LIBR is pleased to announce that Dr. Ryan Smith, Associate Research Professor, has been awarded a $900,000 grant between 2022-2024 from the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation. The grant title is “Using active inference to uncover the neurocomputational mechanisms that contribute to well-being and their potential differences across diverse populations”. The research will include up to 700 individuals using both online and in-person approaches to complete the work. Through data collection using self-report measures, decision-making tasks, and computational analyses, the team seeks to better understand how one’s beliefs and behavior from a cultural standpoint may be related to health outcomes and how learning from new experiences may or may not change those beliefs to influence the way we make decisions. “On behalf of LIBR, our laboratory is thrilled with the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation award,” said Ryan Smith, Ph.D. “This funding makes possible the collaborative advancement of new methods to improve emotional and physical wellbeing for society while also laying the groundwork for new directions to improve subjective wellbeing within and/or across cultures.” Congratulations to Dr. Smith and his LIBR laboratory!
0 Comments
Our LIBR 2021 annual report publication provides an overview of last year's happenings at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research. In the report below, you will find a letter from the president, Dr. Martin Paulus, information on our mission, history and specific aims, current areas of research, funding sources, events and lectures, awards, individual laboratories, selected publications and opportunities to participate in research. We hope you enjoy the publication and look forward to continuing our goal to improve mental health through neuroscience in 2022 and beyond.
Tracy L. Bale, Ph.D. - April 5, 2022
"Extracellular Vesicles as Systemic Stress Signals and Novel Mechanisms in Neurodevelopment" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm VIRTUAL LECTURE - ZOOM LINK BELOW Tracy L. Bale is a Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the Center for Epigenetic Research in Child Health and Brain Development in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in the Department of Pharmacology, and her postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute with Dr. Wylie Vale. Dr. Bale was Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania for 15 years prior to her move to UMB. Her research focuses on understanding the role of stress dysregulation in neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases, and the sex differences that underlie disease vulnerability in humans and using the mouse as a model. She is interested in developing models of stress and adversity across the lifespan, including examining the effects at the germ cell level and the mechanisms involved in altering neurodevelopment. Dr. Bale’s lab also examines these mechanisms in humans, attempting to translate research findings to identify those processes and biomarkers important for promoting disease risk and resilience, especially in vulnerable populations. In her leadership role as Center Director, Dr. Bale works to engage in the Baltimore community, developing collaborations and partnerships with local organizations, health officials, social workers, and policy makers including working with the Baltimore City Council. In a translational approach, Dr. Bale’s Center brings neuroscience research and outcomes into the community. Partnering with Baltimore City schools and staff, families, and community leaders, Dr. Bale’s Center provides a lens through which policy, education and community can be viewed, focusing on the lasting and significant effects across generations of trauma, discrimination and violence. She serves on many internal and external advisory committees, panels, and boards, and has been the recipient of numerous awards for her research in this area including the Richard E. Weitzman Memorial award from the Endocrine Society, the Medtronic Award from the Society for Women’s Health Research for outstanding research that has led to the improvement of women’s health, and the Daniel H. Efron award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. She is the President of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), and was recently awarded Top 100 Women in Maryland 2020. Learning objectives:
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85192026323 Meeting ID: 851 9202 6323 Passcode: 068066 Tulsa, Oklahoma – Researchers at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, OK, have identified an abnormal link between the autonomic and central nervous systems, specifically via communication between the heart and part of the brain’s frontal cortex, in women with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The team’s objective was to test whether individuals suffering from GAD show dysfunction in the neural circuitry underlying cardiovascular arousal and whether that may be associated with certain disorder-related symptoms such as anxiety and body sensation. To conduct the study, they completed a randomized clinical trial of 58 adult female participants (29 with GAD and 29 matching healthy comparisons). During the study they stimulated the cardiovascular system using a medicine called isoproterenol, which mimics the effects of adrenaline but, unlike adrenaline, cannot cross the blood-brain-barrier to directly impact brain activity. Intravenous infusions of isoproterenol or saline were administered during functional magnetic resonance imaging, allowing them to assess whether the brains of patients with GAD differ in the processing of information received from the body, a function known as ‘interoception’. The main findings were that patients with GAD differed significantly from healthy participants on several variables, but only during the lower of two dosages of isoproterenol. Specifically, they perceived their heartbeats to be more intense and had relatively higher heart rates and lower neural activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a brain area known to regulate the autonomic nervous system and to facilitate feelings of fear or safety. Self-reported anxiety was significantly higher only for those with GAD compared to healthy participants in response to either dose.
The research findings, “Association of Generalized Anxiety Disorder with Autonomic Hypersensitivity and Blunted Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Activity During Peripheral Adrenergic Stimulation,” were published in the February 2, 2022 edition of JAMA Psychiatry. For lead author Adam Teed, a postdoctoral associate at LIBR, the fact that the abnormal results observed for those with GAD occurred during lower, but not higher, doses of medicine was the primary finding from the study: “administering isoproterenol allowed us to provide causal evidence that an abnormally sensitive cardiovascular system and an abnormally insensitive frontal cortex in GAD patients lowers their ability to regulate bodily arousal. This could help to explain why they experience anxiety so frequently and in a wide variety of contexts.” The authors hope that their study prompts further research into the ventromedial prefrontal cortex as a therapeutic target for novel treatments helping individuals with GAD to regulate physiological and emotional responses to stress. Beyond the novel link revealed by this study, it is noteworthy that cardiovascular hypersensitivity was observed for GAD patients at all. This is because the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5), the standard classification system used by mental health professionals in the United States, describes autonomic symptoms such as sweating, rapid heart rate, or shortness of breath, as being less prominent in GAD than other anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder. As senior author Sahib Khalsa, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist and principal investigator at LIBR puts it, “this study shows us that anxiety is not only something that happens within our brains but within our bodies as well.” Thus, these findings show that abnormal functioning of the autonomic nervous system is not only a factor in GAD, but it occurs in combination with abnormal functioning of certain areas of the brain. Such associations are what Dr. Khalsa believes to be the most important product of this research: “it is the interaction between our brain and body that may be essential for determining whether an innocuous situation creates a state of fear in individuals with GAD. We need to better understand how this abnormal physiological response relates to the functional impairments that commonly interfere with the daily lives of such individuals.” The research team was led by senior author Sahib Khalsa, MD, PhD, also an associate professor in the Oxley College of Health Sciences at The University of Tulsa, and lead author Adam Teed, PhD, and included others from LIBR as well as The University of Oklahoma (OU), the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of California at San Diego (UCSD). The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, The William K. Warren Foundation, and the National Institute of General Medicine Sciences and was conducted at LIBR between January 2017 and November 2019. CONTACT: For more information about the project, contact Sahib Khalsa, MD, PhD, at Laureate Institute for Brain Research at skhalsa@laureateinstitute.org. Catherine Tallon-Baudry, Ph.D. - December 15, 2021
"From Visceral Signals to Subjectivity" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm VIRTUAL LECTURE - ZOOM LINK BELOW https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86347284258 Meeting ID: 863 4728 4258 Passcode: 195226 Dr. Tallon-Baudry aims at understanding how brain activity turns into conscious experience. During her early career (PhD in Lyon, France; post-doc in Bremen, Germany), she revealed the existence of induced gamma-band oscillations in humans and showed their role in feature-binding as well as other cognitive visual functions (attention, short-term memory, learning, and consciousness), developing a strong expertise in human electrophysiology (MEG, EEG, iEEG). In 2002, she moved to Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris where, over 10 years, she went through all stages from independent young researcher to director of both a large research group and of a brain imaging facility, developing her managerial skills. Having unexpectedly discovered a double dissociation between spatial attention and visual consciousness, both at the neural and behavioral level, she began to reconsider the nature of visual consciousness and concentrated on subjective, rather than executive, aspects of consciousness. This led her to move to Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, in 2012 to focus again on basic research. She created a new cognitive neuroscience group, where they develop and test the hypothesis that the central monitoring of interoceptive signals underlies subjectivity. Learning objectives:
Dean Mobbs, Ph.D. - November 2, 2021
"Space, Time and Fear" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Program in the LPCH auditorium 11:00am - 11:45am Lunch will be served beforehand in the LPCH banquet room Dean Mobbs is interested in the intersection of behavioral ecology, economics, emotion, and social psychology. By understanding the neural, computational and behavioral dynamics of human social and emotional experiences, he wants to develop theoretical models that merge those fields. Using brain-imaging, computational modeling and behavioral techniques, his lab is probing the neurobiological systems responsible for fear and anxiety, revealing how people learn to control their fears, and how anxiety and psychiatric disorders disrupt those processes. He's interested in the value of social behavior. In particular, he's trying to determine the behavioral and neural signatures behind positive social interactions—for example, those involved with altruism, empathy, and when viewing others' success as rewarding (vicarious reward and reflected glory). His research also focuses on the interplay between social interaction and emotion—how fear can depend on whether you're alone or in a group (e.g. risk dilution). Prior to Caltech, Mobbs was an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University and a research assistant at Stanford University. His awards include the APS Janet Spence Award For Transformative Early Career Contributions (2015) and the NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2015). He is a life fellow of Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge. Learning objectives:
Professor Klaas Stephan - October 5, 2021
"Translational Neuromodeling, Computational Psychiatry, and Computational Psychomatics" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture VIRTUAL PRESENTATION (see below for Zoom link info) 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Klaas Enno Stephan is a computational neuroscientist and medical doctor. He is Full Professor for Translational Neuromodeling & Computation Psychiatry at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. His scientific work spans the entire translational pipeline, from the development of disease theories via the creation of computational methods to their application in clinical studies. A central goal is the development of clinically useful “computational assays” for psychiatry and psychosomatics, with a current focus on brain-body interactions in fatigue and depression. In 2012, Klaas founded the Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU) at Zurich, an interdisciplinary institution with the mission to translate advances in computational neuroscience into diagnostic and prognostic tools for clinical practice. Klaas’ track record includes several disease theories (schizophrenia, fatigue, depression), the development of open source and widely used computational tools for investigating human brain connectivity, as well as numerous studies on psychiatric conditions and disease mechanisms. His work has been recognized by various awards and honours, including the Wiley Young Investigator Award for Human Brain Mapping and election to the Max Planck Society. Learning objectives:
Zoom link: Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86444675383 Meeting ID: 864 4467 5383 Passcode: 314531 John C. Markowitz, M.D. - September 23, 2021
"Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture In-Person Presentation, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital Auditorium 2:00pm - 2:45 pm Refreshments 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Program John C. Markowitz is an American physician, a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and a Psychiatric Researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. For several decades he has conducted research on psychotherapies and medications as treatments for mood disorders (major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder), anxiety disorders, and personality disorders. He is currently conducting an outcome study of three psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) thanks to a five-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. He is most widely published in the area of interpersonal psychotherapy or IPT, a manualized form of treatment, in which he was trained by the late Gerald L. Klerman, M.D. Dr. Markowitz is a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and received his psychiatric residency training at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic of Cornell University Medical School/New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Learning objectives:
Stephen T. Higgins, Ph.D. - June 9, 2021
"Contingency Management in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders and Other Health Conditions" William K. Warren, Jr. Frontiers in Neuroscience Lecture Virtual Presentation via Zoom 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Program Stephen T. Higgins, Ph.D. is Director of the University of Vermont’s (UVM) Center on Behavior and Health, and Principle Investigator on five NIH grants on the general topic of behavior and health, including two center grants, two research grants, and an institutional training award. He is the Virginia H. Donaldson Endowed Professor of Translational Science in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology and serves as Vice Chair of Psychiatry. He has held many national scientific leadership positions, including terms as President of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the American Psychological Association’s Division on Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse. He is the author of more than 300 journal articles and invited book chapters and editor of a dozen volumes and therapist manuals in the area of behavior and health. Learning objectives:
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82801930666 Meeting ID: 828 0193 0666 Passcode: 964710 "Connectedness and Mental Health" by Dr. Martin Paulus, in Collaboration with ResearchMatch and ADAA5/21/2021 On May 18th, 2021, Dr. Martin Paulus presented a free webinar on "Connectedness and Mental Health" during the pandemic in collaboration with ResearchMatch and the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA). "Physical and mental health are closely related to how connected we are to others. Loneliness, that feeling of not being connected, is often associated with poorer health. Dr. Martin Paulus, M.D., Scientific Director and President of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and Chair of the ADAA's Scientific Council will talk about how the brain is "wired for connections", and why the current pandemic may be influencing our mental health. He will also discuss ways to focus on "connectedness" as a way to improve mental health." |
Archives
April 2024
Categories
All
|