The People of the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center

Who Am I?

(under construction)

Roles and Responsibilities include:

• Development of high-resolution virtual navigation software including driving simulators and virtual analogues of rodent spatial memory tasks.
• Using converging scientific techniques to understand the neurobiology of memory.

Objectives/Interests in Neuropsychiatry:

• Application of virtual spatial memory tests to psychiatric groups with hippocampal abnormalities.
• Examining the effects of abused drugs on memory processes and brain activity.
• Deciphering the effects of gender and aging on memory processes.

Current Projects:

• Study of spatial navigation using a virtual Morris Water Maze and 8-arm radial maze.

• Effects of Alzheimer's disease, normal aging, and Schizophrenia on driving behavior using a virtual driving simulator.

• Investigation of fMRI correlates of memory, error monitoring, and emotion in Individuals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

• fMRI Examination of memory processes disturbed in patients with Alzheimer's Disease or Schizophrenia.

• Independent Components Analysis (ICA) of fMRI data relating to spatial orientation and navigation.

• Examination of hippocampal function in people with schizophrenia using fMRI.

• Depth electrode recording of EEG in patients with epilepsy during virtual navigation.

• Microdialysis of glutamate concentrations in patients with epilepsy during virtual navigation.

• Examination of the effects of THC and/or alcohol on virtual navigation.

• fMRI examination of the role of the hippocampus in associative memory.

• Examination of the effects of estrogen therapy on virtual navigation and cognition.

• Investigating the effects of chemotherapy on spatial memory and cognition.

• The effects of Post-traumatic stress disorder on hippocampal-dependent learning and memory.

• Training monkeys to navigate through virtual mazes and environments.