Tyler Lesh, PhD

Associate Project Scientist, Department of Psychiatry
Google Scholar profile

My primary research interests are in developing a better understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with the goal of discovering novel treatment targets. To this end, I use structural and functional MRI to explore neural system dysfunction, with a strong emphasis on prefrontally-mediated dysfunction.

My early research explored affect perception deficits (e.g., discriminating emotion in facial expressions) in twins discordant for schizophrenia. More recently, my interests have focused on 1) how antipsychotic medications may influence brain structure and function in patients with schizophrenia, 2) how certain aspects of cognitive control may be more impaired than others in schizophrenia, 3) how cognitive control and reward systems may interact differently in schizophrenia compared to bipolar disorder, 4) the early trajectory of cognitive control impairment in first episode psychosis, and 5) how cannabis use influences brain structure and function in patients with first episode psychosis.