Welcome from the DirectorMartin Paulus, M.D.
President and Scientific Director "Since arriving at LIBR in 2014, I have been enormously energized by the opportunity to make a real difference using neuroscience to improve the life of patients with mental illness. At the same time, I recognize this is a very challenging task, which cannot be accomplished overnight. However, with a thoughtful eye on what is doable, we are hoping to make a measureable impact on ways to assess and treat patients within five years. We have recently completed recruitment for a major study at LIBR, the Tulsa 1000, or T-1000. The goal for this study is to determine whether neuroscience-based measures can be used to predict outcomes in patients with mental illness. In particular, we are trying to determine what factors best predict who will respond well to a particular treatment. The study is a definitive step towards developing a science-based personalized medicine approach in mental health. Unfortunately, mental health treatment providers are still using guesswork and intuition in matching treatments to patients. As a consequence mental health treatment is fundamentally a trial and error endeavor, which can result in prolonged suffering if treatments do not work. The hope is that we will be able to use scientific approaches to more precisely match patients to treatments." 
Dr. Paulus Joins JAMA Psychiatry Editorial Board
Congratulations to Dr. Martin Paulus for being appointed to the Editorial Board of the top-ranked psychiatry journal, JAMA Psychiatry.
LIBR Awarded $11.3 Million Grant
LIBR has been awarded an $11.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help researchers predict and treat mood and anxiety disorders. Known as a Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE) award, it is the largest grant awarded to the institute to date. “This funding makes possible the collaborative advancement of mental health research for the benefit of all Oklahomans while also laying the groundwork for pivotal future funding in mental health science.” - Dr. Martin Paulus, Scientific Director and President 
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Meet the InvestigatorsJennifer Stewart, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Training and Mentoring Research Program Highlights Dr. Stewart’s research employs subjective reports (questionnaires and clinical interviews), behavioral methods, electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how brain patterns linked to cognition, emotion, and their interaction intersect with individual differences in substance use, depression, and anxiety disorders. People who are suffering from drug addictions, depression and/or anxiety often have difficulties processing emotions and making decisions that are evident in patterns of brain activity and behavior. Dr. Stewart’s primary research questions are: (1) Can we identify brain/behavioral markers of risk for future addiction in young adults who have not yet transitioned to chronic mental health problems? (2) In individuals experiencing chronic addiction, can we identify brain/behavioral markers of short-term and long-term abstinence and recovery? (3) Once viable brain/behavioral markers are identified, these can be used in clinical prevention and early intervention efforts. Dr. Stewart completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2008 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In the past decade, Dr. Stewart has assisted in mentoring and training undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and visiting scientists on clinical assessment measures as well as EEG, ERP, and fMRI methodology, data collection/analysis, manuscript writing, talks, poster presentations, and grant applications. She is enthusiastic about science and hopes to empower students with the tools to become successful researchers. Dr. Stewart joined LIBR in July 2018. She has coauthored over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her current research examines parallels between young adults at risk for transition to future substance use disorders and individuals suffering from chronic substance use disorders within the context of: (1) decision making; (2) emotional responding/regulation; and (3) interoception (the processing of bodily signals). 
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What's New & NoteworthySomatomap Paper Published
Dr. Christina Ralph-Nearman and Dr. Sahib Khalsa at LIBR have published a paper with co-authors Dr. Jamie Feusner and Dr. Armen Arevian at UCLA. The paper describes the development of “Somatomap", an innovative mobile tool for assessing body image perception, which was piloted in professional fashion models. Using a visual mapping approach involving 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional avatars, they found that fashion models had unique body concerns and showed evidence of more accurate perception of their bodies. Ongoing research is using Somatomap as a new way to assess body image perception in psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. 
Cannabis Conference: What We Have Learned Through Scientific Research
LIBR and The William K. Warren Foundation sponsored "Cannabis Conference: What We Have Learned Through Scientific Research" on January 17th, 2019 at the Lorton Performance Center on The University of Tulsa campus. The conference featured a panel of scientists and clinicians from around the country who discussed their research findings related to public health and cannabis use. A video recording of the conference will be shared on our YouTube page when available. Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the conference! Interoception Special Issue Published in Biological Psychiatry: CNNI
In November 2016, LIBR organized the Interoception Summit, a first of its kind gathering of interoception experts from around the world. The primary output of this gathering is the white paper “Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap” published in the June 2018 Interoception special issue of Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. Several articles were contributed by LIBR investigators and highlight LIBR's growing impact on the interoception field. |
William K. Warren Jr. "Frontiers in Neuroscience" Conferences Series
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November 19th, 2019
Speaker: Peter Kalivas, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina Topic: "Using the neuroscience of will power to treat addiction" Location: Laureate Conference Center, 6655 South Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK 74136 Time: 11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Lunch (registration required), 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m. Presentation |
The William K. Warren Foundation
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The Laureate Institute for Brain Research opened May 1, 2009 and currently houses a multidisciplinary team of scientists and clinical research staff who apply neuroimaging, genetic, pharmacological and neuropsychological tools to investigate the biology of neuropsychiatric disorders. The Institute's creation was founded by The William K. Warren Foundation for the purpose of conducting studies aimed at developing more effective treatments or prevention strategies for these disorders. The William K. Warren Foundation continues to be the lead sponsor of LIBR research studies, which are led by scientists from diverse backgrounds, including physics, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, developmental neuroscience, computer science and genetics.
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