Sergio Paradiso M.D., Ph.D.
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Associate Professor and Mallinckrodt Scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine of Psychiatry

Research in the Paradiso laboratory focuses broadly on neural mechanisms underlying emotion processing in psychopathological conditions and aging.   

The overarching hypothesis is that the neural substrates governing emotion processing are fundamental for understanding dimensions of psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and depression.  Lately the Paradiso laboratory has worked on the bases of the idiosyncratic psychopathological presentations of some depressions among older adults.  These projects have included studying the neural bases of alexithymia in older age, understanding the neural underpinning of emotion processing in older age using fMRI, examining the association between decreased blood flow and reduced grey matter as a function of age in key regions of the limbic system including the anterior cingulate and insula cortex.   

Ongoing projects in the laboratory address the following topics:  The effects of antipsychotic medications on emotion and social cognition in schizophrenia; the relationship between ASL and BOLD fMRI signal as a function of microvascular white matter disease; social cognition and aging;  the neural substrates of nondysphoric depression in late-life;  prevalence, clinical and neurocognitive correlates of nondysphoric depression in different settings; motivation in late-onset depression;  motivation changes following insula and basal ganglia lesions;  blood flow changes associated with altered emotional experience following damage to the basal ganglia; empathy in late-life.  

Experimental approaches include:  1) functional magnetic resonance imaging; 2) positron emission tomography; 3) computer based measurement of social perception and motivation; 4) analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging; 5) neurocognitive assessment; 6) human brain lesions

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Selected Publications

Vijayaraghavan L, Vaidya JG, Humphreys CT, Beglinger LJ, Paradiso S.Emotional and motivational changes after bilateral lesions of the globus pallidus.Neuropsychology. 2008 May;22(3):412-8.  

Razavi M, Eaton B, Paradiso S, Mina M, Hudetz AG, Bolinger L.Source of low-frequency fluctuations in functional MRI signal.J Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 Apr;27(4):891-7.  

Paradiso S, Vaidya J, Tranel D, Kosier T, Robinson RG.Nondysphoric depression following stroke.J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2008 Winter;20(1):52-61. 

Paradiso S, Turner BM, Paulsen JS, Jorge R, Ponto LL, Robinson RG.Neural bases of dysphoria in early Huntington's disease.Psychiatry Res. 2008 Jan 15;162(1):73-87. 

Vaidya JG, Paradiso S, Boles Ponto LL, McCormick LM, Robinson RG.Aging, grey matter, and blood flow in the anterior cingulate cortex.Neuroimage. 2007 Oct 1;37(4):1346-53.  

Narushima K, Paradiso S, Moser DJ, Jorge R, Robinson RG.Effect of antidepressant therapy on executive function after stroke.Br J Psychiatry. 2007 Mar;190:260-5.  

Robinson RG, Paradiso S, Mizrahi R, Fiedorowicz JG, Kouzoukas DE, Moser DJ.Neuropsychological correlates of normal variation in emotional response to visual stimuli.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2007 Feb;195(2):112-8  

Vaidya JG, Paradiso S, Andreasen NC, Johnson DL, Boles Ponto LL, Hichwa RD.Correlation between extraversion and regional cerebral blood flow in response to olfactory stimuli.Am J Psychiatry. 2007 Feb;164(2):339-41.  

Turner BM, Paradiso S, Marvel CL, Pierson R, Boles Ponto LL, Hichwa RD, Robinson RG.The cerebellum and emotional experience.Neuropsychologia. 2007 Mar 25;45(6):1331-41.   

Bigelow NO, Paradiso S, Adolphs R, Moser DJ, Arndt S, Heberlein A, Nopoulos P, Andreasen NC.Perception of socially relevant stimuli in schizophrenia.Schizophr Res. 2006 Apr;83(2-3):257-67.