Psychiatric Disorders
The Dartmouth Neuropsychology Program and Brain Imaging Laboratory (BIL) are actively involved in psychiatric neuroscience research. Areas of emphasis include the neural basis of specific cognitive, behavioral and emotional symptoms, as well as the effects of treatment on brain structure and function. Techniques employed in our studies include fMRI, DTI, structural MRI (including volumetrics, deformation based morphometry, and voxel based morphometry), genetics, as well as neuropsychological and diagnostic assessments. Populations being studied include schizophrenia with and without co-occurring substance use disorder (cannabis and/or alcohol), bipolar disorder, and pediatric and adult obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Schizophrenia
The Dartmouth BIL has a longstanding history of research on schizophrenia. Active areas of study include the neural basis of unawareness of illness, apathy, memory systems and executive functions, as well as the role brain reward circuitry in risk for substance abuse in patients with schizophrenia. Recently, we have begun to extend some of our work to patients with schizotypal personality disorder (with Matthew Garlinghouse, post-doctoral fellow in the BIL). Funding has included grants from NARSAD, the Stanley Research Foundation, the Hitchcock Foundation, NIDA, and NIH.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
We are investigating the neural substrates of neuropsychological theories of etiology of OCD including executive dysfunction (response inhibition, response monitoring), implicit memory, and others. Another area of active interest is identifying links between psychological and neurobiological theories of etiology in OCD. The work has been funded by the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation and the Neuroscience Center at Dartmouth.
Bipolar Disorder
Studies are focused on identifying abnormalities in the neural substrates of executive functions such as response inhibition and working memory in adults with bipolar I disorder. This research has been funded by NARSAD.
Selected BIL Psychiatric Neuroscience Publications
Roth, R. M., Koven, N. S., Pendergrass, J. C., Flashman, L. A., McAllister, T. W., & Saykin, A. J. (2008). Apathy and the processing of novelty in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 98, 232-238.
Flashman, L. A., Roth, R. M., Cleavinger, H. B., Pixley, H. S., McAllister, T. W., Saykin, A. J., & Vidaver, R. (2007). Cavum septum pellucidum in schizophrenia: Symptom and neuropsychological correlates. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 154, 147-155.
Roth, R. M., Flashman, L. A., & McAllister, T. W. (2007). Apathy and its treatment. Current Treatment Options in Neurology 9(5), 363-370.
Roth, R. M., Saykin, A. J., Flashman, L. A., Pixley, H. S., West, J. D., & Mamourian, A. C. (2007). Event-related fMRI of response inhibition in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Biological Psychiatry 62, 901-909.
Roth, R. M., Koven, N. S., Randolph, J. J., Flashman, L. A., Pixley, H. S., Ricketts, S. M., et al. (2006). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of executive control in bipolar disorder. Neuroreport 17(11), 1085-1089.
Roth, R. M., & Pendergrass, J. C. (2006). Advances in the neurobiology of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder. Current Medical Literature - Psychiatry 17(2), 33-39.
Roth, R. M., Brunette, M. F., & Green, A. I. (2005). Treatment of substance use disorders in schizophrenia: A unifying neurobiological mechanism? Current Psychiatry Reports 7, 283-291.
Roth, R. M., Milovan, D., Baribeau, J., & O'Connor, K. (2005). Neuropsychological functioning in early- and late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences 17(2), 208-213.
Flashman, L. A., & Green, M. F. (2004). Review of cognition and brain structure in schizophrenia: profiles, longitudinal course, and effects of treatment. Psychiatric Clinics of North America 27(1), 1-18.
Flashman, L.A. & Roth, R.M. (2004). Neural correlates of insight in psychosis. In X. Amador & A. David (Eds.), Insight and Psychosis (pp. 157-176). New York: Oxford University Press.
Roth, R.M., Flashman, L.A., Saykin, A.J., McAllister, T.W., & Vidaver, R. (2004). Apathy in schizophrenia: Reduced frontal volume and neuropsychological deficits. American Journal of Psychiatry 161(1), 157-159.
Flashman, L. A. (2002). Disorders of awareness in neuropsychiatric syndromes: an update. Current Psychiatry Reports, 4(5), 346-353.
Flashman, L. A., McAllister, T. W., Johnson, S. C., Rick, J. H., Green, R. L., & Saykin, A. J. (2001). Specific frontal lobe subregions correlated with unawareness of illness in schizophrenia: a preliminary study. Journal of Neuropsychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences 13(2), 255-257.