Julie Schweitzer

Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Director ADHD Program-MIND Institute. Co-Director CTSC Mentored Clinical Research Training Program.

Education

  • PhD

About

Julie Schweitzer is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and MIND Institute. She directs the Attention, Impulsivity, Regulation (AIR)/ADHD Program UC Davis MIND Institute. Her work is translational in nature where she uses cognitive neuroscience and behavior analytic principles to investigate attention and impulsivity in children and adults in typical development and in ADHD. She is also developing tech-based interventions using virtual reality and game play to improve attention, self-control and academic functioning. She combines fMRI, DTI, eye-tracking, behavioral and clinical measures in her work. She has been awarded several grants from NIH and other federal agencies for work in ADHD, autism and substance use disorders.
Dr. Schweitzer also has lengthy experience training translational scientists across UC Davis Health and is the Director of the Clinical and Translational TL1 Postdoctoral Training grant, a member of the CTSC Kitchen Cabinet (see: http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/ctsc/), Associate Director of the Mentored Clinical Research Training Program and is the Director of the UC Davis Schools of Health Mentoring Academy (https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mentoring/).

Research Focus

A sample of current funded projects include:

  1. Developmental Changes in Neural Processes Underlying Inattention, Impulsivity and Regulation – investigation of the neural basis associated with decision making with development including neural network models of reward learning, and the interaction of brain systems during decision making in typically developing and ADHD;
  2. Developing a virtual reality, home - based intervention to decrease distractibility and increase attention in children with attentional impairments;
  3. Developing a game playing app to increase self-control in preschool-aged children based on a delay discounting model (DeLTA – Delay Tolerance App);
  4. Understanding changes in neurodevelopment and functioning in typically developing children, autism and developmental disabilities without autism and ADHD in response to environmental exposures (multiple PI with Irva Hertz-Picciotto & Deborah Bennett – ReCHARGE/ECHO)
  5. Communication and dissemination project to increase activation of parents of children with ADHD and adults with ADHD to engage in care for ADHD

Publications

Fassbender, C., Mukherjee, P., Schweitzer, J.B. Minimizing noise in pediatric task-based functional MRI; Adolescents with developmental disabilities and typical development.. Neuoroimage, 2017 Jan 24;149:338-347.

Lyall, K, Schweitzer, JB, Schmidt, RJ, Hertz-Picciotto, I, Solomon, M. Inattention and hyperactivity in association with autism spectrum disorders in the CHARGE study. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. In press.

Rose, E., Salmeron, BJ, Ross, TJ, Waltz, T, Schweitzer, JB, Stein, EA. Dissociable effects of cocaine-dependence on reward processes: the role of acute cocaine and craving. Neuropsychopharmacology, 2016 Oct 5.

Hartanto, T.A., Krafft, C.E., Iosif, A.M., Schweitzer, J.B. A Trial by Trial Analysis Reveals More Intense Physical Activity is Associated with Better Cognitive Control Performance in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Child Neuropsychology. 2015 Jun 10:1-9.

van den Bos, W., Rodriguez, C., Schweitzer, J.B., McClure, S.M. Adolescent Impatience Decreases with Increased Fronto-Striatal Connectivity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jun 22. pii: 201423095.

Fassbender, C., Krafft, C., Schweitzer, J.B. Differentiating SCT and inattentive symptoms in ADHD using fMRI measures of cognitive control. NeuroImage:Clinical 8 (2015) 390–397.

Benyakorn, S., Riley, SJ, Calub, CA, Schweitzer, JB. Review and Future Directions of Technology-Based Care for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. 2016 Mar 17. Telemedicine and E-Health.

Fassbender, C., Houde, S, Silver-Balbus, S., Ballard, K., Kim, B., Rutledge, K.J., Dixon, J.F., Iosif, A.M., Schweitzer, J.B. & McClure, S.M. The Decimal Effect: Behavioral and Neural Bases for a Novel Influence on Intertemporal Choice in Healthy Individuals and in ADHD. J of Cognitive Neuroscience. April, 2014.

van den Bos W, Rodriguez, C, Schweitzer, JB, McClure, SM. Connectivity strength of dissociable striatal tracts predict individual differences in temporal discounting. J. Neurosci., July 30, 2014 • 34(31):10298 –10310.