Programs:

Summary

The overall goals of the laboratory are to further understand the etiology and cognitive pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental disorders in psychiatry, in particular, schizophrenia, bipolar psychosis, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia.

Funding

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), Stanley Medical Research Institute, March of Dimes, Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery (MIND), Johnson and Johnson Foundation.

Ongoing Projects

The lab has a developmental focus, studying the contributions of genetic and environmental factors (such as prenatal and perinatal events) to psychiatric disorders and their neurobiological phenotypes. We focus largely on large-scale, population-based family studies to evaluate structural and functional brain abnormalities in persons with schizophrenia and spectrum disorders, bipolar disorders, and ADHD and in genetically related subjects (offspring, siblings, parents) at different developmental epochs, ranging from early teen years to late adult life. Measures of brain function and structure are linked to measures of symptomatology, neurocognition, prenatal and perinatal events, genetic vulnerability, and gonadal steroid hormones (in collaboration with Dr. Jill Goldstein). Age (particularly adolescence) and sex effects on brain function and structure are an important focus of study. We utilize morphometric tools from the MGH Center for Morphometric Analysis (in collaboration with Dave Kennedy, Ph.D. and Nikos Makris, M.D., Ph.D.), including general segmentation, cortical parcellation, cerebellar parcellation, cortical thickness, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Functional measures include tasks of working memory ("N"-back and CPT variants), declarative memory, inhibitory processes, timing, and phonological processing.

Links

Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Commonwealth Research Center
Pediatric Psychopharmacology at MGH
Center for Morphometric Analysis at MGH
Mental Illness and Neuroscience Discovery (MIND Institute)
MGH Psychiatric Neuroscience Division
Martinos Center
SUNY Upstate
UCSD Labs
Poldrack Lab

Staff

Larry J. Seidman, Ph.D.
Laboratory Director
Massachusetts General Hospital - East
Building 149, 13th Street, Room 2603
Tel: 617/726-0264, Fax: 617/726-4078
Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Massachusetts Mental Health Center Public Psychiatry Division of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Director, Commonwealth Research Center
Publications by Dr. Seidman

Junior Faculty

Eve Valera, Ph.D.
Heidi Thermenos, Ph.D.

Postdocs/Research Fellows 2005-2006

Snezana Milanovic, M.D.

Graduate Students 2005-

Ariel Brown (Boston University)
Laura Phillips (Harvard)

Research Staff

Denise Boriel
Mike Schiller