Posts classified under: Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences

Associate Member

Associate Professor in Residence
Director of Anxiety Disorders Research
Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

My research focuses on understanding the pathophysiological basis of interoception, the process by which the nervous system senses internal body signals that are used to regulate bodily homeostasis. In addition, I investigate neuroscience-informed clinical applications of interoceptive interventions for disorders affecting physical or mental health. My interdisciplinary expertise harnesses methods from pharmacology, cognitive neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, electroencephalography, computational psychiatry, and behavioral clinical trials and applies them to 1) develop better methods for assessing interoception, and 2) answer basic and clinical questions in individuals with psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and eating disorders, and individuals with medical conditions, including cardiac arrhythmias. My work aims to determine how a better understanding of the pathophysiological basis of interoceptive symptoms can be translated clinically via the systematic testing of novel experimental therapeutics for these conditions. To accomplish these aims, I have integrated numerous methods to interrogate cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal interoception across psychiatric and medical conditions, including the combination of pharmacological probes with functional magnetic resonance imaging (pharmaco-fMRI), combination of mechanosensory probes with electroencephalography (EEG) and computational modeling, and evaluation of non-pharmacologic interventions for anxiolysis (floatation-REST; Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy aka ‘float therapy’). My research projects have been NIH funded at the principal investigator level at every stage of my career (F31, R01 supplement, K23, R34, R01, and P20 subproject), as well as by private foundation and industry grants. Over the past 9 years I served as Director of Clinical Operations at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR), supervising numerous NIH and industry-sponsored clinical trials, ensuring the safety of participants and successful completion of project-specific data collection.