Download Voting list, June 26, 1995

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To: Medical students interested in research
From: Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry
Re: Research opportunities in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
We are pleased that you are exploring the field of Psychiatry. One of the best ways to learn about this
field is to get involved in research. In our department, we have a wide variety of research projects that
students can join, including basic neuroscience, neuroimaging, psychopharmacology, and clinical
studies of patients with autism, schizophrenia, mood disorders, and other forms of psychopathology.
Participation in projects will provide training in many aspects of research conduct, including literature
review, data collection, psychiatric interviews and assessments, data analysis, and publication. The
goal is to help medical students develop a theoretical and practical understanding of research
questions, design, methodology, data collection and analysis. The ultimate goals of our program are
to help physicians in training learn to use research to inform clinical care and to attract more future
physicians into exciting research careers.
The projects in our department that you can get involved with are of two types:
1. Short Projects: These can be completed in a relatively short time frame, such as during the 6-week
summer break, over a 2-3 month period during school, or during a rotation. The type of projects that
might be appropriate include, but are not limited to, case studies, literature reviews, or chart reviews
asking specific, circumscribed questions.
2. Longer-term Projects: Students desiring more exposure to research can consider longer-term
projects requiring 6 months to a year of time commitment. The student would likely take time off from
school to work on the project. There is flexibility in when this can be done; some students choose to
take off a year between the second and third years of medical school or to add a fifth year. Longerterm projects provide opportunities for hypothesis generation, data collection and interaction with
participants, data analysis, and writing. Longer-term projects are more likely to result in co-authored
publications.
Both short and longer-term projects can be used to fulfill the Scholarly Project option for the Fourth
Year Special Study Modules requirement.
If the work of a faculty member listed below is of interest, you may contact them directly by email.
We hope that you will choose to become involved in research in the Department of Psychiatry and
find it an exciting part of your career development. Thank you for your interest. Please don't hesitate
to contact me if you have questions or would like further information.
Best wishes,
Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Chair for Research
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
[email protected]
916-703-0259
PSYCHIATRY FACULTY RESEARCH INTERESTS
1.
David G. Amaral, Ph.D, [email protected]
Dr. Amaral's multidisciplinary studies exmaine the neuroanatomical, behavioral and
electrophysiological organization and functions of brain systems that are involved in learning,
memory, emotion and social behavior carried out on the human brain and on animal models. He also
conducts research on neurobiological correlates of autism.
2.
Melissa Bauman, Ph.D., [email protected]
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Dr. Bauman’s research interests focus on the neural systems that mediate species-typical social
behavior. She utilizes animal models to study autism. Her current research examines how changes in
the prenatal environment, in particular activation and/or abnormalities in the mother’s immune
system, may alter the brain/behavior development of offspring.
3.
Cameron S. Carter, M.D., [email protected]
Director, UC Davis Imaging Research Center
Dr. Carter's research focuses on the pathophysiology of disturbances in cognition in mental disorders
such as schizophrenia and OCD, with the goal of developing more effective therapies which can
improve patients' chances of rehabilitation. Dr. Carter is also involved in the development of new
treatments for cognitive disability in schizophrenia and other brain disorders. A key element of the
philosophy of his laboratory is that good clinical research can only proceed if it is being constantly
informed by ongoing theoretical and methodological progress in basic cognitive neuroscience, and
that the experiments of nature provided by clinical brain disorders may provide us with powerful
additional insights into the neural basis of normal cognition.
4.
Prabhakara V. Choudary, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Choudary's primary research interest is regulation of disease gene expression. His current
research focuses on identifying genes showing abnormal patterns of expression in postmortem brains
of neuropsychiatric patients. Genome-wide approaches including microarray, differential display, and
single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping technologies are some of the contemporary
biomedical research tools used in this work. The goals of this effort are to advance our understanding
of the molecular basis of psychiatric diseases and to discover biomarkers and/or novel drug-targets
for one or more of the behavioral disorders under study, i.e., mood disorders and schizophrenia.
5.
Irwin Feinberg M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Feinberg conducts quantitative studies of the relation of sleep EEG to age over the human life
span and the implications of these relations for the function of sleep and the nature of brain aging.
6.
David Hessl, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Hessl has focused his research on genetic, brain, environmental and neuroendocrine factors
affecting cognition and behavior in children and adults with fragile X syndrome. He also studies
premutation carriers of fragile X who as children are at increased risk for attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder and autism, and who as older adults are at risk for a neurodegenerative disease involving
tremor, ataxia, and dementia. He conducts collaborative studies with researchers from several
disciplines, including neuroscience, molecular genetics, and neuropathology in an effort to
understand links between genetics, brain function and behavior.
7.
Donald M. Hilty, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Hilty helped launch psychiatry telecommunication services through the UC Davis Telemedicine
Program, allowing him to treat patients in remote areas. He is investigating the use of
pharmacological agents to treat bipolar disorders and conducting studies to assess outcomes for
patients with depression and measure patient/provider satisfaction with telemedicine services.
8.
W. Ladson Hinton, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Hinton’s principal interests are culture and psychopathology in older adults, gender influences,
ethnicity, access and quality of care, and qualitative methods. His current research includes a mixed
method qualitative study examining barriers and facilitators of depression care for ethnically diverse
older men in primary care settings and community based research to develop innovative culturally
tailored interventions for Asian American and Latino family caregivers. He is also examining how the
DSM cultural formulation can be adapted to improve cross-cultural psychiatric diagnosis in older
adults
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Richard J. Maddock, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Maddock conducts research on the pathophysiology and treatment of anxiety and mood
disorders. He studies neurobiological models of panic disorder and depression using neuroimaging
methods, particularly magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for measuring glutamate, GABA,
lactate and other brain metabolites. Current studies include investigations of the effects of exercise on
brain metabolism in healthy volunteers and in patients with anxiety and mood disorders.
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Barbara E. McDermott, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. McDermott is a forensic psychologist prospectively evaluating patients using a variety of
standardized assessments to evaluate factors associated with institutional aggression and outcome in
the community. Her lab conducts violence risk assessments, diagnostic assessments, assessments
of symptoms and readiness for release. The primary goal of this research is to evaluate whether, by
employing structured assessments of mental illness, dangerousness and readiness for release,
differences between patients who succeed versus patients who do not can be identified.
11.
Michael Minzenberg, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Minzenberg studies the neurochemical systems in the brain that modulate cognitive function in
healthy individuals, and which may be related to cognitive dysfunction in persons with schizophrenia.
These systems may serve as targets for novel medications to treat this illness. In addition, Dr.
Minzenberg is interested in the processing of social and emotional information and its basis in corticolimbic circuitry, and how dysfunction of this circuitry may relate to emotional and interpersonal
disturbances in both schizophrenia and personality disorders.
Tara Niendam, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Niendam is a clinical psychologist with research and clinical interests in adolescent populations
who are at high risk for severe mental illness, specifically schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She is
interested in understanding how cognitive impairments associated with the onset of mental illness can
negatively impact an adolescent’s ability to maintain friendships and succeed in school. Dr. Niendam
uses cognitive neuroscience methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to
understand the neurobiological bases for clinical symptoms and psychosocial functioning in at risk
youth.
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Stephen Noctor, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Noctor studies development of cortical structures in the central nervous system. He investigates
factors that control proliferation of the precursor cells that produce cortical neurons and glia, and how
cortical cells migrate over long distances to reach their appropriate position in the developing brain.
Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D., [email protected]
Vice Chair for Research
Dr. Ozonoff’s current research focuses on very young children with autism. She is studying the onset
of autism in a prospective investigation that follows high-risk infants from birth through age 3. She is
also studying autistic regression. Dr. Ozonoff’s clinical interests are in the diagnosis and assessment
of autism spectrum disorders, with specializations in infant and adult diagnosis and Asperger
syndrome.
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Dan Ragland, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Ragland’s work investigates the effect of schizophrenia on brain function during episodic memory
encoding and retrieval. Of particular interest is the role that organizational abilities play in new
learning and subsequent memory retrieval, how schizophrenia disrupts these organizational
processes, and how these deficits might be remediated to improve patients’ frontotemporal brain
activity and daily function. His research has used a combination of neuropsychological and functional
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imaging techniques to identify the cognitive functions and brain regions underlying these memory
processes. Dr. Ragland is also interested in developing cognitive interventions for individuals with
schizophrenia in the early stages of illness.
16.
Sally J. Rogers, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Rogers specializes in the study of treatments for very young children with autism. Dr. Rogers
studies early social, cognitive, and emotional development, development of motor skills,
communication, imitation, and language in children with severe disabilities, development of social
relationships in people with disabilities, and treatment efficacy in autism.
17.
Julie Schweitzer, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Schweitzer's interests include the identification and treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity
(ADHD) and related disorders in children and adults using behavioral, functional neuroimaging and
ERP methods. In addition, her laboratory is currently conducting clinical trials research including
assessing the effects of computerized cognitive training versus parent education on school and
executive functioning in children with ADHD. Other projects include assessing the effect of prenatal
exposure to cocaine on neural and behavioral functioning in adolescents. Dr. Schweitzer's goal is to
apply translational research methods using a variety of basic behavioral and physiological techniques
to develop novel treatment and preventative approaches to addressing attentional disorders.
18.
Andreea L. Seritan, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Seritan is a geriatric psychiatrist with an interest in cognitive disorders, in particular dementias
associated with movement disorders. She is a member of Drs. Randi and Paul Hagerman’s
interdisciplinary research team, working to advance understanding of psychiatric and cognitive
aspects of fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS).
19.
Tony J. Simon, Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Simon is a pediatric cognitive neuroscientist. His research focuses on the neural basis of cognitive
impairments seen in genetic disorders that produce mental retardation, developmental disability and
psychopathology. Dr. Simon investigates how dysfunction in specific neurocognitive processing
systems, such as attention and spatial or temporal processing, can generate a range of cognitive and
behavioral impairments. His goal is to develop remedial intervention programs that will minimize such
disability. Dr. Simon's current projects center on studies of children with chromosome 22q11.2
deletion syndrome. He uses neuroimaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI), Voxel Based Morphometrics, and Diffusion Tensor Fiber Imaging in order to study the
structure, function and connective patterns in the developing brain.
20.
Marjorie Solomon,Ph.D., [email protected]
Dr. Solomon’s current research efforts involve studies about social skills, parent-child interaction
therapy for children with autism spectrum disorders, and friendship and attachment in high functioning
children with autism spectrum disorders. Additional research interests are in: cognitive control and
higher cognition, including reinforcement learning in high functioning individuals with autism spectrum
disorders, as well as comparative development of pervasive development disorders and psychotic
illnesses, using cognitive neuroscience methods and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Guohua Xia, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Xia's interests include biopsychosocial aspects of major psychiatric disorders including crosscultrual issues in mental health. Current research projects include Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
(TMS) treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. He is also exploring TMS usage in
cognitive function studies with or without brain diseases.
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Peter Yellowlees, M.D., [email protected]
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Research interests include: telemedicine and eHealth, long distance health and education delivery,
internet email and video consultation services, and the use of virtual reality for health education on
the internet..
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Jong H. Yoon, M.D., [email protected]
Dr. Yoon's research focuses on the investigation of the function (or dysfunction) of the prefrontal
cortex in the healthy and diseased state. To that end, he has begun a parallel series of visual object
working memory studies in healthy and schizophrenic subjects. In these experiments he is studying
the relative contribution of the PFC and the visual assocation areas in maintenance functions in the
face of external distractors. In another set of studies, he will be examining the impact of affective
information on inhibitory control processes in working memory.