APF Supports Neuropsychology Students' Research

The American Psychological Foundation (APF) is pleased to announce Ivy Tso, MS, and Matthew Cohen, MS, as the recipients of the 2011 APF Benton-Meier Neuropsychology Scholarships. These $2,500 scholarships encourage and enhance the development of talented graduate students in neuropsychology.

Ivy Tso, a fifth-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan, will investigate gaze direction processing in patients with schizophrenia to determine if they have abnormal eye-contact perception. This is important research, as abnormalities in eye-contact perception may correlate with impaired social cognition, severity of paranoid delusions and additional negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Ms. Tso hopes her research will lead to a better understanding and treatment of those suffering from this disease.

Matthew Cohen, a PhD student in the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida, is testing the ability of patients with Parkinson’s Disease to initiate movement in response to environmental cues versus intentional, self-motivated movement. Specifically, Mr. Cohen is studying Akinesia paradoxica, or the paradoxical lack of movement, which is a phenomenon whereby patients with Parkinson’s and related disorders can initiate movements in response to environmental cues better than by their own will. Mr. Cohen’s research has the potential to make a significant contribution to the empirical literature on movement in patients with Parkinson’s, thus expanding treatment possibilities.