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Michal Assaf, M.D.
Senior
Research Scientist
Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital
Assistant
Professor Adjunct
Department of Psychiatry
Yale University School of Medicine
200 Retreat Avenue
Whitehall Building - Institute of Living
Hartford CT 06106
Phone: 860-545-7700, ext 7792
Email: massaf@harthosp.org |
Who Am I?
Dr. Michal Assaf
has studied mental illnesses by implementing cognitive neuroscience and
neuroimaging concepts. She earned her M.D. in 2001 at Tel Aviv University
following a clinical internship at the Edith Wolfson Hospital in Israel.
Dr. Assaf
completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Division of Psychiatric
Neuroimaging of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 2003 she
joined the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center at the Institute of Living
as a Postdoctoral Associate of the Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Assaf was jointly
appointed as a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Living and
Assistant Professor Adjunct at Yale University, and has been researching
neuropsychiatric disorders while focusing on three major projects:
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Social
Cognition, focusing on different brain mechanisms involved in social
cognition and their association with various psychiatric disorders, such
as autism spectrum disorders, schizophrenia and substance abuse. Dr.
Assaf has implemented an fMRI paradigm of a modified domino game that
entails decision making and risk-taking behavior under conditions of
uncertainty.
-
Semantic
Memory, concentrating on feature binding abnormalities in
schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and the relationship between
semantic processing and formal-thought disorder.
-
Resting state
brain activity and functional connectivity. Using advance analytical
techniques, such as independent component analysis (ICA) and functional
network connectivity (FNC), of fMRI and PET data, Dr. Assaf has
investigated the “default-mode” sub-networks in patients with autism
spectrum disorders, amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
Dr. Assaf is a
licensed physician in Israel and a member of The International Society for
Autism Research (INSAR) and The Society for Neuroscience
Publications
Assaf M, Rivkin P, Kuzu C, Calhoun V, Kraut M, Groth K,
Yassa M, Hart J and Pearlson GD (2006). Abnormal Object-Recall and Anterior
Cingulate Overactivation Correlate with Formal Thought Disorder in
Schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry, 59(5): 452-9.
Assaf M, Calhoun V, Kuzu C, Kraut M, Rivkin P, Hart J and
Pearlson GD (2006). Neural Correlates of the Object Recall Process in Semantic
Memory. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 147 (2-3): 115-126.
Assaf M, Kahn I, Pearlson
GD, Johnson MR, Yeshurun Y, Calhoun V and Hendler T (2009). Brain Activity
Dissociates Mentalization from Motivation during an Interpersonal
Competitive Game. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 3 (1): 24-37.
Assaf M, Jagannathan K,
Calhoun V, Kraut M, Hart J and Pearlson G. (2009) Temporal Sequence of
Hemispheric Network Activation during Semantic Processing: A Functional
Network Connectivity Analysis. Brain and Cognition, 70 (2): 238-246.
Book Chapter
Assaf M,
Rivkin P, Kraut M, Calhoun V, Hart J and Pearlson G (2007). Schizophrenia
and Semantic Memory. In Hart J and Kraut M. Neural Basis of Semantic Memory.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.