Ruben C. Gur, Ph.D.

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				Ruben C. Gur, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychiatry Secondary appointments: Neurology and Radiology School of Medicine 10 Gates Building/4283 (215) 662-2915 FAX: (215) 662-7903 email: gur@bbl.med.upenn.edu Click here for selected publications since Dr. Gur's arrival at Penn RESEARCH INTERESTS Human neuropsychology, emotion and cognitive processes, integration of neurobehavioral data with neuroanatomic and neurophysiologic data on regional brain function in healthy, neurologic and psychiatric populations; understanding sex differences in health and disease from a neurodevelopmental perspective RESEARCH TECHNIQUES Neurobehavioral psychometric testing; structural and functional neuroimaging methods (MRI, fMRI, PET, SPECT). RESEARCH SUMMARY My main research interest is in the integration of neuroimaging data with behavioral data related to regional brain function in healthy people and specific clinical populations with documented or putative brain disease. My research program has focused on the application of reliable behavioral measures, that can be linked to clearly characterized dimensions of cognition and emotion, for correlation with neuroimaging data. Principle collaborators include Raquel E. Gur, MD/PhD, who co-directs the program and Abass Alavi, MD, P. David Mozley, MD, Robert Grossman, MD, and Joseph Maldjian, MD, who collaborate in the neuroimaging studies. Several approaches are combined in an effort to understand how behavioral dimensions are related to regional brain function. Neuroimaging techniques have been supplying data on regional brain anatomy and physiologic activity. These physiologic parameters can be measured at rest, but my laboratory has emphasized procedures for their recording during stimulation with cognitive and, more recently, emotional tasks. We are in the process of evaluating techniques for quantitative studies of neuroreceptor function (dopamine D1 and D2 and serotonin S1 and S2) using PET and SPECT. Standard neuropsychological tests and experimental procedures are being applied to selected clinical populations with brain disease with a focus on schizophrenia. Combined with the physiologic activation studies in these populations, these data have provided new powerful tools for testing hypotheses on brain behavior relations. The integration of these data has been our major challenge. KEY WORDS: Neuropsychology; neuroimaging; schizophrenia; brain and behavior; emotion