Department News
New Collaborative Program to Study Brain-Body Interactions

The UIC Department of Psychiatry is creating a new interdisciplinary research unit to explore brain-body interactions through the lifespan. Stephen Porges, Ph.D, and Sue Carter, Ph.D, world-renowned researchers in the field, recently joined UIC and will serve as co-directors.

The center will be an intellectual magnet for scientists interested in social behavior, behavioral pathology, developmental disorders and emotional regulation from several disciplines, including endocrinology, neuroanatomy, neurobiology, psychiatry and psychology. For Drs. Porges and Carter, who are married to one another, the establishment of the center at UIC fulfills their career-long goal of creating an interdisciplinary research center with talented colleagues who share their dedication to studying neurobiological models of social behavior and translating this knowledge into treatment strategies for clinical populations.

Social and behavioral sciences have long tried to explain and treat such urgent clinical problems as autism, post-traumatic stress disorder, rage, conduct disorders and attention-deficit disorders. "Unfortunately, we still do not understand the causal mechanisms underlying these disorders," Dr. Porges said. "We are only just beginning to learn about the factors that make one individual vulnerable and another resilient. Treatments based on behavioral, psychological and pharmacological models have had some success but have fallen far short of the ideal."

An alternate model is needed that incorporates our understanding of human neurobiology and how neurobiological states mediate and regulate behavior and the range of psychological experiences, Dr. Porges said. The new center's research will focus on applying neurobiological principles and knowledge in developing explanations and treatments for dysfunctional behavior.

"Porges and Carter are real stars in the world of psychobiology," said Dr. Joseph Flaherty, Professor and Head of Psychiatry. "They and their research expand the collective research efforts here in uncovering the mechanisms that govern human behavior and well-being. Their work will bring significant contributions to a biopsychosocial model of understanding the development of normal and pathological behavior."

Drs. Porges and Carter come from the University of Maryland, where Dr. Porges was chair of the Department of Human Development and director of the Institute for Child Study and Dr. Carter was a distinguished university professor in the Department of Biology. Dr. Porges has served as president of the Society for Psychophysiological Research and is currently president of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, a consortium of 20 prominent research-oriented societies. He is a Fellow of several divisions of the American Psychological Association and a Charter Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

Dr. Porges has received numerous research grants from organizations such as the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHHD), and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Federal Human Resources Service Administration. He currently has an NIMH grant to study the neurobiology of social development in children and is also conducting research on a new biologically based intervention to enhance the social behavior of autistic children.
Dr. Carter's research focuses on the biology of attachment behavior, particularly in relation to hormones like oxytocin. In addition to her ongoing research supported by the National Institutes of Health, she is writing a book on the biology of monogamy. Dr. Carter is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Society for Behavioral Neuroscience. She is a member of the Animal Behavior Society, the International Academy of Sex Research, the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, the International Society for Neuroendocrinology and the Society for Neurosciences.

She has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, and currently directs a large program project grant sponsored by the NICHHD that examines the developmental effects of oxytocin.Visit http://www.psych.uic.edu/bbc/