Katherine H. Karlsgodt, PhD

Dr. Katherine Karlsgodt is an Assistant Investigator at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and The Zucker Hillside Hospital as well as an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at the Hofstra NorthShore-LIJ School of Medicine. She did her undergraduate studies in Psychology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Psychology. Her dissertation on functional neuroimaging of working memory in individuals with schizophrenia was awarded the New York Academy of Sciences Cattell Dissertation Award. Her postdoctoral work, which focused on translational neuroimaging studies across human subjects and genetic mouse models of schizophrenia, was carried out in the Neurogenetics Affinity Group at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Karlsgodt’s lab is currently supported through the National Institute of Health’s Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) initiative.

Research by Dr. Karlsgodt and her group takes an interdisciplinary approach to investigating the neural circuitry underlying the executive functions, such as working memory, in individuals with severe psychiatric illness. Working memory is complex cognitive process that relies on a network of coordinated brain regions. It can be investigated across species and at the cellular, systems, and behavioral levels, making it particularly well-suited to multimodal research techniques. In addition, working memory plays an important role in higher level cognitive processes such as decision making. Dr. Karlsgodt’s work has incorporated methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), small animal MRI, behavioral testing in humans and mice, and studies in relevant patient populations such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Adolescence is an important risk period for the onset of psychiatric illness, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It is also a critical neurodevelopmental period in which life decisions start to be taken over by the adolescent. However, decision making ability during this period may be limited. For instance, reward and executive functions may be modulated differently, or by different factors, during adolescent development and as a result may be imbalanced, leading to risky or non-optimal decisions. Individuals with schizophrenia and bipolar also show decreased decision making ability even in adulthood, although in adult patients, deficits appear to be driven by executive dysfunction in schizophrenia and reward dysfunction in bipolar. Given the demonstrated importance of executive and reward networks to decision making in adolescence as well as schizophrenia and bipolar, one primary research project takes the novel approach of deconstructing this complex process and testing the independent contributions of reward and executive networks to decision making behavior. We are longitudinally assessing a sample of adolescents with affective and non-affective psychosis and bipolar disorder, as well as healthy controls, using multimodal neuroimaging. This work may help identify novel treatment opportunities specifically appropriate for developing adolescents, who may be amenable to treatments that would not be as effective in adults. Our project proposes the critical step of taking a longitudinal approach to understanding how neurodevelopmental changes impact complex, real-life behavior in both healthy individuals and those with severe psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, we propose to take a spectrum based approach to understanding differences in decision making in adolescence by relating specific symptom domains (regardless of diagnosis) to changes in specific neural circuits, an approach which ultimately may help us develop targeted treatments specifically tailored to the dynamic and developing brains of young adult patients.

Angelica Bato, BA
Lab Manager and MRI Research Coordinator
Email: abato@nshs.edu

Melanie Blair, MA
Recruitment and Clinical Research Coordinator
Email: Mblair1@nshs.edu

Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut
Degree: BA
1999
Field of Study: Psychology

University of California, Los Angeles
Degree: MA
2003
Field of Study: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience

University of California, Los Angeles
Degree: PhD
2007
Field of Study: Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience

University of California, Los Angeles
Degree: Post-Doctoral Training
Field of Study: Psychiatry and Neurogenetics

1999 Psychology Award, Trinity College Psychology Department
1999 Partners in Excellence Award, Massachusetts General Hospital, Partners Healthcare System
2001 Travel Award, Women Gender and Drug Abuse, CPDD, NIDA
2003-2004 UCLA Graduate Division Travel Award
2005 Will Rogers Memorial Fellowship
2006 American Psychological Foundation/Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology (APF/COGDOP) Scholarship
2007 Department of Psychology Gengerelli Distinguished Dissertation Award
2008 New York Academy of Sciences James McKeen Cattell Dissertation Award
2010 Friends of Semel Institute Travel Award
2010 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Travel Award
2011 International Congress on Schizophrenia Research, Young Investigator Award
2013 Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists

1. Karlsgodt KH, van Erp TGM, Bearden CE, Cannon TD: “Altered age-related trajectories in functional brain activation in healthy adolescents and those at risk for psychosis”, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, doi:pii: S0925-4927(13)00217-5. 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2013.08.004, 2013
2. Karlsgodt KH, Jacobson SC, Seal M, Fusar-Poli, P: “The Relationship of Developmental Changes in White Matter to the Onset of Psychosis.” Current Pharmaceutical Design, 18(4):422-32, 2012
3. Karlsgodt KH,  Rosser T, Lutkenhoff ES, Cannon TD, Silva AC, Bearden CE: “Alterations in white matter microstructure in Neurofibromatosis-1″, PLoS-One, 7(10), 2012
4. Lutkenhoff E*, Karlsgodt KH*, Stein J, Thompson P, Cannon TD, Jentsch JD, “Structural and functional neuroimaging phenotypes in dysbindin mutant mice”, Neuroimage 62(1):120-9, 2012
5. Gee DG, Karlsgodt KH, van Erp TG, Bearden CE, Lieberman MD, Belger A, Perkins DO, Olvet DM, Cornblatt BA, Constable T, Woods SW, Addington J, Cadenhead KS, McGlashan TH, Seidman LJ, Tsuang MT, Walker EF, Cannon TD; on behalf of the NAPLS Consortium. “Altered age-related trajectories of amygdala-prefrontal circuitry in adolescents at clinical high risk for psychosis: A preliminary study”, Schizophrenia Research, 134(1):1-9, 2012
6. Karlsgodt KH, Bachman P, Winkler AM, Bearden CE, Glahn DC: “Genetic influence on the working memory circuitry: Behavior, structure, function, and extension to illness.” Behavioural Brain Research, epub on line Aug 22, 2011.
7. Karlsgodt KH*, Robleto K*, Trantham-Davidson H*, Jairl C, Cannon TD, Lavin A**, Jentsch JD**: “Reduced dysbindin expression mediates NMDA receptor hypofunction and impaired working memory performance”, Biological Psychiatry, 69: 28-34, 2011
8. Karlsgodt KH, Kochunov P, Winkler AM, Almasy L, Duggirala R, Olvera RL, Fox PT, Blangero J, Glahn DC: “A multimodal assessment of the genetic control over working memory”, Journal of Neuroscience, 30(24) 8197-202, 2010
9. Shilyansky C, Karlsgodt KH, Cummings D, Sidiropoulou K, Hardt M, James AS, Ehninger D, Bearden CE, Poirazi P, Jentsch JD, Cannon TD, Levine MS, Silva AJ: “Neurofibromin regulates corticostriatal inhibitory networks during working memory performance”, Proceedings of the National Science Academy, 107(29)13141-6, 2010
10. Karlsgodt KH, Sun D, Cannon TD: “Structural and Functional Brain Abnormalities in Schizophrenia”, Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(4) 226-231, 2010

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