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Shulamite Green, Ph.D.

Shulamite Green, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Shulamite Green is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA’s Semel Institute. Dr. Green received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at UCLA in 2014. Thereafter, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center with a focus on pediatric neuroimaging. Dr. Green is currently the director of the Sensory, Cognitive, and Affective Neurodevelopment (SCAN) lab. Dr. Green’s research integrates multiple neuroimaging techniques with behavioral and psychophysiological methodology to determine the biological mechanisms underlying clinical symptoms in a way that can be directly translated to creating interventions and improving quality of life. Much of Dr. Green’s current research is focused on the neurobiological bases of sensory over-responsivity, a common and impairing condition in which individuals over-react to sensory stimuli in their environments, causing challenges with participation in school, work, family life, and the community. Dr. Green conducted some of the first fMRI work demonstrating brain differences in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) specifically related to sensory over-responsivity, as well as identifying potential brain mechanisms through which some children with ASD regulate their sensory responses. She has continued to build on this work to identify how certain brain areas contribute to or regulate these difficulties and interfere with or facilitate attention and social functioning.

Dr. Green also has a strong interest in the impact of parenting and early caregiving adversity on development, with much of her early work focused on how parenting can confer resilience for children with developmental disabilities. Her current NIH-funded K08 career development award is focused on examining how common and distinct neural, behavioral, and clinical correlates of sensory over-responsivity in children adopted from foster care compared to those with autism.

In addition to the K08 award, Dr. Green’s work has been funded by multiple NIH grants, including a recent R01 from NIMH to study the development of sensory regulation across childhood and adolescence, and has been published in prominent scientific journals including JAMA Psychiatry , the American Journal of Psychiatry , the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Translational Psychiatry . Dr. Green is also the recipient of a dissertation award from the International Society for Autism Research as well as a Brain and Behavioral Research Institute Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Green is passionate about mentoring as well as promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in her lab, the department, and academia in general. She co-leads the teaching and mentoring JEDI group for the Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART), and holds monthly JEDI meetings in her lab.

Clinically, Dr. Green serves as the autism specialist for UCLA TIES for Families, a program that provides extensive inter-disciplinary services for families adopting children from foster care. Dr. Green conducts autism evaluations and consultations for therapists working with families in this program.

View a up-to-date publication list: NCBI

Ziva D. Cooper, Ph.D.

Ziva Cooper, Ph.D.

Publications

A selected list of publications:

Lake Stephanie, Walsh Zach, Kerr Thomas, Cooper Ziva D, Buxton Jane, Wood Evan, Ware Mark A, Milloy M J   Frequency of cannabis and illicit opioid use among people who use drugs and report chronic pain: A longitudinal analysis PLoS medicine, 2019; 16(11): e1002967.
Bedi Gillinder, Hao Xuejun, Van Dam Nicholas T, Cooper Ziva D, Rubin Eric, Vadhan Nehal P, Marino Leslie, Haney Margaret   Social motivational processing and interpersonal function in aging cocaine smokers Addiction biology, 2019; 24(5): 1044-1055.
Adinoff Bryon, Cooper Ziva D   Cannabis legalization: progress in harm reduction approaches for substance use and misuse The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2019; 45(6): 707-712.
Chao Thomas, Haney Margaret, Cooper Ziva D, Vadhan Nehal P, Van Dam Nicholas T, Van Snellenberg Jared, Bedi Gillinder   Cognitive function in aging cocaine smokers Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2019; 33(7): 801-810.
Haney Margaret, Cooper Ziva D, Bedi Gillinder, Herrmann Evan, Comer Sandra D, Reed Stephanie Collins, Foltin Richard W, Levin Frances R   Guanfacine decreases symptoms of cannabis withdrawal in daily cannabis smokers Addiction biology, 2019; 24(4): 707-716.
Cooper Ziva D, Adinoff Bryon   Necessity of addressing motivations for cannabis use to guide research The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2019; 45(6): 547-550.
Herrmann Evan S, Cooper Ziva D, Bedi Gillinder, Ramesh Divya, Reed Stephanie Collins, Comer Sandra D, Foltin Richard W, Haney Margaret   Varenicline and nabilone in tobacco and cannabis co-users: effects on tobacco abstinence, withdrawal and a laboratory model of cannabis relapse Addiction biology, 2019; 24(4): 765-776.
Cooper Ziva D, Bedi Gillinder, Ramesh Divya, Balter Rebecca, Comer Sandra D, Haney Margaret   Impact of co-administration of oxycodone and smoked cannabis on analgesia and abuse liability Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018; 43(10): 2046-2055.
Piomelli Daniele, Weiss Susan, Boyd Graham, Pacula Rosalie Liccardo, Cooper Ziva   Cannabis and the Opioid Crisis Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2018; 3(1): 108-116.
Cooper Ziva D, Poklis Justin L, Liu Fei   Methodology for controlled administration of smoked synthetic cannabinoids JWH-018 and JWH-073 Neuropharmacology, 2018; 134(Pt A): 92-100.
Cooper Ziva D, Craft Rebecca M   Sex-Dependent Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: A Translational Perspective Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018; 43(1): 34-51.
Piomelli Daniele, Cooper Ziva, Abrams Donald, Grant Igor, Patel Sachin   A Guide to the National Academy of Science Report on Cannabis: An Exclusive Discussion with Panel Members Cannabis and cannabinoid research, 2017; 2(1): 155-159.
Cooper Ziva D, Haney Margaret   Sex-dependent effects of cannabis-induced analgesia Drug and alcohol dependence, 2016; 167(1): 112-20.
Herrmann Evan S, Cooper Ziva D, Bedi Gillinder, Ramesh Divya, Reed Stephanie C, Comer Sandra D, Foltin Richard W, Haney Margaret   Effects of zolpidem alone and in combination with nabilone on cannabis withdrawal and a laboratory model of relapse in cannabis users Psychopharmacology, 2016; 233(13): 2469-78.
Haney Margaret, Malcolm Robert J, Babalonis Shanna, Nuzzo Paul A, Cooper Ziva D, Bedi Gillinder, Gray Kevin M, McRae-Clark Aimee, Lofwall Michelle R, Sparenborg Steven, Walsh Sharon L   Oral Cannabidiol does not Alter the Subjective, Reinforcing or Cardiovascular Effects of Smoked Cannabis Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2016; 41(8): 1974-82.
Cooper Ziva D, Johnson Kirk W, Pavlicova Martina, Glass Andrew, Vosburg Suzanne K, Sullivan Maria A, Manubay Jeanne M, Martinez Diana M, Jones Jermaine D, Saccone Phillip A, Comer Sandra D   The effects of ibudilast, a glial activation inhibitor, on opioid withdrawal symptoms in opioid-dependent volunteers Addiction biology, 2016; 21(4): 895-903.
Cooper Ziva D   Adverse Effects of Synthetic Cannabinoids: Management of Acute Toxicity and Withdrawal Current psychiatry reports, 2016; 18(5): 52.
Haney Margaret, Ramesh Divya, Glass Andrew, Pavlicova Martina, Bedi Gillinder, Cooper Ziva D   Naltrexone Maintenance Decreases Cannabis Self-Administration and Subjective Effects in Daily Cannabis Smokers Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2015; 40(11): 2489-98.
Balter Rebecca E, Cooper Ziva D, Haney Margaret   Novel Pharmacologic Approaches to Treating Cannabis Use Disorder Current addiction reports, 2014; 1(2): 137-143.
Idan Blank

Idan Blank, Ph.D.

Research and Teaching Interests:

I study how we understand language—a phenomenon that is universal across human cultures, yet unique to our species, and allows us to transmit thoughts from one mind to another. What are the component processes of comprehension? What kind of mental structures allow us to “know the meaning” of an utterance? Which distinctions in meaning do these structures make more/less salient? And what mental operations are used to manipulate them?

To understand how comprehension evolves in our minds, I study how it engages our brains: which aspects of comprehension get their own dedicated neural real estate? Which are inseparable, supported by a joint mechanism? And which rely on circuits that serve many domains beyond language? Using neuroimaging (mostly functional MRI), tools from network neuroscience, and a combination of hypothesis- and data-driven approaches, I characterize the functional regions engaged when adult native speakers understand language: their internal organization and relationship to one another (dissociable vs. tightly linked); the division of “mental labor” and the integration of information across them; and the ways they change following brain injuries.

I also use computational methods to evaluate meaning representations that are generated by algorithms trained on natural texts. I examine what knowledge—about words, their combinations, and the underlying concepts—is captured by these representations, and compare it against behavioral benchmarks. I test which features of the linguistic input are minimally required for machines to extract this knowledge.

Biography:

Idan A. Blank will join UCLA as an Assistant Professor of Psychology in July 2019. He received his PhD (2016) in Cognitive Science from MIT, working with Nancy Kanwisher and Ev Fedorenko, and continued working with Ev as a postdoctoral associate at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Prior to that, he studied mathematics, psychology, and theatre arts in the Lautman Interdisciplinary Program at Tel-Aviv University, where he received his MA (2011) working with Galit Yovel.

Idan Blank’s Curriculum Vitae

Representative Publications:

Mineroff, Z.*, Blank, I.A.*, Mahowald, K., & Fedorenko, E. (2018) A robust dissociation among the language, multiple demand, and default mode networks: evidence from inter-region correlations in effect size. Neuropsychologia, 119, 501-511. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.09.011

Blank, I.A., Kiran, S., & Fedorenko, E. (2017). Can neuroimaging help aphasia researchers? Addressing generalizability, variability, and interpretability. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 34(6), 377-393. DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2017.1402756

Blank, I.A. & Fedorenko, E. (2017) Domain-general brain regions do not track linguistic input as closely as language-selective regions. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(41), 9999–10011. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3642-16.2017

Blank, I., Balewski, Z., Mahowald, K. & Fedorenko, E. (2016). Syntactic processing is distributed across the language system. Neuroimage, 127, 307-323. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.11.069

Blank, I., Kanwisher, N. & Fedorenko, E. (2014). A functional dissociation between language and multiple demand regions revealed in patterns of BOLD fluctuations. Journal of Neurophysiology, 112(5): 1105-1118. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00884.2013

Grand, G.*, Blank, I.A.*, Pereira, F., & Fedorenko, E. (submitted) Semantic projection: recovering human knowledge of multiple, distinct object features from word-embeddings. arXiv:1802.01241

 

Andrew M. Wikenheiser, Ph.D.

Andrew Wikenheiser, Ph.D.

Biography

Our lab studies how neural representations support behaviors like decision making. We approach this question by recording the electrical activity of neurons as rats perform behavioral tasks. Electrophysiological techniques are augmented with optogenetics and computational analyses. Current projects are exploring how interactions between the hippocampus and the orbitofrontal cortex support decision making, the encoding of spatial goals, and the formation of neural representations for abstract stimulus spaces.

Publications

A selected list of publications:

Wikenheiser Andrew M, Marrero-Garcia Yasmin, Schoenbaum Geoffrey   Suppression of Ventral Hippocampal Output Impairs Integrated Orbitofrontal Encoding of Task Structure Neuron, 2017; 95(5): 1197-1207.e3.
Langdon Angela J, Wikenheiser Andrew M, Schoenbaum Geoffrey   Rat mPFC and M2 Play a Waiting Game (at Different Timescales) Neuron, 2017; 94(4): 700-702.
Sadacca Brian F, Wikenheiser Andrew M, Schoenbaum Geoffrey   Toward a theoretical role for tonic norepinephrine in the orbitofrontal cortex in facilitating flexible learning Neuroscience, 2017; 345(4): 124-129.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Schoenbaum Geoffrey   Over the river, through the woods: cognitive maps in the hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 2016; 17(8): 513-23.
Sharpe Melissa J, Wikenheiser Andrew M, Niv Yael, Schoenbaum Geoffrey   The State of the Orbitofrontal Cortex Neuron, 2015; 88(6): 1075-1077.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Redish A David   Decoding the cognitive map: ensemble hippocampal sequences and decision making Current opinion in neurobiology, 2015; 32(6): 8-15.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Redish A David   Hippocampal theta sequences reflect current goals Nature neuroscience, 2015; 18(2): 289-94.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Stephens David W, Redish A David   Subjective costs drive overly patient foraging strategies in rats on an intertemporal foraging task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013; 110(20): 8308-13.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Redish A David   The balance of forward and backward hippocampal sequences shifts across behavioral states Hippocampus, 2013; 23(1): 22-9.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Redish A David   Hippocampal sequences link past, present, and future Trends in cognitive sciences, 2012; 16(7): 361-2.
Wikenheiser Andrew M, Redish A David   Changes in reward contingency modulate the trial-to-trial variability of hippocampal place cells Journal of neurophysiology, 2011; 106(2): 589-98.
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