Brian F. O'Donnell

B.A., Oberlin College, 1973
Ed.M. Boston University, 1979
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1984
Predoctoral Intern, Brooklyn VA Medical Center

Associate Professor, Indiana University-Bloomington
(bodonnel@indiana.edu)

Research Interests

1) Studies of visual perception and working memory operations in schizophrenia and related personality disorders. Schizophrenia is associated with marked disturbances of early stage vision, particularly for temporally modulated stimuli. Visual working memory operations are affected for a wide range of stimulus features. We are investigating how these deficits are affected by pharmacological interventions in schizophrenia, and whether such abnormalities of visual processing are also apparent in family members of patients. These studies use psychophysical (behavioral) and evoked potential (EEG) methods, and are primarily carried out at the Larue Carter Hospital in Indianapolis.

2) Neurobehavioral changes in bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder (BD) has been associated psychophysiological and behavioral abnormalities suggestive of deficits in synchronization, timing, response amplitude, and response variability. This project tests whether these disturbances of timing and coordination at the millisecond, neural level may be related to instability of mood and activity observed at the clinical level. In addition, patients differ markedly in long term outcomes. Since psychophysiological measures reflect neurophysiological abnormalities in this illness, it is possible that they may be better predictors of functional outcomes than symptom measures, which vary greatly in BD.

3) Visual and auditory event-related potential abnormalities in twins at-risk for alcoholism (with Richard Rose and Richard Viken). This study is being carried out in Finland. Electrophysiological and cognitive measures are obtained from twins who are at genetic risk for developing alcoholism, but vary in history of alcohol use. Genetic factors influence vulnerability to alcohol abuse. Moreover, individuals vulnerable to alcohol abuse on the basis of genetic risk often show subtle differences in personality, cognition, and event-related potentials (ERPs) even if they have never used alcohol. What remains unclear is what the effects of alcohol use are on brain function distinct from the effects of genetic vulnerability.

4) Visual processing in individuals who are gene positive for Huntington's disease. This study evaluates oculomotor function, visual perception, visuocognition, and visuomotor performance in individuals who are gene positive for Huntington's disease. Huntington's disease is a dominantly inherited, completely penetrant neurodegenerative disorder which usually appears in adulthood in affected individuals. It affects basal ganglia structures in addition to causing cortical degeneration.

5) Effects of cannabis use on cognition and brain function (Patrick Skosnik, post doc in my lab). Cannabis produces subjective effects similar to those observed in schizophrenia and cannabis users show personality characteristics similar to individuals with schizotypal personality disorder. Moreover, heavy cannabis use has been associated with increased risk of developing schizophrenia. Surprisingly little is known about the neurobehavioral consequences of cannabis use. The purpose of this research program is to investigate perceptual, cognitive, and physiological correlates of cannabis use.

Representative Publications

Farmer, C.M., O'Donnell, B.F., Niznikiewicz, M.A., Voglmaier, M.M., McCarley, R.W., Shenton, M.E. (2000). Visual perception and working memory in schizotypal personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157, 781-786.

O'Donnell, B.F. (2002). Cognitive and neuropsychological models of attention. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23,99-106.

O'Donnell, B.F., Potts, G.F., Nestor, P.G., Stylianpoulos, K.C., Shenton, M.E., McCarley, R.W. (2002). Spatial frequency discrimination in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 620-625.

O'Donnell, B.F. (2003). Visual evoken potentials. In: Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science-Psychology, London: Macmillan, Vol. 4, pp. 516-529.

Brenner, C.A., Wilt, M.A., Lysaker, P.H., O'Donnell, B.F. (2003). Psychometrically matched tasks of discrimination and recognition performance in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 28-37.

O'Donnell, B.F., Hetrick, W.P., Vohs, J.L., Krishnan, G.P., Carroll, C.A., Shekhar, A. (2004). Neural synchronization deficits to auditory stimulation in bipolar disorder. NeuroReport, 15, 1369-1372.

Krishnan, G.P., Skosnik, P.D., Vohs, J.L., Busey, T.A., O'Donnell, B.F. (2005). Relationship between steady state and induced gamma activity to motion. NeuroReport, 16, 625-630.

Skosnik, P.D., Krishnan, G.P., Aydt, E.E., Kuhlenschmidt, H.A., O'Donnell, B.F. (in press). Psychophysiological evidence of altered neural synchronization in cannabis use: relationshiip to schizotypy. American Journal of Psychiatry.