To supplement the psychophysiological methodology listed above, we have adapted our experimental paradigms for the MR scanner. This project is being funded by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) and is being conducted through the Center for Cognitive Medicine here at UIC (collaborators: Ellen Herbener, Ph.D. & John Sweeney, Ph.D.).  This study is with a subset of the participants from the psychophysiological experiment listed above in order to compare our results across methods.

Psychophysiological experiments in individuals with depression and anxiety

Current Projects

Depressive and anxiety disorders are each associated with significant impairment and disability and when they co-occur (which happens at alarmingly high rates) are especially harmful and difficult to treat. Therefore, some of the basic underlying questions that our lab examines include:

 

· “Why do depression and anxiety co-occur so often?”

· “Are there different and/or similar emotional processes that underlie depression and anxiety?”

· “What are some biological markers for depression vs. anxiety?”

· “What are the risk factors for developing depression vs. anxiety?”

 

It is our hope that addressing these questions will help in the development of more targeted treatments for depression and anxiety.

One way that these questions are being addressed is through an examination of putative psychophysiological markers for several emotional/motivational processes. Some of the markers we examine include asymmetries of cortical EEG activity, event-related potentials, startle eyeblink response, and EKG (HR and RSA). This project is with individuals with depression, panic disorder, and comorbid depression and panic and is currently funded by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH- R21MH080689-02).

fMRI experiments

Examinations of emotional processes in non-clinical populations

In addition to the above studies in clinical populations, we are currently working on several projects attempting to understand how particular emotional/motivational processes ‘behave in normal’ populations. That is, in order to fully understand ‘abnormal’ emotional processes in clinical populations, we must first understand these emotional processes in nonclinical populations.

 

One of the ways that we are studying these emotional processes is through an examination of genetic variants (e.g., SNPs) that may underlie these emotional processes. This exciting new pilot project is in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey Bishop, Pharm.D. in the UIC College of Pharmacy Pharmacogenetics Laboratory and is being funded by a grant from the UIC Office of Social Science Research.

Projects with collaborators outside UIC Department of Psychology

The majority of the work in our lab involves the experimental psychopathology studies described above. However, our lab is also currently involved in numerous projects with individuals outside of the UIC Department of Psychology and our graduate students play critical roles in all of them. For example, in collaboration with colleagues at the Oregon Research Institute (e.g., Peter Lewinsohn, Ph.D., John Seeley, Ph.D., Daniel Klein, Ph.D.) we are working on numerous projects examining the validity, course, and family history of subthreshold psychopathology (i.e., conditions below DSM-IV cutoffs). In collaboration with Marty Harrow, Ph.D. in the UIC Department of Psychiatry, we are examining the 20 year longitudinal course of a sample of depressed individuals. In collaboration with John Allen, Ph.D. (University of Arizona) and various EEG researchers throughout the world, we are examining the inter-lab reliability of scoring of EEG data. Lastly, our lab is working with Daniel Klein, Ph.D. (Stony Brook University) on a longitudinal project examining temperamental precursors and risk factors for depression and anxiety disorders.

 

Emotional processes in depression and anxiety