New York University
Center for Neural Science and Psychology Department

Research

My line of research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying emotional control. Because the environment we live in is constantly changing, our learned emotional responses need to be continuously updated to appropriately reflect current circumstances. Understanding the neural mechanisms that make such emotional flexibility may shed light on the impairments leading to anxiety disorders and may also promote new forms of treatment.
     In my doctoral research I studied one such aspect of emotional learning, namely, the ability to acquire emotional responses to previously ignored stimuli, which is impaired in patients suffering from chronic schizophrenia. Under the mentorship of Ina Weiner, I developed an animal model of this symptom (persistent latent inhibition) and examined the underlying neural circuitry, as well as the efficacy of antipsychotic drugs in ameliorating it.
     For post-doctoral training, I chose to extend my knowledge to human emotional systems under the mentorship of Elizabeth Phelps and Joseph LeDoux. Together, we came up with a translational research program aimed at extending fundamental findings in rats to humans. This research project includes parallel findings in rats and humans on the recovery of extinguished fear, elucidation of the neural circuitry of flexible fear reversal, and how fear motivates instrumental responding. In addition, to extend these findings to more complex situations unique to humans, I’m investigating how emotional systems are recruited to rapidly evaluate others during initial social encounters.
     Finally, in extreme situations, when emotional memories become traumatic, it might be beneficial to erase fear memories altogether preventing them from resurfacing. New evidence in rats and other non-human species suggests this might be possible using pharmacological manipulations. However, these finding have yet to be demonstrated convincingly in humans. I’m currently testing this possibility, by examining whether emotional memories induced in the laboratory can be erased using beta-adrenergic receptor blockade as well as drug-free behavioral manipulations. These studies are essential in providing a critical link between animal models and the clinical population. 

Recently submitted

Schiller D, Cain CK, Kuhlman K, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. Emotion 
regulation through active coping – role of amygdala-striatal circuitry.

Schiller D, Freeman J, Mitchell J, Uleman J, Phelps EA. A neural mechanism of first impressions.

Peer-reviewed publications

Schiller D, Levy I, Niv Y, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. (In Press) From fear to safety and back – reversal of fear in the human brain. The Journal of Neuroscience

Schiller D, Cain CK, Curley NG, Schwartz J, Stern SA, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. (2008) Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Learning & Memory 15:394-402 [PDF]

Schiller D, Zuckerman L, Weiner I (2006) Abnormally persistent latent inhibition induced by lesions to the nucleus accumbens core, basolateral amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex is reversed by clozapine but not by haloperidol. Journal of Psychiatric Research 40:167-177 [PDF]

Schiller D and Weiner I (2005) Basolateral amygdala lesions in the rat produce an abnormally persistent latent inhibition with weak preexposure but not with context shift. Behavioural Brain Research 163:115-121 [PDF]

Gal G, Schiller D, Weiner I (2005) Latent inhibition is disrupted by nucleus accumbens shell lesion but is abnormally persistent following entire nucleus accumbens lesion: The neural site controlling the expression and disruption of the stimulus preexposure effect. Behavioural Brain Research 162:246-255 [PDF]

Joel D, Doljansky J, Schiller D (2005) ‘Compulsive’ lever-pressing in rats is enhanced following lesions to the orbital cortex, but not to the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala or to the medial prefrontal cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience 21:2252-2262 [PDF]

Schiller D and Weiner I (2004) Lesions to the basolateral amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex but not to the medial prefrontal cortex produce an abnormally persistent latent inhibition in rats. Neuroscience 128: 15-25 [PDF]

Weiner I, Schiller D, Gaisler I (2003) Disruption and potentiation of latent inhibition by risperidone: The latent inhibition model of atypical antipsychotic action. Neuropsychopharmacology 28:499-509 [PDF]

Weiner I, Schiller D, Gaisler I, Green A, Joel D (2003) A comparison of drug effects in latent inhibition and the forced swim test differentiates between the typical antipsychotic haloperidol, the atypical antipsychotics clozapine and olanzapine and the antidepressants imipramine and paroxetine. Behavioral Pharmachology 14:215-222 [PDF]

Shadach E, Gaisler I, Schiller D, Weiner I (2000) The latent inhibition model dissociates between clozapine, haloperidol and ritanserin. Neuropsychopharmacology 23:151-161 [PDF]

Weiner I, Gaisler I, Schiller D, Green A, Zuckerman L, Joel D (2000) Screening of antipsychotic drugs in animal models. Drug Development Research 50:235-249 [PDF]

Book Chapters and Reviews

LeDoux JE and Schiller D (2008) What animal fear models have taught us about human amygdala function? The Human Amygdala.  Whalen, PJ & Phelps, EA. eds.  New York: Guilford

Schiller D and Phelps EA (2008) The neuroscience of emotional learning. Oxford Companion to Affective Sciences.  Sander, D & Scherer, KR. eds. Oxford University Press

LeDoux JE, Schiller D, Cain CK (2008) Emotional reaction and action: From threat processing to goal-directed behavior. The New Cognitive Neurosciences. Gazzaniga, MS. ed. MIT Press

Delgado MR, Li J, Schiller D, Phelps EA (2008) Review: The role of striatum in aversive learning and aversive prediction errors. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B [PDF]

Schiller D, Levy I, Delgado MR, Apergis-Schoute AM, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA (in preparation) Overlapping neural systems mediating extinction, reversal and regulation of fear

Conference Presentations

Schiller D, Monfils M, Johnson DC, Raio CM, , LeDoux JE, Phelps EA 
(2008) Retrieval Prior to Extinction Prevents the Return of Fear. 
International Symposium of Attention & Performance XXIII: Decision Making, Stowe, VT

Schiller D, Monfils M, Raio CM, Johnson DC, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA 
(2008) Extinction during reconsolidation prevents the return of fear 
in humans. Annual Meeting of the Pavlovian Society for Neuroscience, New Jersey

Schiller D, Monfils M, Johnson DC, Raio CM, LeDoux JE, Phelps EA. (2008) Behavioral blockade of the return of fear in humans. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC [Abstract]

Freeman J, Schiller D, Rule NO, Phelps EA, Ambady N (2008) Separable (and race-selective) neural mechanisms for judging individuated and non-individuated others. Social & Affective Neuroscience Conference, Boston [Abstract]

Schiller D, Freeman JB, Mitchell JP, Uleman JS, Phelps EA (2007) Assigning value to people – role of PCC and amygdala. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics, Hull, MA [Abstract][Poster]

Schiller D, Levy I, Delgado MR, Apergis-Schoute AM, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2007) Overlapping neural systems mediating extinction, reversal and regulation of fear. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Dan Diego, CA [Abstract][PDF]

Curley NG, Stern SA, Schwartz J, Cain CK, Schiller D, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2007) Evidence for the recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Dan Diego, CA [Abstract][PDF]

Schiller D, Levy I, Niv Y,  Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2007) Amygdala, striatum and prefrontal cortex mediate flexible fear responses. Motivational Neuronal Network Conference, Porquerolles, France

Freeman J, Mitchell JP, Uleman JS, Phelps EA, Schiller D (2007) The neural correlates of first impressions. Neural Systems of Social Behavior, Austin, Texas [Abstract]

Schiller D, Niv Y, Levy I, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2007) Lateral and medial prefrontal cortex mediate reversal of fear learning in humans. Linking Affect to Action: Critical Contributions of the Orbitofrontal Cortex. The New York Academy of Science, New York, NY

Schiller D, Niv Y, Levy I, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2007) Fear learning and unlearning in the human brain. OIST Workshop on Cognitive Neurobiology, Japan

Schiller D, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2006) Reversal of fear learning in the human brain. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, Georgia [Poster]

Schiller D, Cain CK, Kuhlman K, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2006) Learning by doing – Actions reinforced by fear termination. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroeconomics, Canyons Resort, Park City, Utah [Abstract]

Schiller D, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2006) Context mediated recovery of extinguished fear in humans. Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA [Abstract] [Poster]

Apergis-Schoute AM, Schiller D, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2006) Functional lateralization of the auditory fear learning circuitry in humans. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, Georgia

Schiller D, Gal G, Weiner I (2005) The role of limbic-ventral striatal circuitry in responding to stimuli with conflicting meanings. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC [Poster]

Apergis-Schoute AM, Schiller D, Litman L, Nearing K, Ledoux JE, Phelps EA (2005) The neural circuits of acquisition and extinction of auditory fear conditioning in humans. Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC

Schiller D, Zuckerman L, Joel D, Weiner I (2003) the neural circuitry of persistent latent inhibition as a model of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry 53:20S [Abstract]

Schiller D, Zuckerman L, Weiner I (2003) the neural circuitry of persistent latent inhibition as a model of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. European Neuropsychopharmacology 13:S279-S280 [Abstract]

Schiller D and Weiner I (2002) The role of orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala in latent inhibition – A possible model of negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Neural Plasticity 9:111

Symposia

2008 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA: “The Power of Expectancy in the Human Brain” Speakers: Brian Knutson, Daniela Schiller, Jack B. Nitschke, Jon-Kar Zubieta [PDF]

2008 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA: “The relationship between social cognition and emotion” Speakers: Daniela Schiller, Jennifer S. Beer, Christian Keysers, Kevin N. Ochsner [PDF]

Invited Talks

2008 Center for the Study of Brain Mind and Behavior, Princeton University: “Assigning value – from fear predictive objects to people"

2007 Psychology Department, Rutgers University: The neural correlates of first Impressions

2007 Human Neuroimaging Lab, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX: Evaluations of conflicting information in a social and a non-social context

2006 Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK: Reconsolidation of emotional memory in humans

2006 Behavioural Neuroscience Seminars, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK: From reaction to action: actions reinforced by fear termination

2006 Alpine Brain Imaging Meeting, Champéry, Switzerland: Emotional Unlearning

Student Mentoring

Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Course 2007, Japan 

• Student projects - Behavioral Experiments and Modeling Group [PDF]

  
  

Psychology Department, New York University

• Candace Marie Raio – MA Thesis (2008): Altering fear memories: Reactivation, Extinction and Erasure
       *poster won 1st place in the NYU MA research conference[PDF]

• Jennifer Schwartz – CSTEP Statewide Student Conference (2007): Humans are not rats - recovery of fear following immediate extinction
       *poster won 1st place in the Social Sciences category [PDF]

• Kaitlyn Huegel – Psychology Undergraduate Honors Program (2007): Why do we burn our ex’s things? The transference of the emotional value associated with a significant other to neutral inanimate objects
       *poster won 1st place in the NYU undergraduate research        conference [PDF]

• Jon Freeman – Columbia University Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium (CUSJ 2007): Likes me, likes me not: amygdala activity predicts first impressions (link)

• Nina G. Curley – Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (2007), San Diego, CA:Evidence for the recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans [PDF]

• Kate Kuhlman – Research And Experimental Methods Course (2007): Escape from fear learning in humans

Teaching

2004 Psychology Department, Derby College

• Physiology of Behavior

• Research Methods and Statistics

• Science and Technology

2001-2003 Psychology Department, Tel Aviv University

• Introduction to Psychology

• Research Methods

2000-2001 The Music Academy, Lewinsky College

• Music and the Brain

2000 Psychology Department, The Open University

• Physiology of Behavior

Other Projects

Lobel TE, Sakamoto A, Sagara J, Saka N, Schiller D (Under review) Gender-related inferences and judgments of children and adolescents: A cross-cultural analysis

Lobel TE, Nov-Krispin N, Schiller D, Lobel O, Feldman A (2004) Gender discriminatory behavior during adolescence and young adulthood: A developmental analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 33:535-546 [PDF]