Profiles

Elaine F. Walker, Psychology and Neuroscience

Elaine Walker (Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience) is working with colleagues to answer one of the major questions involved in mental illness: Is it possible to predict the risk of developing schizophrenia, autism or other major depressive disorders?

By investigating early signs of these illnesses from childhood to young adulthood, Walker hopes to pinpoint the early signs of the disease so that treatment can be rendered at a much earlier stage when it can be more effective. The National Institute of Mental Health was so encouraged by initial findings on adolescents and young adults at risk for psychotic disorders that the agency awarded supplemental grants to Walker 's research group.

A new book that she co-edited (Adolescent Psycho-pathology and the Developing Brain) reflects the growing recognition during the past ten years of the importance of adolescent brain development. “The brain of an individual when they are eleven is very different from the brain of that same individual when they're twenty-one,” says Walker.

“The take-home message is that the changes you see in the behavior of your adolescent aren't just a function of their idiosyncrasies and temperament. They reflect actual biological changes in their brains. By better identifying those at risk, we hope to have a better chance of preventing psychotic disorders from ever occurring.”

When  Walker was in graduate school, she estimates that only about a third of the psychology faculty involved in research on mental disorders looked at biological factors.  Now she estimates that virtually all faculty conduct interdisciplinary research, and many collaborate with neuroscientists, psychiatrists, biologists, and chemists.

She's particularly excited about the prospect of the College establishing an MRI center in the new Psychology building. Walker says that kind of access would facilitate her research and that of many other investigators at Emory.

Homepage: http://www.psychology.emory.edu/clinical/walker/

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