Randy Hirschtick

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT RANDY HIRSCHTICK

The primary focus of my work is the interface between the technological advancement of neuroimaging acquisition and analysis methods and their application to basic and clinical neuroscience. Continued development of the neuroimaging technologies is critical to unraveling the mysteries of the awake, behaving and disordered human brain. This domain of investigation has tremendous potential to provide insight to the underlying pathophysiology of mental and neurological disorders and to provide quantitative biomarkers for diagnosis, prognostic indication and measurement of treatment response. My commitment to training and education of advanced undergraduates, graduate and medical students, residents and junior faculty in this field is driven by the expectation that every trainee I mentor in this effort can and will make valuable contributions towards this goal. In my own laboratory, we apply best practices of functional neuroimaging methods (receptor binding PET and multimodal Magnetic Resonance including BOLD fMRI, ASL, diffusion imaging, and structural imaging) to the investigation of pain perception and modulation of pain perception. My collaborators and I have begun to clarify the neural mechanisms contributing to the unconscious modulation of pain perception in healthy subjects and in patients suffering from chronic pain disorders.