Grand Rounds: "Fear and Threat Processing: Behavioral Models for Investigating the Neurobiology of PTSD"

Dr. Morey is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a member of the Center for Brain Imaging and Analysis and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Case Western Reserve University and received his M.D. from Drexel University. His research focuses on brain changes associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neuropsychiatric disorders by applying several advanced methods for understanding brain function including functional MRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and genetic effects. Dr. Morey's recent research has focused on investigating promising genetic modulators of brain dysfunction in PTSD. In his role leading an international Consortium (PTSD Neuroimaging Working Group in the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium), his team has formulated a blue print to identify replicable genetic associations and new insights into the biological underpinnings of PTSD at a scope that is unprecedented in the field of traumatic stress. These efforts have triggered a renewed impetus and a sharpened focus on investigating structural and functional brain differences, their genetic determinants, environmental modulators, and investigating the genetic vulnerability to the effects of trauma and the onset of PTSD.