{"id":188,"date":"2015-01-05T19:26:23","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T00:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/?page_id=188"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:18:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T15:18:53","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research conducted in our lab focuses primarily on two major topic areas: 1) the effects of stress on the brain, and 2) the effects of HIV on the brain.\u00a0 If you’re interested in participating in one of our studies<\/strong>, please scroll down for details.<\/p>\n

Psychological Stress and Behavior<\/span>.<\/strong>\u00a0 Chronic exposure to psychological stress can impact many aspects of life, including one’s cognitive and emotional functions.\u00a0 We are conducting research that examines how stress exposure leads to changes in decision-making, impulsivity, behavior, and health.\u00a0 The long-term goal of this work is to better understand how stress exposure modifies health-related behaviors (e.g., sleep, substance use, exercise).<\/p>\n

Early-Life Stress and Chronic Stress Research<\/span>.<\/strong>\u00a0 Chronic stress is linked to negative health outcomes, which stem from changes in the body as well as the brain.\u00a0 Because the human brain continues to develop and grow throughout childhood, chronic stress experienced during these early years can have lifelong effects on brain structure and function.\u00a0 Recent data suggest that these brain changes might contribute to poorer cognitive and psychological functions in adulthood.<\/p>\n

We are interested in identifying the neural and biological mechanisms that lead to poorer cognitive and psychological outcomes in adults who have experienced high levels of early-life stress.\u00a0 In doing so, we hope to begin to unravel the brain effects of high early-life stress from those of chronic stress experienced during adulthood.\u00a0 We also seek to understand how specific coping mechanisms might help to mitigate the negative effects of stress on the brain.\u00a0 We hope that this research will lead to the development of novel interventions aimed at helping individuals better deal with stress in order to reduce its negative effects on the body and the brain.<\/p>\n

HIV Research<\/span>.\u00a0<\/strong> Many people know that HIV has a negative effect on the immune system; however, HIV infection can also impact other systems, including the central nervous system.\u00a0 Our work focuses on the effect that HIV infection has on the brain.<\/p>\n

HIV+ individuals report increased neurocognitive (e.g., slowed thinking, poorer memory) and neuropsychiatric (e.g., depression, apathy) symptoms.\u00a0 These difficulties have been linked to poorer health outcomes and\u00a0quality of life for HIV+ individuals.\u00a0 There is evidence that HIV-related brain changes contribute to neurocognitive and\u00a0neuropsychiatric symptoms in HIV+ individuals, but we don’t yet fully understand how and why these brain changes develop.<\/p>\n

Our research examines the neural correlates of HIV-related neurocognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms.\u00a0 We are particularly interested in understanding how various contributory factors act to increase brain changes associated with neurocognitive and\u00a0neuropsychiatric symptoms in HIV+ adults.\u00a0 We are also working to reveal biological mechanisms that are associated with these brain changes.\u00a0 We hope that our findings will help promote a better understanding of, and new treatment options for, HIV-related neurocognitive and\u00a0neuropsychiatric difficulties.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Would you like to participate in one of our studies<\/strong>?\u00a0 \u00a0Please see info below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research conducted in our lab focuses primarily on two major topic areas: 1) the effects of stress on the brain, and 2) the effects of HIV on the brain.\u00a0 If you’re interested in participating in one of our studies, please scroll down for details. Psychological Stress and Behavior.\u00a0 Chronic exposure to psychological stress can impact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":375,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-188","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","debut-has-thumb"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/188\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/clark-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}