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Keith Vossel

Keith Vossel, M.D., M.Sc.

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Neurology
David Geffen School of Medicine 
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

Dr. Keith Vossel is the Michael M. Minchin, Jr., President, J.D. French Alzheimer’s Foundation Endowed Chair and Professor of Neurology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and medical degree with highest honors from the University of Tennessee. He completed neurology residency at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he served as a chief resident. Dr. Vossel completed fellowship training in behavioral neurology and dementia research at the University of California, San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes.

Dr. Vossel investigates Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with a focus on brain rhythm abnormalities and translational therapies. Key discoveries include the presence of silent epileptic activity, occurring during sleep and accelerating cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease, effects of amyloid-β and tau deposition on brain rhythms and related cognitive impairments in Alzheimer’s disease, and novel pathological functions of tau in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Dr. Vossel led a phase 2a clinical trial showing that low doses of an antiseizure drug can improve memory and problem solving in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and detectable epileptic activity. Dr. Vossel is broadening these studies in Greater Los Angeles and incorporating them into the expanded activities of Alzheimer’s disease research.

Dr. Vossel has written Op-Eds for the Los Angeles Times and has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets including CNN, NPR, The Washington Post, Financial Times, USA Today, STAT, Boston Globe, Daily Mail, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, FOX 11 LA, CBS 2 and KCAL News, KNBC-LA and NBC Channel 4 News, KNX News Radio in LA, Doctor Radio on Sirius XM Radio, and Spectrum News 1 SoCal. Dr. Vossel has received the John Douglas French Alzheimer’s Distinguished Research Scholar Award, a Part the Cloud Translational Research Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Bernese Epilepsy Award from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and the Outstanding Health Care Innovator Award from the Los Angeles Business Journal.

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Naomi Eisenberger, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

I am a nationally recognized expert on the neural correlates underlying social rejection and connection as well as how these neural responses relate to both mental and physical health. I have been the PI or Co-I on many NIH-funded projects that have examined the neural underpinnings of specific social processes or the relationships between social processes and health outcomes. One line of my research has utilized neuroimaging techniques to investigate the neural correlates of social rejection and social connection. Through this line of research, I have shown that the experience of social rejection relies, in part, on physical pain-related neural regions and that the experience of social connection relies, in part, on reward-related neural regions. In another line of research, I have examined the effect of an experimental inflammatory challenge on feelings of depressed mood and social disconnection as well as the neural underpinnings of these changes. Here, we have shown that inflammation can increase feelings of social disconnection by increasing neural sensitivity to positive and negative social stimuli. More recently, I have been examining the neural correlates underlying prosocial behavior as well as the positive impact of prosocial behavior on both mental and physical health. I have also been examining how social connection and disconnection (loneliness) relate to fear learning and extinction, which have implications for mental health outcomes. In summary, I have the expertise, leadership, training, and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed research project.

Lieberman Headshot

Matthew Lieberman, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Professor
Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

My research applies a social cognitive neuroscience approach to examine questions of social and self-understanding, of social pains and pleasures, the social propagation of persuasive information, and of self-control and emotion regulation.  Our work uses a variety of approaches including functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) that allows for up to 6 people to be scanned simultaneously while interacting, and electrocorticography (ECoG).   This work has been funded by NIMH, NIA, NSF, DARPA, DOD, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.  Based on the fact that my lab has published a significant portion of the fMRI work done on implicit emotion regulation, I believe I am well-qualified to serve as a co-I for this proposal.

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Ajay B Satpute, Ph.D.

Faculty Member

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology
University of California, Los Angeles

Personal Statement

Ajay B. Satpute received his doctorate in psychology from UCLA and completed postdoctoral training at Columbia University. His research in social and affective neuroscience combines multimodal brain imaging (3T and 7T fMRI), psychophysiology, experimental psychology, and computational approaches including pattern analysis and deep learning, to model mind-brain-behavior relations. Before joining UCLA, he was on the faculty at Northeastern University and Pomona College. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience and previously served as President of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society.

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