The Oscar-Berman Lab
Research in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs since the 1970s. Our work focuses on the emotional and cognitive consequences of human brain damage, and presently, much of it focuses on the effects of long-term chronic alcoholism. Emotion dysregulation may underlie addictive disorders such as alcoholism, which in turn may further alter emotional states. Alcoholism-related abnormalities in brain centers controlling emotional perception and regulation may differ in men and women, and can differentially alter the course of alcoholism directly, by affecting sensitivity to feedback, as well as the ability to make economic, social, and health-related decisions. The Lab’s research addresses these issues using neurobehavioral tests in concert with MRI measures of brain structure and function.