K. Luan Phan, M.D.
| Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan |
| Rachel Upjohn Building |
Research in our Laboratory aims to discover the behavioral and brain mechanisms that implement the regulation of affect and motivational salience in humans. We then aim to translate these discoveries to gain a better understanding of the cause and maintenance of, and to develop new and better treatments for, mental illnesses in which dysregulated affect and motivation are cardinal features.
Our studies integrate affective, cognitive, and social neuroscience perspectives to dissect human behavior and psychopathology. Within these broad approaches, we take a multi-level analytic approach from internal milieu to peripheral psychophysiology to (c)overt actions to brain function to pharmacologic manipulation. We are primarily use magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI, DTI) and electroencephalography (EEG) as predominant tools to assess brain circuit function as they relate to affect control and motivational salience. That said, we are also engaged in collaborative efforts that combine fMRI with other emergent neuroscience methodologies such as functional genetics and neurochemistry (MRS) in humans and electrophysiology in animals.
We have been interested in individuals and their differences, and more recently have questioned how studying social networks can better inform our models. We study human participants across the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood. We concentrate our efforts on illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, social phobia, drug addiction, and depression. We also collaborate with other clinician scientists who study other disorders of impaired impulse (IED, ADHD) and affect (BPD) control. We take a longitudinal view of illness, and thus often study patient participants before, during, and after completion of treatment.
Coccaro EF, Sripada CS, Phan KL (2011). Cortico-Limbic Function in Impulsive Aggressive Behavior. Biological Psychiatry 69(12):1153-9.
Phan KL, Sripada CS, Angstadt M, McCabe K (2010). Reputation for reciprocity engages the brain’s reward center. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(29):13099-104.
Labuschagne I, Phan KL, Angstadt M, Chua P, Wood A, Heinrichs M, Nathan PJ (2010). Oxytocin Attenuates Amygdala Reactivity to Fear in Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology 35(12):2403-13.
Sripada CS, Angstadt M, McNamara P, King AK, Phan KL (2011). Effects of alcohol on brain responses to social signals of threat in humans. NeuroImage 55(1):371-80.
Phan KL, Angstadt M, Golden J, Onyewuenyi I, Popovska A, de Wit H (2008). Cannabinoid Modulation of Amygdala Reactivity to Social Signals of Threat in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience 28(10):2313-2319.
Banks S, Eddy K, Angstadt M, Nathan PJ, Phan KL (2007). Amygdala-frontal connectivity during emotion regulation. Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience 2: 303-312.
Phan KL, Fitzgerald DA, Nathan PJ, Tancer ME (2006). Association between amygdala hyperactivity to harsh faces and severity of social anxiety symptoms in generalized social phobia. Biological Psychiatry 59:424-429.
Fitzgerald DA, Angstadt M, Jelsone L, Nathan PJ, Phan KL (2006). Beyond threat: Amygdala reactivity across multiple expressions of facial affect. NeuroImage 30:1441-1448.
Phan KL, Taylor SF, Fig LM, Britton JC, Liberzon I (2006). Corticolimbic blood flow during non-traumatic emotional processing in posttraumatic stress disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry 63:184-192.
Phan KL, Fitzgerald DA, Nathan PJ, Moore GJ, Uhde TW, Tancer ME (2005). Neural substrates for voluntary suppression of negative affect: a functional magnetic resonance study. Biological Psychiatry 57(3):210-219.
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