Contact Information

UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Box 951759, 27-384C NPI
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1759
On-campus mail: 175919
Tel: (310) 825-6025
Fax:(310) 825-2982
E-mail: eornitz@mednet.ucla.edu

Biosketch

My past research has emphasized PPI of startle in development, developmental gender differences and a number of developmental neuropychiatric disorders. Currently, I have been studying fear potentiated startle in children at risk for anxiety and patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Both PPI, which reflects the capacity of the nervous system to modulate its reactivity to sensory input, and fear potentiated startle are potential avenues to the understanding of emotional and physical responses to pain and stress; both experimental approaches lend themselves readily to the study of sex-based differences in these reactions. Further, these two startle modification paradigms can be readily integrated into a study comparing neurophysiological and emotional responses to placebo. Important papers that describe potential methodological and conceptual contributions to these areas of research interest include (see Biosketch) Ornitz and Pynoos 1989, Ornitz et al 1991, Ornitz et al 1992, Ornitz et al 1996, Pynoos et al 1997, Ornitz1999, Ornitz et al 1999, Ornitz et al 2000, Ornitz 2002

My expertise is based on over 15 years of developing and carrying out startle modulation protocols. My interests are in understanding how the human nervous system has developed mechanisms to protect itself from being thrown into dysfunctional states of excessive excitability and activity in response to stressful stimuli, both external and internal. These mechanisms are conceptualized as sensorimotor gating and can be studied with startle modulation protocols. Some of the dysfunctional states that could result from a breakdown of sensorimotor gating could include anxiety states, excessive response to pain, depression, and somatic conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and interstitial cystitis. These conditions are often interrelated, and my laboratory is currently actively collaborating with investigators who are studying anxiety (Dr. Michelle Craske) and irritable bowel syndrome and interstitial cystitis (Dr. Bruce Naliboff). In collaboration with Dr. Robert Pynoos, we are currently analyzing data from a large startle modulation study of children with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study of responses to stress, both to explicit events, i.e., PTSD, and implicit stress as in the generalized anxiety and somatic states currently under investigation is clearly related to our current studies. I would be most interested to expand our research collaboration to include pain syndromes as this would be a straight-forward and logical extension of what we are now doing. The study of sex-based differences in response to stress and pain follows naturally from these interests and activities. My training in psychiatry and child psychiatry gives me the clinical background to facilitate the collaborative integration of clinical and neurorphysiological issues.

My startle modulation laboratory uses many of the techniques provided in the Psychophysiological Core and the two facilities will benefit by collaborative interaction. I would be interested in the expansion of startle modulation protocols to enable startle modulation studies to be performed in the fMRI environment. This is an approach that is getting increasing attention and would require a collaborative technical development with the Neuroimaging Core. This would be of great interest in relating clinical neurophysiological events to functional neuroanatomy in the several syndromes under study.

Selected References

Gehricke J-G, Ornitz EM, Siddarth P. (2002). Differentiating between reflex and spontaneous blinks using simultaneous recording of the orbicularis oculi electromyogram and the electro-oculogram in startle research. International J. of Psychophysiology, 44:261-268.

Ornitz EM. (2002). Developmental aspects of neurophysiology. In M. Lewis (Ed.) Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - A Comprehensive Textbook, Third Edition. Baltimore, Maryland: Lippencott-Williams & Wilkins, pp. 60-74.

Frankland PW, Wang Y, Rosner B, Shimizu T, Balleine BW, Dykens EM, Ornitz EM, Silva AJ. (in press). Sensorimotor gating abnormalities in young males with fragile X syndrome and fmr-1 knockout mice. Molecular Psychiatry.