Ongoing Studies

 This study, funded by an R01 from the NIMH (PI: Sheffield), uses a randomized clinical trial (RCT) of cognitive behavioral therapy for psychosis (CBTp) to investigate whether and how predictive processing changes following psychotherapy. Specifically, we are interested in whether over-estimation of environmental volatility and its neurobiological correlates are impacted by treatment targeting persecutory delusions in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Interoception, or the awareness and processing of internal bodily sensations, is a core aspect of the human experience that is modulated, in part, by the insula. This fMRI study is the first to examine insula functioning in schizophrenia during a cardiac interoception task and its relationship to interoceptive inference and clinical phenomenology.

This study, funded by a K23 from the NIMH, identifies individuals experiencing an acute exacerbation of delusions and follows them over the course of 6 months. During that time, we will collect clinical, cognitive and neuroimaging markers of delusions, to help determine their role in delusion severity and maintenance, in order to inform treatment and prevention.