior Questionnaire

The Brain Inflammation Collaborative has launched the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ) on the unhide® Platform! Through the MBQ, we aim to explore how emotions, focus, and daily life are impacted by different health conditions. We are collecting data on how and when people experience a range of challenges such as anxiety, sleep disturbance, sensory sensitivity, and difficulties with attention, planning, or executive functioning.

Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome, or PANS, is a condition where children develop very sudden, severe mood and behavior changes after a triggering infection or other inciting event. Symptoms may include obsessions, compulsions, declines in cognitive performance, sleep disturbances, anxiety, eating restriction, sensory sensitivities, and more – all thought to be caused by a neuroinflammatory response to the triggering event. However, the burden of mood and behavior symptoms is less clear in other conditions that are also thought to involve neuroinflammation, such as Long COVID, ME/CFS, Lyme, and autoimmune diseases.
It is also unclear how these symptoms may differ between children and adults as the brain develops.

The MBQ was developed by a BIC team with decades of research expertise in PANS, Long COVID, and associated conditions, and aims to reveal commonalities and differences in mood and behavioral symptoms across people of a range of ages, genders, ethnic backgrounds, and medical histories.

To better understand this symptom, we’ve designed a new survey—the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ)—which is now live on The unhide® Platform!

Research Goals

By using the MBQ in conjunction with other data collected on unhide®, this survey will help clarify how emotional regulation and day-to-day functioning are linked to other biological and health patterns, including infection history, environmental exposures, diagnoses, sleep and activity, and more. By identifying shared patterns across individuals and conditions, this research aims to deepen understanding of how neuroinflammation may contribute to mood and behavioral symptoms observed in both acute and chronic illness.

Findings from this study will contribute to ongoing BIC efforts to map the connections between different health conditions and quality of life—informing future research collaborations and potential therapeutic targets.

Brain Inflammation Collaboration Lead Researchers

The Mood and Behavioral Questionnaire was developed by the Brain Inflammation Collaborative Research Team, led by the individuals below:

Denise Calaprice, PhD

Co-founder & Senior Program Advisor

Dr. Calaprice is a clinical researcher at Stanford University’s Immune Behavioral Health Clinic and a Co-founder of the Brain Inflammation Collaborative. A former NIH fellow and NARSAD Young Investigator, her early research on the psychoneuroimmunology of childhood anxiety and mood disorders helped shape her career-long focus on immune dysregulation and brain–immune interactions. She has since directed clinical research and development programs in immunology and neuroscience across academia, government, and industry. Through BIC, she continues to advance innovative, patient-centered approaches to understanding and treating neuroinflammatory and behavioral disorders.

Megan L. Fitzgerald, PhD

Scientific Director & Principal Investigator

Dr. Fitzgerald is Scientific Director and Principal Investigator at the Brain Inflammation Collaborative, where she studies how immune activity influences mood, cognition, and neurological health. Her prior research at Weill Cornell, Mount Sinai, and Columbia University focused on neuroanatomy, neural stem cells, and the biology of suicide risk, earning NIH and NARSAD Young Investigator Awards. After developing Long COVID herself, she pivoted to patient-led research, co-leading large-scale studies on post-viral illness through the Patient-Led Research Collaborative. Her current work bridges neuroscience and lived experience to uncover the mechanisms linking inflammation to brain and behavioral symptoms.

 
Christina Moon

Clinical Research Associate

Christina Moon is a Clinical Research Associate with the Brain Inflammation Collaborative. She earned her A.B. in Sociology with a minor in Chinese Culture & Language from Princeton University. Christina is passionate about advancing health equity and improving inclusivity in medical research, with a focus on empowering patients through collaboration, education, and advocacy. Her work supports BIC’s mission to make research more accessible and representative of diverse patient experiences.

 

What Do We Ask?

The Mood and Behavior Questionnaire includes questions like:

  • How often in the past month… 
    • Have you felt very worried or nervous?
    • Was it hard for you to fall asleep?
    • Have you not enjoyed doing things you usually like to do?
    • Have you felt very angry, frustrated, or annoyed?
    • Were you very bothered by certain sounds, like chewing, breathing, or tapping?
    • Did you experience brain fog or felt it was hard to think clearly?
    • Did you find yourself stuck on certain thoughts and couldn’t stop thinking about them, even when you wanted to stop (obsessions)?
 

The questionnaire takes around 20 minutes to complete and can be done on a computer or mobile device. If you’re busy or get tired, you can save your progress and return to it later. 

Who Can Join?

Anyone who is eligible to join unhide® and is 7 years of age or older can take part. Participants under 18* will need a parent or legal guardian to assist with consent and survey completion.

                   *dependent on legal age (age of majority) by location

Everyone is welcome — whether or not you experience any mood and behavioral symptoms yourself. Comparing different perspectives helps researchers better understand how our experiences shape our brain health.

How Can I Help?

By sharing your experiences through the MBQ, you can help researchers uncover what emotional and cognitive symptoms people with different health conditions experience. You (or your child) can take the survey even if you do not have a clear diagnosis!

  1. Sign up or log in to the unhide® Platform.
  2. The Mood and Behavior Questionnaire (MBQ) will appear under the “Surveys” section of your dashboard.
  3. Take the MBQ at your own pace. It will take about 20 minutes to complete. You can pause and return to finish it at any time.

What's In It For Me?

By taking part, you’ll:

  • Contribute directly to research that could improve understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of mood and behavioral problems
  • Help shape the future of care for people with chronic and infection-associated illnesses.
  • Receive an optional summary of study findings once data collection and analysis are complete.

Help Us Spread The Word

The more people who take part, the stronger our findings will be.

Please consider sharing this study with friends, family, or online communities who may be affected by mood or behavioral problems such as anxiety, trouble sleeping, sensory sensitivity, or have other chronic conditions.

Together, we can discover how deep the mind-body connection could be—and how we can heal both.

To learn more about the Mood and Behavior Questionnaire, check out our blog or sign up for the platform.