Diego Pizzagalli, PhD, Named Editor of Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

July 6, 2020

McLean Hospital’s Diego A. Pizzagalli, PhD, has been named editor of the journal Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience (CABN). Pizzagalli’s tenure as editor begins on January 1, 2021.

Published six times each year, the publication presents empirical articles and reviews on behavior and brain processes in humans, neurological disorders, and psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and autism. Established in 1973 as Psychobiology and renamed to Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience in 2001, one of CABN’s characteristic features has been the strong integration of psychological theories in the interpretation of neuroscientific data.

CABN is published by the Psychonomic Society. Founded some 60 years ago, the Psychonomic Society is a group of cognitive psychologists from around the world focused on the experimental study of cognition. The group has more than 4,300 members.

Dr. Diego Pizzagalli
Dr. Diego Pizzagalli

On his appointment, Pizzagalli said, “I am honored to be named editor of CABN. In this role, I hope to further the Psychonomic Society’s work in promoting innovative research in behavioral measurement, neuroscience, computational modeling, and other areas. I am particularly excited about the opportunity to expand CABN’s role as the leading outlet for strongly psychologically motivated studies of brain-behavior relationships, including in the context of neuropsychiatric disorders.”

Pizzagalli is the director of the McLean Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research and the McLean Imaging Center. A leader in depression and anxiety research, Pizzagalli has made significant contributions to the study of biomarkers of depression and treatment response. Pizzagalli has also led studies in the psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors associated with mood disorders, such as major depression.

Recently, Pizzagalli was named center director for a multi-institution study into the brain mechanisms behind depression and anxiety. Funded by a five-year Silvio O. Conte Centers for Translational Mental Health Research grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the effort aims to increase the understanding of the brain circuitry associated with anxiety and depression, which may lead to new medications that are more effective.

About Dr. Pizzagalli

Pizzagalli is the founding director of the Center for Depression, Anxiety and Stress Research, director of the McLean Imaging Center, director of the Laboratory for Translational and Affective Neuroscience, and director of research for the Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders at McLean Hospital. He is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Pizzagalli is an internationally known expert on the neurobiology of depression and has made major contributions toward the identification of biomarkers of depression and treatment response.

The main goals of Pizzagalli’s research are to improve our understanding of the psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors associated with mood disorders, in particular major depression. To this end, he integrates behavioral, electrophysiological, neuroimaging, and molecular genetics approaches to investigate three important aspects of depression: anhedonia (loss of pleasure), increased stress sensitivity, and executive function deficits.

Learn more about Dr. Pizzagalli.

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