Hamed Ekhtiari, M.D., Ph.D.Associate Investigator, Laureate Institute for Brain Research
Volunteer Faculty Member, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oklahoma Email: hekhtiari@laureateinstitute.org | Phone: 918-502-5105
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Scientific Background
Dr. Ekhtiari admitted to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), the first rank medical school in Iran, as a medical student, after passing the highly competitive national university entrance exam with a rank of 11 out of over 350,000 participants. Facing daily challenges of people with substance use disorder (SUD) in Tehran, he became interested to the neuroscience of cognitive disorders associated with SUDs. He received his first small grant as a medical student in this field in 2000 and published his first paper on the “role of prefrontal cortex in risky decision making” in 2001. He graduated from the medical school with honors in 2004 with a dissertation on the risky decision making and impulsivity. Immediately, he started to work at the Iranian National Center for Addiction Studies (INCAS) in 2004 in one of the least affluent neighborhoods in Tehran and launched a neurocognitive lab there in 2005. He also started a research program at Institute for Cognitive Science Studies (ICSS) in Tehran in 2010 entitled “Translational Neuroscience Program”. He enrolled in a PhD program in neuroimaging at TUMS in 2011 and did his thesis project on the neural basis of response inhibition using fMRI. Then, he moved to the U.S. for a postdoctoral position in the same direction with Dr. Martin Paulus, at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). He promoted to the associate investigator position at LIBR in January 2018.
Dr Ekhtiari started to work in the field of transcranial brain stimulation with an awarded short-term fellowship at Harvard university in 2009. Afterwards, during contribution in different studies using fMRI and brain stimulation, he realized many potentials in this field for understanding causal mechanisms involved in SUD to design therapeutic interventions. In 2014, He published one of the first pieces of evidence on the potential hopes for modulation of drug craving among methamphetamine users with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). His joint review paper on non-invasive brain stimulation and its challenges was published in the Neuron in 2015. In early 2018, He published his preliminary results for the first combined tDCS fMRI study among people with SUD. He completed his first randomized controlled clinical trial in methamphetamine users at LIBR as a PI with tDCS fMRI in January 2019 (NCT03382379). In late 2018, he received the NARSAD young investigator award on “examining the utility of fronto-parietal synchronization (FPS) to enhance self-control to cue induced cravings in individuals with opioid use disorders”. He hopes to extend his activities with transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation (TES/TMS) technologies using fMRI as a biomarker for prediction and monitoring among people with mental health disorders.
Dr Ekhtiari has also focused intently on the development of cognitive training and rehabilitation programs for people with SUDs. He has recently written a chapter for the world-renowned textbook “Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: The International Handbook” on brain rehabilitation for psychiatric disorders with specific sections focused on SUDs. In 2014, He conducted his first clinical trial of neurocognitive rehabilitation for people with SUD, using a package termed “NEuroCOgnitive Rehabilitation for Disease of Addiction” (NECOREDA) in a collaboration with Mehmet Sofuoglou, Yale University. Results from this study were recently published in 2017. He also recently published a review depicting the future of the field in regards to neurocognitive interventions with SUDs. Based on his background in the field, in a collaboration with Drs. Robin Aupperle and Martin Paulus, he recently developed a new package with more in-depth neuroscience informed interventions called “Neurocognitive Empowerment for Addiction Treatment” (NEAT). In July 2018, he received a three years grant from Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to run a randomized clinical trials among people with opioid use disorder with NEAT as PI.
Dr. Ekhtiari is a passionate teacher and advisor for students who are interested to come to the field of applied clinical neuroscience from different backgrounds, i.e., mathematics, computer science, physics, biology, engineering or psychology. He has been in the advisory board of over 30 MSc and PhD students. Dr. Ekhtiari has three recorded full semester courses on fundamentals of cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience methods (basic and advanced) in Persian in the Maktabkhooneh website (academic non-for-profit website).
Dr Ekhtiari started to work in the field of transcranial brain stimulation with an awarded short-term fellowship at Harvard university in 2009. Afterwards, during contribution in different studies using fMRI and brain stimulation, he realized many potentials in this field for understanding causal mechanisms involved in SUD to design therapeutic interventions. In 2014, He published one of the first pieces of evidence on the potential hopes for modulation of drug craving among methamphetamine users with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). His joint review paper on non-invasive brain stimulation and its challenges was published in the Neuron in 2015. In early 2018, He published his preliminary results for the first combined tDCS fMRI study among people with SUD. He completed his first randomized controlled clinical trial in methamphetamine users at LIBR as a PI with tDCS fMRI in January 2019 (NCT03382379). In late 2018, he received the NARSAD young investigator award on “examining the utility of fronto-parietal synchronization (FPS) to enhance self-control to cue induced cravings in individuals with opioid use disorders”. He hopes to extend his activities with transcranial electrical and magnetic stimulation (TES/TMS) technologies using fMRI as a biomarker for prediction and monitoring among people with mental health disorders.
Dr Ekhtiari has also focused intently on the development of cognitive training and rehabilitation programs for people with SUDs. He has recently written a chapter for the world-renowned textbook “Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: The International Handbook” on brain rehabilitation for psychiatric disorders with specific sections focused on SUDs. In 2014, He conducted his first clinical trial of neurocognitive rehabilitation for people with SUD, using a package termed “NEuroCOgnitive Rehabilitation for Disease of Addiction” (NECOREDA) in a collaboration with Mehmet Sofuoglou, Yale University. Results from this study were recently published in 2017. He also recently published a review depicting the future of the field in regards to neurocognitive interventions with SUDs. Based on his background in the field, in a collaboration with Drs. Robin Aupperle and Martin Paulus, he recently developed a new package with more in-depth neuroscience informed interventions called “Neurocognitive Empowerment for Addiction Treatment” (NEAT). In July 2018, he received a three years grant from Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) to run a randomized clinical trials among people with opioid use disorder with NEAT as PI.
Dr. Ekhtiari is a passionate teacher and advisor for students who are interested to come to the field of applied clinical neuroscience from different backgrounds, i.e., mathematics, computer science, physics, biology, engineering or psychology. He has been in the advisory board of over 30 MSc and PhD students. Dr. Ekhtiari has three recorded full semester courses on fundamentals of cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience methods (basic and advanced) in Persian in the Maktabkhooneh website (academic non-for-profit website).
Selected Publications
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Ekhtiari, H., Kuplicki, R., Yeh, H. W., & Paulus, M. P. (2019). Physical characteristics not psychological state or trait characteristics predict motion during resting state fMRI. Sci Rep, 9(1), 419. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-36699-0
Shahbabaie, A., Ebrahimpoor, M., Hariri, A., Nitsche, M. A., Hatami, J., Fatemizadeh, E., . . . Ekhtiari, H. (2018). Transcranial DC stimulation modifies functional connectivity of large‐scale brain networks in abstinent methamphetamine users. Brain and Behavior. e00922, doi.org/10.1002/brb3.922
Yavari, F., Nitsche, M. A., & Ekhtiari, H. (2017). Transcranial Electric Stimulation for Precision Medicine: A Spatiomechanistic Framework. Front Hum Neurosci, 11, 159. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00159
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Ekhtiari, H., Rezapour, T., Aupperle, R. L., & Paulus, M. P. (2017). Neuroscience-informed psychoeducation for addiction medicine: A neurocognitive perspective. Prog Brain Res, 235, 239-264. doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2017.08.013
Ekhtiari, H., Victor, T., Paulus, M., (2017) Aberrant Decision-Making and Drug Addiction – How Strong is the Evidence? Current Opinions in Behavioral Sciences, 13, 25-33.
Ekhtiari, H., Faghiri, A., Oghabian, M. A., Paulus, M. P., (2016) Functional neuroimaging for addiction medicine: From mechanisms to practical considerations. Progress in Brain Research, 224, 129-153. doi:10.1016/bs.pbr.2015.10.001
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Rezapour, T., Hatami, J., Farhoudian, A., Sofuoglu, M., Noroozi, A., Daneshmand, R., . . . Ekhtiari, H. (2017). Cognitive rehabilitation for individuals with opioid use disorder: A randomized controlled trial. Neuropsychol Rehabil, 1-17. doi:10.1080/09602011.2017.1391103
Ekhtiari, H., Paulus, M., (2016) Preface: Neuroscience for Addiction Medicine: From Prevention to Rehabilitation. Progress in Brain Research, 223-224, xix-xx.
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Research Collaborators
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Ali Farhoudian
INCAS, TUMS Felipe Fregni
Harvard University Irene Jillson
Georgetown University Javad Hatami
ICSS |
Kaveh Ashenayei
University of Tulsa Majid Nili Ahmadabadi
University of Tehran Marom Bikson
City University of New York Mehmet Sofuoglu
Yale University |
Tara Rezapour
ICSS Michael Nitsche
Dortmund University Mohammad Ali Oghabian
NIAG, TUMS Vincent Walsh
UCL |