Research Initiatives

Schizophrenia
Hormone Studies
Autism
Traumatic Brain Injury
Mood Disorders
Normal Brain and Cognitive Function
Pediatric Neuropsychological Studies
Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy

The Center for Cognitive Medicine actively conducts research to learn how to better understand the causes of brain disorders, and how to better diagnose and treat them. In order to do this, we need patients to volunteer for research studies designed to determine how beneficial promising new approaches for diagnosis and treatment really are. Typically, our diagnostic testing involves laboratory assessments of sensory, cognitive and motor systems. We use noninvasive Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) techniques to identify the brain disturbances that cause deficits in these domains. We also conduct studies with healthy individuals so we can define the range of normal function and thereby determine how far any given patient deviates from what it should be for a person of their age and sex. Studies of healthy individuals are also useful in our efforts to learn new information about how the brain controls different types of mental processes.

Our studies investigate a number of different neurological and psychiatric disorders, which change from time to time depending on the research programs of our Center's faculty here at the UIC School of Medicine. The disorders we are currently studying, along with descriptions of the research protocols, are listed above so you can see if any are of interest to you.

We need both patients and healthy subjects for our research studies.

Research Participants