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Cortical Circuitry and Cognition in Schizophrenia
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| Our Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders (CCNMD), funded by the NIMH through 2008, offers a highly interactive scientific environment that integrates the basic and clinical research activities of multiple investigators from the University of Pittsburgh's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and School of Medicine, in concert with faculty at the adjacent Carnegie Mellon University and with accomplished senior scientists at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities. Collectively, our Center represents a broad array of expertise that spans molecular, developmental, systems, cognitive and clinical neuroscience. | |||
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| Scientific Focus | |||
| The research activities of Center investigators are motivated by the following hypothesis: Certain critical disturbances in the regulation of cognition in schizophrenia reflect functional abnormalities both in the intrinsic circuitry of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and in its interconnections with other cortical and subcortical regions. These functional disturbances arise during postnatal development as a consequence of alterations in the molecular signals and structural elements that determine synaptic efficacy in the affected circuits. Figure 1 summarizes the circuitry that is the focus of these studies and some of the abnormalities in this circuitry that have been found in schizophrenia. | |||
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| Figure 1. Schematic diagram illustrating some components of DLPFC circuitry and the alterations observed in schizophrenia. The elements in blue indicate the principal findings that provide the foundation for the hypotheses to be tested in the funded studies. DA = dopamine; MDTN = mediodorsal thalamic nucleus. | |||
| This hypothesis is being tested by the work conducted within each of seven programs of research (see Figure 2), and is subject to modification by the results obtained from all of the projects. As a result of our extensive interactions, all Center investigators are made aware of the data that suggest modifications to the hypothesis, and they are then able to make appropriate adjustments in their study designs or experimental models. Thus, our objective is to operate in a truly bidirectional fashion such that individual projects both attend to and contribute to the central hypothesis. | |||
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| Figure 2. Schematic diagram illustrating the orientation and principal technical approaches of the Center's seven projects, named according to the PI, and the species utilized. The icons of different size connected by an arrow indicate that developmental studies are conducted in that species. | |||
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| Training and Education | |||
| In addition to its specific research objectives, the Center provides 1) a rich environment for training and career development in which graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and psychiatric residents can become involved in studies that bring the methods and knowledge base of basic neuroscience to address critical questions in schizophrenia research, and 2) a mechanism for disseminating the importance of, and the knowledge gained from, translational studies of schizophrenia to the broader scientific and lay communities. | |||
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| Center Investigators | |||
| University of Pittsburgh David A. Lewis, MD, UPMC Endowed Professor in Translational Neuroscience Monica Beneyto, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Germán Barrionuevo, MD, Professor of Neuroscience Cameron S. Carter, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Psychology Raymond Y. Cho, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Carol L. Colby, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience Guillermo González-Burgos, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Anthony A. Grace, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry Gretchen L. Haas, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry Takanori Hashimoto, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Satish Iyengar, PhD, Professor and Chair of Statistics Matcheri S. Kesahavan, MD, Professor of Psychiatry Leonid S. Krimer, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Vishwajit L. Nimgaonkar, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics Ori Rosen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Statistics Allan R. Sampson, PhD, Professor of Statistics Susan R. Sesack, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry Andrew V. Stenger, PhD, Assistant Professor of Radiology Robert A. Sweet, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry Carnegie Mellon University Carl R. Olson, PhD, Professor, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition; Director, Primate Physiology Laboratory Vanderbilt University Pat R. Levitt, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology; Director, Kennedy Center; Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Karoly Mirnics, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh Princeton University Jonathan D. Cohen, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychology; Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh |
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