Dr. Black is a movement disorders neuropsychiatrist. He uses innovative brain imaging methods to study movement disorders including Tourette syndrome, the effects of dopamine on the brain, and how the precise location of deep brain stimulation (DBS) contributes to its clinical effects.
Current projects
Tourette syndrome
- longitudinal study of 10- to 14-year-olds with Tourette syndrome (Deanna Greene, PI). Funded by NIMH.
- primary structural MRI analysis site for the worldwide ENIGMA‑TS genetics and neuroimaging consortium (Peristera Paschou, PI). Funded by NIMH.
Recently completed:
- a prospective study of new-onset tics (with Brad Schlaggar and Deanna Greene). Funded by NIMH.
- a randomized, controlled study of median nerve stimulation for tics. Funded by NIH via the WU Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences.
- a novel pharmacological challenge fMRI approach to staging Parkinson disease (with Joel Perlmutter). Funded by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Thank you …
… to all our research volunteers. We value the time and effort you give. Without you, progress would not be possible.
Blog
Using beat patterns to treat Parkinson’s disease
If you’ve ever tried to tune a musical instrument against another sound of the same frequency—another instrument or a tuning fork or a digital pure tone generator—you’ll know what I mean by interference beats. If you haven’t, here is an example: Here’s a concert A (440 Hz): This next sound is slightly sharp (444 Hz, […]
Research mentorship
Selected trainees
- Soyoung Kim, Ph.D.
- Shan Siddiqi, M.D.
- 2017 ANPA (American Neuropsychiatric Association) Clinical Neuroscience Trainee Award
- 2018 ANPA Young Investigator Award
- (and after leaving WU, 2022 Klerman Prize for Exceptional Clinical Research from the BBBF)
- Deanna Greene, Ph.D.
- 2014-2019 K01 award
- 2014 NARSAD Young Investigator award
- Meghan C. Campbell, Ph.D.
- 2008 Tourette Syndrome Association fellowship
- 2008 ANPA Young Investigator Award
- Natalia Abraham, M.D.
- 2006 World Parkinson Congress student travel award
- Mollie Gordon, M.D.
- 2004 AOA student research fellowship award
- 2006 ANPA Young Investigator Award
Recognition
2009-2015 NIMH K24 award: “Training investigators in neuroimaging and neuropsychiatry of movement disorders”
1990-91 and 1991-92: Voted Outstanding Teaching Resident for psychiatry by Washington University medical students
Lab accomplishments
Parkinson disease
- the first neuroimaging study of Parkinson patients with ultradian levodopa-related mood fluctuations (with Joel Perlmutter and others)
- development of a statistically rigorous method to test whether the precise location of deep brain stimulation (DBS) near a given surgical target affects efficacy in treating different symptoms (with Sarah Eisenstein, Tamara Hershey, Joel Perlmutter and others)
- a prospective study of DBS’s acute effects on mood in Parkinson disease (with Tamara Hershey, Joel Perlmutter and others)
Tourette syndrome
- the first cognitive-pharmacological fMRI study in TS (with Tamara Hershey and others)
- levodopa challenge [11C]raclopride PET in TS (with Mark Mintun)
- the largest (to date) brain imaging study of children with TS (with numerous collaborators)
- the first prospective follow-up study of children with recent-onset tics (e.g. here, here) and the first predictive biomarker in this population
Other
- the first ever functional imaging study in any non-human species that averaged data across subjects in atlas space (with Joel Perlmutter and Avi Snyder)
- the first published human pharmacological activation neuroimaging study of an investigational new drug, and the first to calculate quantitative EC50 values
- a pharmacologic challenge fMRI (phMRI) method that, at least in simulated data, can reliably provide quantitative pharmacodynamic information (such as EC50 in ng/mL) from a single imaging session
- neuroimaging studies in dystonia
- the first paper in PubMed to include an Esperanto abstract
Links
Links for everyone
- me on Mastodon
- The NeuroImaging Laboratories
- The multidisciplinary Movement Disorders Center at Wash. U. School of Medicine
- Washington University Department of Psychiatry
- WU phone book
Links for the lab
Black lab Q&As (out of date)
In the news
Talk on neuropsychiatry of Parkinson disease, 2017