Department:
Psychiatry
Education:
Ph.D. in Neuroscience, University of Iowa
Research Description:
The goal of our research is to identify and characterize the the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underlying deficits in human emotion, decision-making, and social behavior. We believe that a better understanding of these mechanisms will lead to more effective strategies for diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental illness. In our research, we study multiple clinical populations with deficits in social and affective function, including incarcerated individuals with psychopathic personality disorder, neurological patients with prefrontal brain damage, and psychiatric outpatients with mood and anxiety disorders. We employ a variety of measures, including clinical diagnostic interviews, cognitive and behavioral testing, physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, eye movements), and neuroimaging assessments of brain structure and function (e.g., fMRI).
Key Words:
Emotion, mental illness, cognitive neuroscience, biological psychiatry, clinical psychology