The focus of our research program, most broadly construed, is targeted at understanding schizophrenia as a disorder of neurocognition, and then elucidating the implications of this understanding for rehabilitation.  More specifically, our studies are focused on the development and evaluation of novel behavioral approaches for treatment of deficits in elementary aspects of cognition, including attention, memory and problem-solving in people with schizophrenia.  The efficacy of these interventions, known collectively as cognitive remediation, are assessed with outcome measures that range across a variety of levels of analysis including functional neuroimaging data, standardized neurocognitive probes, clinic-administered mediational measures of functioning, psychiatric symptoms, community function and employment status.  More recent work is directed at augmenting evidence-based practices in rehabilitation, such as social-skills training, with novel approaches to cognitive remediation in schizophrenia.   We are also interested in refining methods for measuring neurocognitive dysfunction in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, understanding factors that influence subjective and objective indicators of quality-of-life in the disorder, and developing remediation strategies for deficits in emotion recognition and other aspects of social cognition.  

As part of this work we have ongoing research partnerships with several community mental health treatment centers in Connecticut including The Institute of Living in Hartford, Intercommunity Mental Health Center in East Hartford. and the Connecticut Valley Hospital here in Middletown.   Our research is currently funded by a Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), and the Wesleyan University Grants in Support of Scholarship Program.   We have additional collaborations with the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center for developing cognitive training programs for enhancing programs of smoking cessation .