UF researcher wins grant to study obsessive-compulsive disorder

William Perlstein, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the University of Florida College of Health Professions’ department of clinical and health psychology, has received a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. It’s the second NARSAD grant of his career.

Perlstein, who is affiliated with the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute of UF, will receive $60,000 over the next two years to compare functional brain images of people who are healthy and those who have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Perlstein will study the interaction between emotion and working memory in the brain by examining images produced using a 3-tesla magnetic resonance imaging scanner at UF.

The study will complement Perlstein’s ongoing research on brain function in people with anxiety disorders and traumatic brain injury.

These efforts are supported by a recently awarded five-year $620,000 career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health and a grant from the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute’s Brain Research Grant program.