In 2023, LIBR investigators published over 120 peer-reviewed research articles. In conjunction with the release of our annual report, we asked each principal investigator to weigh-in on their lab's highlights over the past year. Here's a snapshot of some of the outstanding accomplishments:

Robin Aupperle
The NeuroCATT lab received an R34 award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
(NIAAA) in collaboration with Dr. Charles Taylor at the University of California San Diego and Dr. Kate
Wolitzky-Taylor at the University of California Los Angeles. The grant will fund work furthering the development of an intervention focused on amplification of the positive valence system and reducing alcohol use (AMP-A) for individuals with alcohol use disorder and symptoms of anxiety or depression. The first phase of the project involved collecting input from substance use providers and prior participants concerning the intervention and piloting the treatment with eight individuals. This will lead into a randomized clinical trial comparing the novel intervention with a more traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention.

Chun-Chieh Fan
Dr. Fan was invited to moderate a panel on the genomic analysis of the human brain data at the
American Society of Human Genetics held in Washington, D.C, published a special issue on genetic data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study in Behavior Genetics and was invited to give a workshop on geospatial dat analysis at the BERTHA summer school in Denmark.

Salvador Guinjoan
Dr. Guinjoan’s lab completed the recruitment of 20 persons who suffer from major depression
and varying degrees of rumination intensity, and expect to complete recruitment of 10 persons who are
healthy and will serve as a comparison group for the low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) pilot study
targeting white matter tracts in the anterior limb of the internal capsule in the right brain hemisphere. The lab observed consistent target engagement with this method in a preliminary analysis, and a trend towards resulting clinical effects. This was the first time that white matter tract functional modulation had been demonstrated with a noninvasive method such as LIFU, which before was only possible with costly, invasive, and risky methods involving electrode implantation or tissue ablation. This observation will allow for the testing of additional participants with the goal to make causal inferences about brain mechanisms of symptom generation in major depression and other psychiatric disorders.

Maria Ironside
Dr. Ironside was awarded a $2.1 million 5-year R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health
to investigate “Processes and circuitry underlying threat sensitivity as a treatment target for comorbid
anxiety and depression.” The study employs a pharmaco-fMRI approach to study threat sensitivity using
a novel predator task in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorders (AD), and comorbid MDD and AD. The ultimate aim of this work is to establish treatment targets for comorbid MDD and AD for novel interventions and provide evidence for the separation of MDD from comorbid MDD and AD in future clinical trials.

​Sahib Khalsa
An ingestible vibrating capsule produced reliable changes in gastric-evoked brain activity and stomach
sensation in healthy individuals. This minimally invasive mechanosensory approach serves as the basis for
an ongoing NIH-funded study focused on identifying abnormal gut-brain interactions in women with anorexia nervosa as well as in individuals with functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Martin Paulus
Many computational measures have poor psychometric properties, which could invalidate previous
findings and hinder ongoing research. The Paulus lab recommended steps to address these issues and
facilitate the translation of computational assays to clinical practice. As well, Individuals with MDD have lower expression of miR-93, which is associated with higher levels of certain inflammatory markers. Unlike healthy individuals, those with MDD don’t show an adaptive epigenetic regulation of a brain region (insula) involved in processing internal body signals, hinting at the molecular mechanisms that might be altering brain responsivity to these signals in MDD.

Jonathan Savitz
Dr. Savitz continued his work with cytomegalovirus (CMV). Drs. Haixia Zheng and Savitz published a paper in Molecular Psychiatry showing that CMV infection is associated with suicide, increased expression of inflammatory markers and microglial “activation” postmortem. As well, the Savitz lab published a Hot Topics paper on herpesviruses and psychiatric disorders in Neuropsychopharmacology.

Ryan Smith
Dr. Smith began data collection on a new pilot study examining computational mechanisms of breathing
perception in anxiety disorders. His lab also continued to make progress on a 3-year project funded
by a grant from the Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation. This project investigates neurocomputational predictors of subjective well-being. Data collection was also completed for a study examining the influence of an interoception-based anxiety induction on decision-making mechanisms associated with information-seeking and planning.

Jennifer Stewart
Compared to individuals with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy controls, individuals with amphetamine use disorder 1) report greater positive and negative urgency (taking rash action when feeling good or bad); and 2) exhibit greater right hemisphere brain signals (in right anterior/middle insula, amygdala, and ventral striatum) during successful behavioral inhibition. These findings point to heightened impulsivity during emotional arousal and recruitment of more brain resources to exert inhibitory control.

Wes Thompson
Dr. Thompson gave a talk at the Joint Statistical Meetings on August 7, 2023, on “Annotation-Informed
Polyvertex Scores for Brain-Wide Association Studies", served as the managing guest editor for a special issue of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience on novel methods for population neuroscience, and continued his efforts as Director of Biostatistics for three national consortia on longitudinal neurodevelopment: the National Consortium of Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA), the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study℠, and the HEALthy Brain Child Development (HBCD) Study.

Evan White
LIBR received a DP1 grant for research to be conducted by Dr. White in collaboration with the Shawnee
Tribe of Oklahoma titled “Kipiyecipakiciipe – Coming Home: Establishing clinical cultural neuroscience
as a tool for understanding the role of traditional cultural engagement in mitigating substance misuse
and disorder.” Within American Indian (AI) populations, there is a disproportionate share of negative health and social consequences of substance use disorder (SUD) even after decades of awareness and research. This project aims to integrate community-based participatory research (CBPR) with neuroscience tools to examine the influence of traditional cultural engagement on resilience factors that may protect against poor mental health as well as risk for substance use.

Dr. Paul Holtzheimer - April 2, 2024

“Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Psychiatric Disorders”
William K. Warren, Jr.  Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture 
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm     Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting
https://laureateinstitute-org.zoom.us/j/87343165038

Meeting ID: 873 4316 5038
Passcode: 490646
  
Paul Holtzheimer, MD, is the Deputy Director for Research at the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. He is Professor of Psychiatry and Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and a staff psychiatrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the White River Junction VA Medical Center.
 
Dr. Holtzheimer’s clinical and research interests include developing better interventions for PTSD, depression and related disorders, especially for patients with treatment-resistant and comorbid illness. He has expertise in brain imaging and brain stimulation therapies (including transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroconvulsive therapy, vagus nerve stimulation, and deep brain stimulation). A primary aim of his research program is to better understand the neural circuitry of treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders and to use this information to develop and advance novel treatment approaches, with a particular emphasis on focal brain stimulation therapies.
 
Dr. Holtzheimer is an author on over 100 publications in psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery and neuroimaging. He has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs and multiple non-profit foundations. He has served on the Council of the Society of Biological Psychiatry and on the Board of Directors for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Learning objectives: 

1. Describe the neural circuit paradigm for treatments of psychiatric disorders.
2. Explain transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a potential treatment for psychiatric disorders.
3. Evaluate the current data supporting TMS as a treatment for a range of psychiatric disorders.
   
   

For Physicians: Saint Francis Health System is accredited by the Oklahoma State Medical Association to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Saint Francis Health System designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
 
For Psychologists: The Oklahoma State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, the American Psychological Association and the Oklahoma Psychological Association recognize AMA PRA Category 1  credit™. Saint Francis Health System is accredited by the OSMA
 
For Social Workers: An application has been sent to the Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers for 1 hour Category 1 Clinical. 
 
For CADCs and LADCs Saint Francis Health System is accredited as a provider of continuing education programs for CADCs and LADCs through the Oklahoma Board of Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselors.      (1 hour)
 
The LPC/LMFT This event as been approved by the State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure (BBHL) for 1 hour of CE.  

For questions , email:  Lauren Haguewood at [email protected]