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Robert Featherstone, PhD

Assistant Professor of Research Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences

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Email [email protected]
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Overview

Robert E. Featherstone, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the neurobiology, cognitive dysfunction, and treatment of schizophrenia and depression, integrating both preclinical animal models and human clinical research.

Dr. Featherstone’s work examines the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments associated with psychiatric illness and seeks to identify novel therapeutic strategies to improve cognitive and functional outcomes. His research combines behavioral neuroscience, neuropsychopharmacology, and electrophysiology, with particular expertise in EEG and event-related potential (ERP) biomarkers for psychiatric drug discovery and translational neuroscience.

Current projects investigate glutamatergic signaling pathways, NMDA receptor function, and synaptic mechanisms that contribute to cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders. By integrating behavioral, molecular, and electrophysiological approaches across animal and human studies, his research aims to advance the development of mechanism-based treatments that improve both symptoms and cognitive functioning in individuals with serious mental illness.

Publications

  • Electrophysiological and behavioral responses to ketamine in mice with reduced Akt1 expression. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2013 Jun; 227(4):639-49.. View in PubMed
  • Nicotine receptor subtype-specific effects on auditory evoked oscillations and potentials. PLoS One. 2012; 7(7):e39775.. View in PubMed
  • Subchronic ketamine treatment leads to permanent changes in EEG, cognition and the astrocytic glutamate transporter EAAT2 in mice. Neurobiol Dis. 2012 Sep; 47(3):338-46.. View in PubMed
  • Nicotine normalizes event related potentials in COMT-Val-tg mice and increases gamma and theta spectral density. Behav Neurosci. 2012 Apr; 126(2):332-43.. View in PubMed
  • AVE1625, a cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist, as a co-treatment with antipsychotics for schizophrenia: improvement in cognitive function and reduction of antipsychotic-side effects in rodents. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2011 May; 215(1):149-63.. View in PubMed
  • Gestational treatment with methylazoxymethanol (MAM) that disrupts hippocampal-dependent memory does not alter behavioural response to cocaine. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2009 Oct; 93(4):382-90.. View in PubMed
  • A sensitizing regimen of amphetamine that disrupts attentional set-shifting does not disrupt working or long-term memory. Behav Brain Res. 2008 May 16; 189(1):170-9.. View in PubMed
  • The amphetamine-induced sensitized state as a model of schizophrenia. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Nov 15; 31(8):1556-71.. View in PubMed
  • Lesions of the dorsolateral striatum impair the acquisition of a simplified stimulus-response dependent conditional discrimination task. Neuroscience. 2005; 136(2):387-95.. View in PubMed
  • Dorsal striatum and stimulus-response learning: lesions of the dorsolateral, but not dorsomedial, striatum impair acquisition of a stimulus-response-based instrumental discrimination task, while sparing conditioned place preference learning. Neuroscience. 2004; 124(1):23-31.. View in PubMed

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