Description of Research Expertise

Key Words
psychosis, reward, motivation, negative symptoms, fMRI, pharmacological imaging

Research interests, techniques, and summary:
My overarching goal is to develop a translational research program to study the neural mechanisms of reward and motivation deficits in psychosis, depression, addiction, and other psychiatric disorders, and in those at risk for these disorders. By utilizing pharmacological challenges during functional neuroimaging, together with detailed clinical and behavioral assessments, I seek to relate these deficits to dysfunction in specific neural circuits, and develop better methods for assessing novel therapeutic interventions. I am also developing active collaborations with geneticists, animal researchers, and pharmaceutical industry scientists in order facilitate clinical translation of basic neuroscientific discoveries.