Greg J. Siegle, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine


E-mail: gsiegle@pitt.edu 
Phone: Pitt: 412-383-5444
Fax: 412-383-5426 
Address: 
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic 
3811 O'Hara St 
Pittsburgh, PA 15213 
USA 
 Roles and Affiliations:
Director: Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience (PICAN)
Director of Affective Neuroscience: Biometrics Research Program .
Associate Professor: University of Pittsburgh, Department of Psychology,, Cognitive Program and Clinical Program.
Associate Professor: Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.
Research Associate: VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System
 
 
My research program examines neurophysiological substrates of cognition and emotion in depression and anxiety through the lifespan using self-report, behavioral, physiological, and neuroimaging (fMRI) assessment, as well as computational modeling. A specific goal of this work is to better understand what cognitive and brain processes predict and change with recovery, and how to improve treatments by targeting these mechanisms more directly. The role of sustained emotional information processing (e.g., rumination) is a particular focus of this work. For more detailed information, check out a more detailed description of my research and my vita.

I direct the Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, which has a number of ongoing projects.
I am also on the executive team of the Mood Disorders Treatment and Research Program (MDTRP) which is the clinical trials unit for Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. We do our psychotherapy and psychopharmacology studies through the MDTRP.
My lab has opportunities for post-docs as well as undergraduates, and research assistants.
It's important to me to devote adequate time to mentoring each student in my lab. Due to the large number of students currently affiliated with my lab, this year (2012) I don't currently intend to consider taking an incoming graduate student for entry in Fall 2012.

Web-based projects include:
   The fMRI Individual Differences Database with contribution instructions.
   The Functional Connectivity Toolbox as referenced in Zhou et al (2009) Neuroimage, 47:1590-1607.
   Interactive, editable reference list for Neurobehavioral Training and Cognitive Training papers, software, and downloads.
      Please feel free to add to this! Also available as pdf snapshot from 10/19/2011.
   The Balanced Affective Word List Project and the
   Connectionist Models of Cognitive, Affective, Brain, and Behavioral Disorders website

Webmaster for: Program in Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, Biometrics Research Program, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Cognitive Clinical Assessment Lab

I received my Ph.D. through the San Diego State University / University of California, San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology.

How To Guides

Time-line and some hints for obtaining an NIH K-award is a now-viral document that Judy Ford and I put together for post-docs and junior faculty who are thinking of writing a K-award application. Do not be scared.

Thoughts on writing an F31 NRSA award from Siegle, G.J., Johnson, S. L., Everhart, D.E., Newton, T. (2010). Tips on writing National Research Service Award Predoctoral Fellowship proposals from real NRSA reviewers. The Behavior Therapist, 33, 160-164.

Hints on giving a poster at a conference

Hints on writing a (compassionate) review for a manuscript

Thoughts on interacting with the media

Being Borderline - An Operator's Manual, an unpublished underground how-to guide I wrote for patients in 2000. Most of the information remains current.

Other

On-line Preprints contains contents or links to some of the papers from my lab. Updated infrequently.

The Transdisciplinary Research in Emotion, Neuroscience, and Development (TREND) Artist in Residence Series brings artists and neuroscientists together to answer a question of mutual interest for 1-4 days each year.
Artists - you can apply! We are actively seeking an artist for 2012. To apply, please email Greg Siegle directly with 1) a brief description of a question you have about your art that neuroscience might help to answer and 2) a link to a website where your work can be found.

Interview on Freedomdomain Radio which summarizes much of the most interesting stuff we're doing these days.

Waveform comparisons Matlab code implements tests to compare physiological waveforms at every sample, as used in a bunch of my lab's publications. Please install all directories in your matlab path and do check out the documention in the pupil_toolkit_waveform_comparisons.pdf file in the main directory.

For inquiring minds: For the Siegle et al (2006) American Journal of Psychiatry treatment prediction paper, the BA25 ROI was centered around Talariach coordinates: 6, 17, -6 and extended from 6,17,-2 to 7,19,-11. The Amygdala ROI was maximal at 15,-3,-15 and extended from 13,-3,-14 to 19,-4,-17.

Here's an animation showing the mean of 25 control participants' brain activity associated with rating the personal relevance of positive words. The animation was made by generating a snapshot of regions significantly different (p<0.001) from the pre-trial baseline at each TR (1.5 seconds) for the 12 second trial (in AFNI), and interpolating between them (in Virtual Dub). As shown in the animation the anterior cingulate reacts early, followed slightly later by BA47, a brain region associated with rumination. Data from Siegle, G.J., Thompson, W., Thase, M.E., Steinhauer, S.R., Carter, C. S., (in press). Increased amygdala and decreased dorso-lateral prefrontal BOLD responses in unipolar depression: Related and independent features. Biological Psychiatry. Animation by Greg Siegle and Lena Gemmer.

Here's an animation showing the location of the amygdala. Roma Konecky and I made this from an SPGR image acquired on a 1.5T GE scanner using BrainVoyager to align and smooth the image, MRICro to trace the amygdala, AFNI to create the rendering, and WWW Gif Animator to concatenate the frames.

Here are a few interesting mathematical functions I've been playing with lately.

My other life...

My cat, the photographer