Severe and Persistent Mental Disorders (SPMDs)

The SPMDs that we closely study are schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.  The primary objectives of studying SPMDs are to determine how genetic liability for the conditions affect the brain, and how the expression of genetic liability is changed when the disorder develops. This is accomplished by studying families affected by SPMDs and collecting neural, symptomatic, and genetic data from family members and healthy control participants. With this information, we look to contrast potential markers of genetic liability (cognitive, electrophysiological, fMRI) across individuals with varying levels of genetic liability for SPMDs (individuals with a disorder, their first-degree biological relatives, and healthy controls).
 

Combat-related mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) and Stress Conditions

The brain of the combat soldier endures physical and emotional assaults. For military personnel who have difficulties re-adjusting to civilian life after deployment, it is important to understand whether these challenges are a result of mTBI or Stress Conditions. The primary objective of studying mTBIs is to determine the signature of blast-related injury in the brain and differentiate it from the effects of PTSD and depression. With this research, we hope to provide an objective means of showing the extent to which symptoms and problems with readjustment are related to the physical impacts that cause brain injury as compared to changes in the brain from the psychological effects of combat.  Because the long-term effects of a single mTBI (i.e., concussion) on the brain are likely to be subtle, it is important to use direct measures of neural structure and function, such as state-of-the-art brain scanning and EEG.
 

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Our goals in studying PTSD include determining the functional brain abnormalities associated with PTSD and how these are related to emotional responding and fear conditioning. These goals are accomplished by examining emotional responses at different levels of contextual threat using direct measures of neural function, examining fear conditioning to determine whether it is over-generalized in PTSD, and whether variation in these phenomena are associated with genetic variation in candidate genes.