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Principal Investigators
Up one levelResearch Team at the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology
Andrew F. Leuchter, M.D.
Andrew F. Leuchter, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. He also is Director of the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology and Senior Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. A graduate of Stanford University, Dr. Leuchter earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He completed internships in Medicine/Neurology at the Wadsworth Veterans Administration Medical Center and in Geroneuropsychiatry/Neurology at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. He then served a residency in Psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and a Robert Wood Johnson Fellowship in the UCLA Department of Medicine. Dr. Leuchter’s research focuses on the enhancement of treatment outcomes in depression. He uses brain-imaging techniques, such as quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET), to examine brain function and predict which treatments are most likely to benefit individual patients. His research program combines clinical trials with neurophysiologic and brain-imaging studies to inform clinical practice in the treatment of depression. Dr. Leuchter is a Diplomate of the American Board of Electroencephalography and Neurophysiology and a Diplomate in Psychiatry and Neurology with Added Qualifications in Geriatric Psychiatry. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Electrophysiology Association, and the American Medical EEG Association. A frequently published author, he is a reviewer for a number of scientific journals, such as Archives of General Psychiatry, International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
Ian A. Cook, M.D.
Dr. Cook is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and is a Research Scientist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior (formerly known as the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute). His work has largely focused on the care of mental illnesses and disorders of complex human behavior; this site describes his research, clinical, and teaching activities, as well as his innovation applications of information technology. At the UCLA Semel Institute, he is Director of the Academic Information Technology Core, a Research Scientist and Associate Director of the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology. He is an Attending Physician in the Neuropsychiatric Hospital. He attends on the Adult Inpatient Service, in the General Outpatient Clinic, in the Adult Partial Hospital Program, and on the Geriatric Inpatient ward. In the Department of Psychiatry, he is Chair of the Curriculum Committee. Dr. Cook received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and went to medical school at the Yale School of Medicine, before coming to UCLA for his residency in the UCLA/NPI and West LA VAMC psychiatry residency program. In addition to his work in academia, Dr. Cook has also volunteered to support numerous professional societies and organizations and has served as a consultant to the health care and entertainment industries. He volunteers to support a number of charitable organizations by serving on advisory boards.
Aimee M. Hunter, Ph.D.
Aimee M. Hunter Ph.D, is a research psychologist in the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology at UCLA. Dr. Hunter received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Psychology from UCLA and completed NIMH-funded postdoctoral training in clinical research at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She is a prior recipient of a Norman Cousin’s training fellowship in Psychoneuroimmunology, and a New Investigator Award from the NIMH New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU). Dr. Hunter has initiated several new lines of study using QEEG cordance measures to examine brain changes that are important to both positive and negative outcomes of antidepressant treatment. She has identified that specific brain changes occurring before the start of medication, i.e., during a placebo lead-in phase, are associated with medication outcomes. Dr. Hunter’s work suggests that different brain change patterns during placebo lead-in are associated with later therapeutic versus adverse effects of antidepressant treatment. Brain changes during placebo lead-in may be related to patient expectations, treatment history, social support aspects of study participation, and/or attention-related processes. The ongoing goals of this research are: 1) to develop a heuristic model for understanding the relationships between pharmacodynamic and non-pharmacodynamic factors in determining antidepressant treatment outcomes, 2) to develop QEEG biomarkers to be used as a clinical tool for helping to determine which patients would or would not be good candidates for pharmacotherapy, and to identify at what point in time an individual may be more responsive to antidepressant treatment, and 3) to determine those brain states and adjunctive interventions and that are likely to enhance medication treatment outcomes. In another line of investigation, Dr. Hunter is using QEEG biomarkers to assess relationships between early pharmacodynamic effects of drug and the later vulnerability to antidepressant-emergent worsening of mood and suicidal ideation that is observed in a small subset of individuals.
