Events at Reed

An understanding of psychiatric disorders requires a merging of methods from psychology and neurobiology. Psychology has created powerful methods for isolating and characterizing the functional properties of behavioral and cognitive regulation mechanisms. Neurobiology has developed methods that permit an unprecedented understanding of the biological substrates of behavior and cognition. In our work with a transgenic mouse model of schizophrenia we have found remarkable similarities between the mouse and patients with respect to altered neurobiology and consequent deficits in motivation and cognition. The synergy between basic psychological science, neurobiology and psychiatry has great potential to lead to deeper understanding of behavior and neurobiology as well as lead to improvements in diagnosis and treatment in clinical settings. Peter Balsam, Barnard College professor of psychology and Samuel R. Milbank Chair, is principal investigator in the Adaptive Behavior Laboratory for Barnard College and Columbia University.