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Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD

  • Charles F. Reynolds III and Ellen G. Detlefsen Endowed Chair in Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Professor, Bioengineering and Clinical and Translational Science
  • Director, Clinical Research Training in Late-Life Mood Disorders
  • Director, Geriatric Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory

    Education & Training

  • Medical Degree – University of Illinois - MD
  • Graduate Degree – University of Illinois – PhD - Computer Science
  • Internship - University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine - General Psychiatry and Medicine
  • Residency - Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC - General and Adult Psychiatry
  • Fellowship - Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC - Geriatric Psychiatry
  • Post-Doctoral - University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine - Geriatric Psychiatry
Research Grants

NIH Grants:  R01, T32, RF1

Research Summary

Dr. Aizenstein’s research focuses on the cognitive and affective neuroscience of aging and geriatric brain disorders.  He uses structural and functional neuroimaging to identify networks of brain regions associated with affective and cognitive processing,

Representative Publications
  1. Karim HT, Andreescu C, Tudorascu D, Smagula SF, Butters MA, Karp JF, Reynolds CF III, Aizenstein HJ. Intrinsic functional connectivity in late-life depression: Trajectories over the course of pharmacotherapy in remitters and non-remitters. Molecular Psychiatry, 2017, 22(3):450-57.
  2. Lim HK, Nebes R, Snitz B, Cohen A, Mathis C, Price J, Weissfeld L, Klunk W & Aizenstein HJ. (2014) Regional amyloid burden and intrinsic connectivity networks in cognitively normal elderly subjects. Brain. 137: 3327-3338. PMCID: PMC4240287
  3. Aizenstein HJ, Andreescu C, Edelman KL, Cochran JL, Price J, Butters MA, Karp J, Patel M, & Reynolds CF 3rd. (2011) fMRI correlates of white matter hyperintensities in late-life depression. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 168(10):1075-82. PMCID: PMC3656408
  4. Aizenstein HJ, Nebes RD, Saxton JA, Price JC, Mathis CA, Tsopelas ND, Ziolko S, James JA, Snitz B, Houck P, Bi W, Cohen A, Lopresti BJ, DeKosky ST, Halligan E, & Klunk WE. (2008) Frequent amyloid deposition without significant cognitive impairment among the elderly. Archives of Neurology. 65(11):1509-17. PMCID: PMC2636844
  5. Aizenstein HJ, Butters MA, Figurski JL, Meltzer CC, Stenger VA, Reynolds CF 3rd, Carter CS. (2004) Prefrontal and striatal activation during sequence learning in geriatric depression. Presented at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.