天美传媒

Dr. Rayna Hirst conducts research in brain-behavior relationships and neuropsychological assessment. Current research topics include the neuropsychological effects of sport-related concussion, influence of chronic marijuana use on cognition and, factors that influence the valid and reliable neuropsychological assessment of patients. Dr. Hirst鈥檚 research has focused on factors that can impact the legitimacy of clinical neuropsychological assessment, such as the examinee鈥檚 motivation to perform well; she has identified motivational statements that can enhance cognitive performance in chronic marijuana users. Her research also identified that most people can guess, at levels significantly greater than chance, whether a photograph is of a cannabis user or a non-user, simply based on appearance 鈥� a phenomenon she refers to as the 鈥渏ay-dar鈥�.

Dr. Hirst completed her undergraduate education at Penn State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University at Albany, SUNY, with a focus on Neuropsychology and Addictions. with Dr. Mitch Earleywine.  She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth Medical School in the Brain Imaging Lab., 

Frank M. LaFerla, Ph.D., is the dean of the UCI School of Biological Sciences and a chancellor’s professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He joined UCI in 1995 as an assistant professor and later served as chair of Neurobiology and Behavior from 2010 to 2013 and the director of the UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) from 2009 – 2018. Dean LaFerla is the current director of the National Institutes of Health funded UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and the co-director of the National Institute on Aging funded Model-AD at UCI, a research consortium to develop the next generation of model organisms to evaluate and cure Alzheimer’s disease. His research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of dementia. His scholarly work has had a global influence on the field, as some of the model organisms he has generated have been distributed to over 150 researchers in more than 20 countries throughout the world. He has published more than 200 original peer-reviewed articles and has been listed among the top 1% cited researchers in his field. Dean LaFerla has received many honors for his research accomplishments throughout his career, including the Promising Work Award from the Metropolitan Life Foundation for Medical Research, the Ruth Salta Investigator Achievement Award from the American Health Assistance Foundation, the Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer’s Association and the UCI Innovators Award. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elected member of the American Neurological Association, the American Society for Cell Biology, the International Society for Stem Cell Research and the Society for Neuroscience.

Nien-Pei Tsai is an  at the  and a researcher at the . 
An imbalance in neuronal and synaptic excitability is a common abnormality observed in patients with various psychiatric and neurological disorders, including autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. The dysregulation of excitability is thought to exacerbate disease symptoms. Identifying and understanding the mechanisms underlying the dysregulation of excitability could reveal novel therapeutic targets for these diseases. To achieve this goal, we utilize various approaches including molecular and cell biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, and mouse genetics to understand the regulation of excitability homeostasis at synaptic, neuronal, network and system levels, and how the deficits of those affect behavior in diseases. 
Research Interests:


Neurobiology


Synaptic transmission


Learning and memory


Neurological and behavioral disorders


 
Current focuses of Tsai's lab include:
1. Studying activity-dependent translational control in fragile X syndrome
2. Exploring novel transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators in neurodevelopment 
3. Determining the role of cellular stress response in neuronal plasticity
4. Characterizing the molecular mechanisms contributing to comorbid seizures in Alzheimer's disease
 
Education


B.S., National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2002


M.Sc., National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004


Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2009