Schizophrenia is a debilitating disease characterized by cognitive impairment due to both general and regionally specific brain dysfunction which appears to have polygenic contributions. The Cognitive Neuronal Systems Unit of the Schizophrenia Research Laboratory uses functional brain imaging (fMRI), cognitive testing, and genetic analyses to define the relationship among cognitive impairment, genetic influences, and brain dysfunction in patients with schizophrenia. In the future, we will also use functional genetic polymorphisms to guide our research using brain stimulation techniques (rTMS and tDCS) and the novel application of existing medications as adjunctive therapy to antipsychotic treatment in order to reverse cognitive impairments in patients with schizophrenia.
Dr Weickert received a Bachelor of Arts degree in the Biological Sciences from Kean University of New Jersey, USA, and while at the Graduate School of the City University of New York (CUNY) where he received a Master of Arts from the Biological Psychology Program and a Master of Philosophy from the Psychology Program, his studies focused on Cognitive Psychology. He was also an Adjunct Lecturer in the Psychology Department at Hunter College. He has received several undergraduate and graduate level academic and research awards. Dr Weickert received a doctorate in Psychology from CUNY. His dissertation work on short-term working memory deficits in aging and early Alzheimer's disease was conducted at the New York University Medical Center Aging and Dementia Research Center in Manhattan where he also worked as an assistant research scientist. Dr Weickert received an Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship to study cognitive deficits in schizophrenia with the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA. Dr Weickert's postdoctoral research has resulted in over a dozen peer reviewed publications, which appear in well respected scientific journals. His first publication related to schizophrenia has generated over 150 citations. He is also a co-author of chapters in two Psychiatry textbooks. He has been a research mentor to well over a dozen students ranging from advanced high school students to medical fellows. He is a member of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping and the Society for Neuroscience and he has been a reviewer of grant applications and numerous manuscripts submitted to scientific journals. He has presented his work and been an invited speaker at many national and international scientific meetings.
(CASSI) Clinical Trial of a Hormonal Modulator in SchizophreniaCognitive and Affective Symptoms in Schizophrenia Intervention (CASSI) Trial Of all the various symptoms associated with schizophrenia, impairments to cognition function are generally resistant to
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Brain stimulation studies to assess cortical role in category learning and reverse deficits in schizophreniaThe unique contribution of different brain regions to category learning remains unclear and represents a critical gap in our current knowledge base. |
BACKGROUND: Although patients with schizophrenia display an overall probabilistic category learning performance deficit, the extent to which this deficit occurs in unaffected siblings of patien
