(Courtesy of 4-D Neuroimaging, San Diego, CA)

THE RESEARCH GROUP FOR MIND-BODY DYNAMICS

MEMBERS:

Director: David Shannahoff-Khalsa, Visiting Scholar, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD; President, The Khalsa Foundation for Medical Science

Floyd E. Bloom, MD, Professor & Chairman, Department of Neuropharmacology, Scripps Research Institute, Professor, Depts. of Neuroscience and Psychiatry (adjunct) UCSD

Maide Bucolo, Ph.D.,Dipartimento d' Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania,Catania, Italy

Luigi Fortuna, Ph.D. Professor and Chairman, Dipartimento d' Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania,Catania, Italy

Mattia Frasca, Ph.D.,Dipartimento d' Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania,Catania, Italy

Christopher C. Gallen, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Clinical Operations, Clinical Research and Development, Wyeth Research, Philadelphia, PA

J. Christian Gillin, MD, Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, UCSD & VA Medical Center, Director of the UCSD Mental Health Research Center

Stuart W. Jamieson, MB, Professor & Head of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Dept. of Surgery, UCSD

Matthew B. Kennel, PhD, Assistant Research Scientist, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD

Manuela La Rosa (graduate student), Dipartimento d' Ingegneria Elettrica Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania,Catania, Italy

Saul Levine, MD, Professor, Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dept. of Psychiatry, UCSD, and Chairman and Professor of Psychiatry Children's Hospital San Diego and Director of the Institute for Behavioral Health, Children's Hospital, Director, UCSD Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Services

Roy L. Schult, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD

Barry J. Schwartz, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute; Visiting Scholar, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD

John J. Sidorowich, PhD, Visiting Scholar, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD; Senior Research Scientist, Therma-Wave, Santa Clara, CA

Jon A. Wright, PhD, Research Physicist, Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD

F. Eugene Yates, MD, Professor of Medicine, Medical Monitoring Unit, Department of Medicine, UCLA

Michael G. Ziegler, MD, Professor, Division of Nephrology, Dept of Medicine, UCSD, Director of the Clinical Research Center, UCSD Medical Center

The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics is involved in five primary areas of research:
  1. The use of nonlinear dynamical methods for measuring, imaging, and analyzing high resolution spatial-temporal 148-channel recordings of whole-head magnetoencephalographic (MEG) activity in normal healthy humans and obsessive compulsive disorder patients.
  2. The use of MEG along with nonlinear dynamical methods to investigate the specific brain-effects of yogic meditation techniques for treating psychiatric and other disorders.
  3. The clinical use of yogic meditation techniques for the treatment of psychiatric and related disorders; our past efforts have demonstrated the unique benefits for treating obsessive compulsive disorders using these techniques (work funded through the NIH).
  4. The study of EEG brain rhythms and multi-variate physiology during sleep in normal, depressed, and insomniacs.
  5. The non-invasive study of the heart, heart-brain relations, and multi-variate physiology in normal subjects and patients with diseased hearts, along with the study of yogic techniques supposedly specific to eliminating and preventing heart attacks.
This is an interdisciplinary approach combining physiologists, neuroscientists, psychiatrists, a neuro-psychologist, a cardio-thoracic surgeon, theoretical and computational physicists, and electrical engineers from the following institutions: UCSD, The Scripps Research Institute, UCLA, University of Catania, Sicily, and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. This work is leading to new discoveries about the brain, heart, inter-system physiology, and noninvasive approaches for the clinical treatment of mental disorders, methods for improving normal brain function, and the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

Comments? Contact
Terry Peters, Phone +1-858-534-7753, tpeters (at) ucsd.edu