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Ph.D. Current Academic Appointment
Research Professor of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine
Research Interests
My research focuses on the study of brain-behavior relationships in normal and neurobehaviorally impaired subjects to better understand functional representation in the brain. My early studies examined the nature of auditory function in the right hemisphere, the role of this function in music and speech, and the role of the corpus callosum in interhemispheric communication. Later studies involved a more general behavioral characterization of patients suffering from the AIDS Dementia Complex. The AIDS studies led to the development of clinical trials; these incorporated quantitative behavioral measures in the context of multidisciplinary studies, including functional brain imaging. This model for multidisciplinary study was next applied to the study of a class of genetic degenerative disorders (the ataxias), where my studies of speech were renewed in the context of functional imaging. My current studies involve two areas of behavior: memory and speech production. To complement the studies in the Geriatric Psychopharmacology Research Program, conducted by Dr. Nunzio Pomara, some of the initial studies are focusing on brain systems in normal and abnormal memory. These studies will include normal individuals, individuals at risk for developing a memory impairment, and individuals with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The work will provide a foundation for studies that will examine the effects of specific therapies or the impact of specific biological markers on the severity of a memory disorder. A second set of studies is examining the brain areas involved in the motor control of speech. Speech is affected by a range of degenerative diseases and a number of medications. Equally important, some of the brain areas connected to speech are also linked to a number of neurobehavioral disorders, and understanding the areas' function will have widespread applications.
National Advisory Committees
Selected Publications Sidtis JJ, Anderson JR, Strother SC, Rottenberg DA. Establishing behavioral correlates of functional imaging signals. In A. Gjedde (Ed.) Molecular and Pharmacological Brain Imaging with Positron Emission Tomography. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001. |
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