Affiliate Members
ASSOCIATES
T. Sigi Hale, Ph.D., Research Scientist
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Hale has been a life long practitioner of martial arts and various mindfulness practices and currently conducts research on brain-states and brain laterality in human development to try and better elucidate the underlying nature of atypical cerebral asymmetry in ADHD and other behavioral conditions. Moreover, he brings to his studies a specific interest in exploring how self-regulation of brain-states might be utilized to increase our capabilities and capacity for well-being.
Lobsang Rapgay, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Director, Behavioral Medicine Clinic and Program, UCLA Semel Institute
Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Rapgay specializes in clinical behavioral medicine with focus on the assessment and treatment of chronic psychophysiological disorders and psychiatric symptoms. He has extensive training in psychoanalytical psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, behavioral therapy, clinical hypnosis and clinical EEG and peripheral biofeedback. He has developed an evidence based time limited assessment and treatment program and is currently conducting preliminary studies to determine its efficacy. He is also conducting preliminary research in the efficacy of an affect based neuro-physiological intervention for depression and chronic pain that incorporates MAPs. As a monk for over 20 years, he has studied Tibetan Buddhism extensively as well as the theory and practice of Tibetan medicine and practiced Tibetan medicine for several years. He has written several books on meditation and Tibetan medicine and was the first President of the International Association of Tibetan Physicians. He also teaches, tutors and supervises UCLA medical pain fellows, residents, students, psychology post doctoral fellows, interns and externs in the practice of clinical behavioral medicine.
Lidia Zylowska, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor
Founding Member, MARC, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Lidia Zylowska is a board-certified adult psychiatrist focusing on mindfulness-based interventions and adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Dr. Zylowska completed her medical training at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and her psychiatry training at UCLA. Her background includes training in MBSR, MBCT and diverse mind-body techniques. In 2003, Dr. Zylowska was awarded the UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program Fellowship during which she co-developed Mindful Awareness Program (MAP) for ADHD and led the intial feasibility study. Currently, Dr. Zylowska has a private practice in West LA and also works as a consultant for mindfulness-based research at the Westside Regional Center. She continues to teach mindfulness for ADHD and lectures on the topic to clinicians, patients and the general public.
Deborah L. Ackerman, MS, Ph.D.
Associate Adjunct Professor, recalled, Department of Epidemiology, UCLA
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Ackerman is Director of the Health Outcomes Core of the Center for Neurovisceral Sciences and Women's Health. She is also Director of PROCAIM (Patient-Reported Outcomes from Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine), a web-based information system linking patients, researchers, and treatment providers interested in mind/body and other forms of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine. Trained in pharmacology and epidemiology, her major research interests have been the rigorous evaluation of psychotherapeutics, placebo effects, and outcome measures. As a recipient of an NIMH-funded Mentored Research Scientist award, Dr. Ackerman gained additional training in medical informatics, psychological and neurological assessments, and pharmacoepidemiology, specifically in the design of large clinical trials and databases to address questions of heterogeneity within diagnostic groups in terms of etiology, natural history, and treatment response.
Melissa Del'Homme, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Psychologist, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Department, UCLA
Associate Director, Attention Deficit Disorder Program, UCLA
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Del'Homme is a psychologist and Associate Director of the UCLA ADHD Program. She specializes in the assessment of children and adults for Learning Disabilities and ADHD. Her research interests include the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD and the occurrence of Learning Disabilities in children with ADHD. She is currently the clinical training director for the NIMH funded Centers for Intervention Development and Applied Research (CIDAR) program.
Neal Halfon, M.D., MPH
Director, UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities
Professor, UCLA Departments of Pediatrics, Health Services, and Policy Studies
Email: [email protected], Website: www.healthychild.ucla.edu
Dr. Halfon's primary research interests include the provision of developmental service to young children, access to care for poor children, and delivery of health services to children with special health care needs, with particular interest in children who have been abused and neglected and are being cared for by the foster care system. He has published investigations of immunizations for inner-city children, the health care needs to children in foster care, trends in chronic illnesses for children, the delivery of health care services for children with asthma, as well as investigations of new models of health service delivery for high-risk children.
Marco Iacoboni, MD, Ph.D., Professor, Dept of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
Director, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab, Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
E-mail: [email protected]
Marco Iacoboni is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Iacoboni pioneered the research on mirror neurons, the "smart cells" in our brain that allow us to understand others. His research has been covered by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, The Economist, and major TV networks. Marco Iacoboni's new book on mirror neurons is entitled Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2008).
Jonas Kaplan, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Brain & Creativity Institute and Department of Psychology, USC
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Kaplan is a cognitive neuroscientist at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute. His research focuses on issues of social relationships, empathy, self, action perception and creativity. He uses functional neuroimaging to examine the neural mechanisms that underlie our experience of resonating with other people and being aware of our selves. One area of current study involves understanding how the brain modulates our empathic reactions to people in our own or different social groups. Dr. Kaplan also has an interest in emerging functional neuroimaging data analysis techniques that may allow new kinds of information to be extracted from brain imaging studies.
Sandra Loo, Ph.D., Affiliated Research Scientist
Director of Pediatric Neuropsychology, Medical Psychology Assessment Clinic
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Loo conducts research investigating genetics and EEG profiles as to elucidate biomarkers of behavioral disorders such as ADHD. Dr. Loo's work in EEG also extends to clinical applications such as whether EEG is a biomarker for medication response as well as the efficacy of EEG biofeedback or mindfulness meditation as a viable intervention in ADHD. Dr. Loo is also a Co-Investigator on the UCLA ADHD Genetics Study, where she designed the cognitive battery, supervises administration of tasks and oversees data processing and analysis. Finally, Dr. Loo is Director of Pediatric Neuropsychology and supervises pre-doctoral psychology interns and post-doctoral neuropsychology fellows in the Medical Psychology Assessment Clinic and has expertise in the cognitive deficits evident in ADHD, Dyslexia, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Emeran A. Mayer, M.D.
Professor, UCLA Departments of Medicine, Physiology, Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences
Director, UCLA Center for Neurovisceral Sciences & Women's Health
Chair, UCLA Collaborative Centers for Integrative Medicine
E-mail: [email protected], Website: http://www.uclacns.org
Dr. Mayer has a longstanding interest in clinical and neurobiology aspects of brain-gut interactions in health and disease. He has published more than 135 original articles, numerous review articles and chapters and co-edited two books Dr. Mayer has made seminal contributions to the characterization of physiologic alterations in patients with functional disorders, in particular in the area of visceral pain, stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia and the effect of aversive early life events on stress system responsiveness in the adult. He has played an active role in promoting an integrative model of mind/brain/body interactions in his clinical practice, lectures and publications. Along these lines, he has organized two seminal interdisciplinary symposia on the neurobiology of mind/brain/body interactions and has published a volume of Progress in Brain Research on this topic.
Bruce Naliboff, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Email: [email protected]
Joseph O'Neill, Ph.D., Research Scientist
Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, UCLA
Email: [email protected]
Dr. O'Neill is Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute. He is an expert on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain with specialization in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS). His prior work emphasized normal aging and age-associated dementias; his present efforts focus on normal child development and pediatric psychiatric disorders. This includes neuroimaging investigations of how non-pharmacological treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, affect the brain..
Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D., Research Scientist, Department of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Schwartz is a leading neuroscientist and a seminal thinker and researcher in the field of self-directed neuroplasticity. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications in the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry. Dr. Schwartz has also authored three popular books with HarperCollins, Brain Lock: Free Yourself From Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior (1997), The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force (2002), and Dear Patrick: Letters to a Young Man (2003). His major research interest over the past two decades has been brain imaging/functional neuroanatomy and cognitive-behavioral therapy, with a focus on the pathological mechanisms and psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He has also been a devoted practitioner of mindfulness meditation in the Pali Buddhist tradition for over twenty-five years.
Joanna Arch, Ph.D., Post-Doctoral Fellow, UCLA Department of Psychology
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Arch's research and clinical work focuses on the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, with a particular focus on mindfulness and acceptance-based treatments. She is currently involved in several randomized clinical trials comparing cognitive behavioral therapy and a mindfulness and acceptance-based therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Her goals in this and related work include: 1) to rigorously test the efficacy of mindfulness and acceptance-based treatments for anxiety disorders; 2) to examine the role of mindfulness in reducing anxiety and increasing anxiety tolerance in a controlled laboratory setting; 3) to investigate of the relationship between mindfulness and emotion regulation more generally. Within these aims, her work synthesizes basic and applied approaches to the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders.