My research program aims to understand the biological basis of psychotic disorders, namely schizophrenia. More specifically, I use translational methods, largely grounded in animal neurophysiology, to examine the basic building blocks of impaired cognition, disrupted social abilities, and the core disturbances in the sense of self purported to characterize psychosis. Understanding these most basic impairments that give rise to the profound cognitive, social, and psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia can help us pinpoint disturbances in specific functional circuitry. A deeper understanding of these symptoms and their mechanisms will eventually lead to more targeted behavioral and pharmacological treatment options. To explore the neurobiology of psychotic disorders, I use a variety of approaches including eye tracking, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), behavioral experiments, and first-person accounts of experience.
