FACULTY
Adjunct
Associate Professor
B.A., Denison University, Granville, Ohio; Ph.D., City University of
New York, New York, NY
The Nathan
Kline Institute
140 Old Orangeburg Road
Orangeburg, NY 10962
Office Phone: 845-398-6537
Email: butler@nki.rfmh.org
• Research Interests:Early sensory processing and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia.
The goal of my research program is to characterize sensory processing deficits in schizophrenia and to relate these deficits to higher-level cognitive dysfunction in this disorder. While patients with schizophrenia have well-documented deficits in numerous cognitive domains including working memory and executive function, sensory deficits have only recently begun to be studied in detail. We particularly focus on the visual system including magnocellular and parvocellular visual pathways. We have found evidence of a deficit in the magnocellular visual pathway, which conducts low-resolution information to cortex and is involved in attentional capture and processing of overall stimulus organization. We are investigating the hypothesis that deficits at these early stages of processing may contribute to higher-level cognitive deficits. Higher-level deficits being examined include reading and emotion processing as well as functional outcome. A further goal of my research is to examine potential mechanisms underlying sensory processing dysfunction. One mechanism of particular interest is dysconnectivity between regions. We are utilizing diffusion tensor imaging to determine whether there is decreased integrity of white matter in visual pathways.
We utilize a combination of psychophysical, electrophysiological, and MRI techniques. In particular, we have developed a number of sophisticated techniques to allow examination of the visual pathways based on specific characteristics of the magnocellular and parvocellular pathways.
Currently funded projects include: Visual Processing in Schizophrenia
(MH 66374).Selected Publications:
Butler PD, Schechter I, Zemon V, Schwartz S, Greenstein V, Gordon J, Schroeder CE, Javitt DC. Dysfunction of early stage visual processing in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2001;158:1126-1133.
Butler PD, Schechter I, Zemon V, Greenstein V, Schwartz SG, Greenstein VC, Gordon, J., Schroeder, C.E., Javitt, D.C. Early-stage vision and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2002;159:678-679.
Butler PD, DeSanti LA, Maddox J, Harkavy-Friedman JM, Amador XF, Javitt DC, Gorman JM. Visual backward-masking deficits in schizophrenia: relationship to visual pathway function and symptomatology. Schizophrenia Research, 2002;59:199-209.
Schechter I, Butler PD, Silipo G, Zemon V, Javitt DC. Magnocellular and parvocellular contributions to backward masking dysfunction in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 2003;64:91-101.
Hoptman MJ, Ardekani BA, Butler PD, Nierenberg J, Lipatas LR, Javitt DC, Lim KO. White Matter Integrity and Impulsivity in Men with Schizophrenia. Neuroreport, 2004;15:2467-2470.
Butler PD, Javitt DC. Early-stage visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 2005:18(2):151-157.
Butler PD, Zemon V, Schechter I, Saperstein AM, Hoptman MJ, Lim KO, Revheim N, Silipo G, Javitt DC. Early-stage visual processing and cortical amplification deficits in schizophrenia, Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005;62:495-504.
Kim D, Zemon V, Saperstein A, Butler PD, Javitt DC. Dysfunction of early stage visual processing in schizophrenia: Harmonic analysis, Schizophrenia Research, 2005;76:55-65.
Leitman DI, Foxe JJ, Butler PD, Saperstein A, Revheim N, Javitt DC. Sensory contributions to impaired prosodic processing in schizophrenia, Biological Psychiatry, 2005;58:56-61.
Schechter I, Butler PD, Zemon VM, Revheim N, Saperstein AM, Jalbrzikowski M, Pasternak R, Javitt DC. Impairments in generation of early-stage transient visual evoked potentials to magno- and parvocellular-selective stimuli in schizophrenia, Clinical Neurophysiology, 2005;116:2204-2215.
Ardekani BA, Bappal A, D’Angelo D, Ashtari M, Lencz T, Szeszko PR, Butler PD, Javitt DC, Lim KO, Hrabe J, Nierenberg J, Branch CA, Hoptman MJ. Brain morphometry using diffusion weighted MRI: application to schizophrenia, Neuroreport, 2005;16(13):1455-1459.
Butler PD, Hoptman MJ, Nierenberg J, Foxe JJ, Javitt DC, Lim KO. Visual white matter integrity in schizophrenia, Am J Psychiatry, in press.
Schechter I, Butler PD, Jalbrzikowski M, Pasternak R, Saperstein AM, Javitt DC. A new dimension of sensory dysfunction: stereopsis deficits in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, in press.
