John Smiley, Ph.D.

The Smiley laboratory has a long-standing interest in understanding the neuropathology of schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and related psychiatric diseases. A major focus has been on application of quantitative anatomical methods to postmortem human cerebral cortex, including measurements of cortical volumes, thickness, cell number, cell size, and other features. Parallel studies have looked at normal cortical organization in humans and in animal models, with an emphasis on the connections and topographical features that might be altered in human diseases. More recently we are extending our studies to animal models of brain development, to evaluate how early lesions influence the expression of psychiatric diseases, which often have their onset in adolescence or early adulthood.