Center Objectives

We are a team of researchers and clinicians with a common goal: success for all that is based on the continued evolution and advancement of the professional careers of every trainee. Overall, our center is focused on 3 domains: scientific, training, and outreach. From the scientific point of view, we are focused on a fundamental question in neuroscience, that is: How do we learn not to fear? More specifically, we are interested in understanding and learning about how, in the human brain, fear is formed, stored, and regulated. This focus is guided by two factors. One is the simple intrigue for basic neuroscience mechanisms (our curiosity about how does the human brain forms and controls fear). The second driving factor for our research is the implications to psychopathology, particularly those in which exaggerated fear is amongst the hallmark of symptoms defining their etiology; disorders like posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders. A primary goal is the emphasis on advancing our mechanistic understanding of brain circuits underlying complex behavioral, cognitive, and emotional processes in humans.

To achieve our goals, we use state-of-the-art functional and structural neuroimaging and neuromodulation tools including functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, electroencephalogram, psychophysiological measures of behaviors, neurocognitive assessments and measures. The center houses all necessary computational and analytic infrastructure, data acquisition, processing tools and software to enable the implementation of significant and innovative research in the domains of fear learning and its inhibition.

Regarding the training aspect of the center, our faculty members and supporting staff have significant expertise and prior experience in conducting basic and clinical neuroscience research, are highly skilled, and with significant prior experience in training and mentoring. The primary objective is to provide all necessary resources to ensure the success and career advancement for all trainees and help ascertain their progression to their next professional level; that being the acceptance into an advanced-degree education (PhD/MD), acquisition of novel research skills, or obtaining independent extramural funding (e.g. NIH, DoD). We intend to help junior faculty and trainees attain all necessary skills and tools to obtain preliminary data for grant applications. The tools and expertise within the center will enable the development and completion of complex and highly sophisticated research projects within the domains of basic and clinical neuroscience research. The center aims to serve as a training venue for students, post-doctoral research fellows, psychiatry residents, and junior faculty within the behavioral and psychiatric neuroimaging research arena. The center will foster collaborations amongst faculty within the department and across departments at UTHealth.

Finally, regarding outreach activities, the center will organize and deliver multiple Brain Awareness Activities to schools within the local community across all ages. This will be done in coordination with the Dana Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience. The Center Director, Dr. Mohammed Milad, has over 20 years of expertise in this domain and have done outreach events nationally and internationally.