Dr. Godfrey Pearlson
Principal Investigator
Dr. Pearlson is currently founding director of the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, a 50-person organization consisting of 4 component labs that specializes in the translational neuroscience of major mental illness. The center includes two 3-Tesla research-dedicated MRI scanners and scans over 1200 individuals annually, all of whom are genotyped. It has a fully equipped psychophysiology lab and a bio-bank for specimen storage.
Dr. Pearlson’s research uses neuroimaging as a tool to address a broader array of questions regarding the neurobiology of major mental disorders, primarily psychosis and substance abuse. Important “firsts” include showing that structural and functional brain changes associated with schizophrenia can also occur in bipolar disorder (1981), and the relationship of structural and functional abnormalities in the superior temporal gyrus with hallucinations in schizophrenia (1990).
Diana King, BA
Lab Manager
Diana graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Clark University in 1999 and has been working in research since. After a period of time dedicated to raising her young family, she returned to the IOL to work on a dementia research project examining metabolic syndrome in the offspring of dementia patients. At the completion of that project she transitioned to the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center in Dr. Godfrey Pearlson’s lab as project manager.
Here she manages a team of research assistants in several large scale NIH research projects such as Neuroscience of Marijuana Impaired Driving, Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism, Psychosis and Affective Research Domains and Intermediate Phenotypes, and Bipolar-Schizophrenia Network for Intermediate Phenotypes 2.
Harold Burbank, BS
Research Assistant
Harold graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a concentration in research. As part of his undergraduate experience he completed a year of neuropsychopharmacology research and earned a neuroscience minor.
Before joining the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center he worked in community-based social work with adults with major mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His responsibilities on the B-SNIP2 project include recruiting participants, conducting and rating clinical and neuropsychological assessments, serving as secondary operator for MRI, EEG, and eye tracking, and DNA sample collection.
Alana Gallagher, BS
Research Assistant
Alana graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. During her undergraduate career, Alana was a research assistant in the Behavioral Laboratory of Emotion and Psychophysiology and completed an independent study in the biology department studying mechanisms that aid in neural regeneration in the chick olfactory epithelium.
At Olin, Alana primarily works on studies under the Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism (CTNA), but assists with recruitment and data collection on the B-SNIP 2 project.
Rachel Horseman, BS
Research Assistant
Rachel Horseman, B.S. Rachel graduated from the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio May 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience, Biology, and French. For two years she earned experience in the cognition lab at the Psychology Department working with undergraduate students and professors on various research studies, using measures such as sweat conductance, heart monitoring, and self-reports.
Her thesis looked at gender differences in self-reported and physiological responses to emotion. She is currently a research assistant for the BSNIP2 and PARDIP projects at the Olin Center recruiting participants, administering clinical interviews and cognitive testing, operating MRI, EEG, and eye tracking tasks, and collecting DNA samples.
Lindsey Scarpace, BS
Research Assistant
Lindsey graduated from Eastern Connecticut State University in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. During her undergraduate career Lindsey developed two of her own research studies with both the college and geriatric populations, showing a definite interest in the research field. She also worked with a small company completing program evaluation research on a state funded program for low income families.
Prior to joining the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center team, Lindsey spent some time volunteering, assisting in data compiling and clean-up for past research studies at the ONRC. She is now responsible for multiple aspects of several projects including B-SNIP 2. Full responsibilities include recruitment, conducting clinical and neuropsychological assessments, DNA collection, EEG, eye tracking, and serving as a secondary operator for MRI.
Madelynn Tice, BA
Research Assistant
Madelynn graduated from Cornell University in 2015 with a bachelor of arts in biology concentrating in neuroscience and behavior, and a minor in global health. While at Cornell she spent 3 years doing research in the human development department where she studied the effect poverty has the cognitive and behavioral development in infants.
Her responsibilities on the B-SNIP2 project include recruiting participants, conducting and rating clinical and neuropsychological assessments, serving as secondary operator for MRI, EEG, and eye tracking, and DNA sample collection.
Deirdre von Pechmann, BS
Electrophysiology Unit Leader
