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Contact
information
Department of Psychology
1220 William
James Hall
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John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences Department of Psychology
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Education
M.S. Psychology (1995) Ph.D. Psychology (1998) |
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Phone: 1-617-496-8896 Fax: 1-617-495-3728 |
Laboratory Website |
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Research Interests Dr. Pizzagalli has a broad interest in affective neuroscience, particularly in utilizing neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques to gain a better understanding of the functional neuroanatomy of major depression. In recent years, Dr. Pizzagalli has devoted his efforts to parsing the heterogeneity of depression, and his research has shown that individual differences in depression severity, disorder subtype, and treatment response are associated with specific patterns of brain activation. In one study, for example, pre-treatment electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex predicted treatment response 4-6 months later, raising the intriguing possibility that EEG can be used to prospectively monitor treatment response. Another goal of his research is to investigate the neurobiological underpinnings of anhedonia and to better understand the potential effects of genetic vulnerability and environmental stressors on anhedonia. To this end, Dr. Pizzagalli has developed a new laboratory-based approach to objectively measure subjects’ ability to modulate behavior as a function of their prior exposure to reward. Dr. Pizzagalli is currently the principal investigator on three NIH grants and has received research support from various private foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. His laboratory has ongoing collaborations with the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Group, the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program, and the MGH Center for Human Genetic Research. Dr. Pizzagalli received his M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (1998) from the University of Zurich, Switzerland and did post-doctoral work at University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2006 he was awarded the “Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychophysiology” from the Society for Psychophysiological Research, and in 2007 he received the “Early Career Award” from the EEG & Clinical Neuroscience Society (ECNS). He is currently the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. |
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Selected Publications
Functional neuroanatomy of
depression:
Pizzagalli, D.A., Peccoralo, L.A., Davidson, R.J., Cohen, J.D. (2006).
Resting anterior cingulate activity and abnormal responses to errors
in subjects with elevated depressive symptoms: A 128-channel EEG
study. Human Brain Mapping, 27, 185-201.
Dillon, D.G., Holmes, A.J., Jahn, A.L., Bogdan, R., Wald, L.L., Pizzagalli, D.A. (2008). Dissociation of neural regions associated with anticipatory versus consummatory phases of incentive processing. Psychophysiology, 45, 36-49. Pizzagalli, D.A., Evins, A.E., Schetter Cowman, E., Frank, M.J., Pajtas, P.E., Santesso, D.L., Culhane, M. (2008). Single dose of a dopamine agonist impairs reinforcement learning in humans: Behavioral evidence from a laboratory-based measure of reward responsiveness. Psychopharmacology, 196, 221-232.
Pizzagalli, D.A., Sherwood, R.J., Henriques, J.B., Davidson, R.J. (2005).
Frontal brain asymmetry and reward responsiveness: A Source
localization study. Psychological Science, 16, 805-813 |