School of Medicine


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  • Daniel A. Abrams

    Daniel A. Abrams

    Clinical Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) are among the most pervasive neurodevelopmental disorders and are characterized by significant deficits in social communication. A common observation in children with ASD is that affected individuals often “tune out” from social interactions, which likely impacts the development of social, communication, and language skills. My primary research goals are to understand why children with ASD often tune out from the social world and how this impacts social skill and brain development, and to identify remediation strategies that motivate children with ASD to engage in social interactions. The theoretical framework that guides my work is that social impairments in ASD stem from a primary deficit in identifying social stimuli, such as human voices and faces, as rewarding and salient stimuli, thereby precluding children with ASD from engaging with these stimuli.

    My program of research has provided important information regarding the brain circuits underlying social deficits in ASD. Importantly, these findings have consistently implicated key structures of the brain’s reward and salience processing systems, and support the hypothesis that impaired reward attribution to social stimuli is a critical aspect of social difficulties in ASD.

    My lab is currently conducting three research studies:

    Speaker-Listener Coupling and Brain Dynamics During Naturalistic Verbal Communication in Children with Autism
    We have a new study investigating how the brain processes and understands speech in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as typically developing children. We are interested in understanding speech comprehension in children through anticipating incoming speech and accumulating speech information over a period of time.

    Speaker-Listener Coupling and Brain Dynamics During Naturalistic Verbal Communication in Alzheimer’s Disease
    In collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, our new study is exploring how the brain enables us to understand speech, with a focus on both healthy older adults and adults with Alzheimer’s Disease. We also aim to understand how the brain measures seen while we listen and understand a story are linked to language skills in these individuals.

    Pivotal Response Treatment for Adolescents with High Functioning Autism Intervention Study
    This is a 9-week intervention focusing on key social skills for autistic adolescents, while exploring brain plasticity using fMRI imaging. Your child will receive 1:1 sessions with our clinician, with parent training in clinic. Topics include: Greetings, Departures, Question Asking, Talking the Right Amount, Empathy, Sarcasm, and Eating and Drinking. We also coordinate with the school for additional support and opportunities to practice the targeted social skills in a club of interest.

  • Teddy J. Akiki, MD

    Teddy J. Akiki, MD

    Clinical Scholar, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
    Postdoctoral Medical Fellow, Psychiatry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDepression, PTSD, Glutamatergic Antidepressants (e.g., ketamine), Psychedelics, Multimodal Neuroimaging, Network Neuroscience, Machine Learning/Predictive Modeling, Morphometry

  • Martijn Arns

    Martijn Arns

    Affiliate, Psych/Major Laboratories and Clinical & Translational Neurosciences Incubator
    Visiting Scholar, Psych/Major Laboratories and Clinical & Translational Neurosciences Incubator

    BioI'm a biological-psychologist and entrepreneur with a background in applied neuroscience and brain stimulation. In 2001, I founded Research Institute Brainclinics as a private and independent research institute part of the non-profit Brainclinics Foundation where I'm still research director. The Brainclinics Foundation’s primary mission is best summarized as: 'Applied Neuroscience: From the clinic, to the clinic' and focuses on interventional psychiatry and applied neuroscience where research outcomes should be easily translatable into clinical practice and clinically actionable. My expertise extends to the development and application of brain stimulation techniques, such as rTMS for depression and OCD, TMS induced Heart-Brain Coupling and EEG based precision psychiatry and stratified psychiatry. Currently, I'm associate professor at the University of Maastricht (Brain Stimulation and Cognition) and visiting scholar at Stanford University (Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab).