Keith Nuechterlein

The Center is led by Keith H. Nuechterlein, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Director of the Aftercare Program, a research clinic for schizophrenic patients, UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Dr. Nuechterlein specializes in neurocognitive processes in schizophrenia, especially as they relate to both the developmental course of the disorder and to functional outcome. Dr. Nuechterlein’s ongoing longitudinal study of the early course of schizophrenia, “Developmental Processes in Schizophrenic Disorders”, has closely examined the influence of specific neurocognitive vulnerability indicators on the early course of first-episode patients, with an emphasis on occupational and educational outcome. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Department of Psychology (Clinical and Behavioral Neuroscience areas) at UCLA.

Keith H. Nuechterlein, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He serves as the Director of the UCLA Center for Neurocognition and Emotion in Schizophrenia, an NIMH-funded Translational Research Center in Behavioral Science. He also is the Director of the UCLA Aftercare Research Program, a research clinic devoted to research and treatment with patients who have had a recent onset of schizophrenia. Dr. Nuechterlein received his B.A. in psychology in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) in 1978 from the University of Minnesota. His expertise focuses on cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, their role as genetic vulnerability factors, their connections to functional outcome, and their remediation. Dr. Nuechterlein has authored more than 235 journal articles and is among the scientists on the ISI Web of Knowledge Highly Cited list for Psychology/Psychiatry. He has been on the editorial boards of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and Schizophrenia Bulletin and is currently on the editorial board of Psychological Medicine. He has received numerous research grants from NIMH and other sources. Dr. Nuechterlein served as the Co-Chair of the Neurocognition Committee for the NIMH-funded initiative, Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS). This group guided the development of the MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, a standardized outcome measure for clinical trials to assess the impact of new interventions on core cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Dr. Nuechterlein is a past-president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology.