Sponsored by the UCLA Brain Mapping Center Faculty
The focus of these talks is on advancing the use of brain mapping methods in neuroscience with an emphasis on contemporary issues of neuroplasticity, neurodevelopment, and biomarker development in neuropsychiatric disease.
Hosted By: Shantanu Joshi, PhD, Neurology, UCLA
Katherine H Karlsgodt, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Psychology, UCLA |
High level cognitive deficits and corresponding changes in the structure and function of the large scale brain networks, including the executive network, are well established in schizophrenia. However, the degree to which such deficits may scale across the psychosis spectrum and in early stages of psychosis is less well understood. Here, we used multimodal neuroimaging in conjunction with cognitive and clinical measures to examine the neural basis of executive and reward function deficits in youth with a range of psychotic spectrum disorders as well as in individuals experiencing subclinical psychosis. We are particularly interested in the way neurodevelopmental changes that occur across the period of adolescence and young adulthood associated with illness onset may contribute to cognitive and neural deficits, as understanding this critical period may ultimately support the development of age-targeted treatments specifically tailored to the dynamic and developing brains of young individuals with major mental illnesses.