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Michael Schlund is the Director of the Neurobehavioral Imaging Laboratory and Psychologist in the Department of Behavioral Psychology at Kennedy Krieger Institute. He is also a licensed Maryland psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Recently, he accepted a faculty position as a Research Scholar in Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.
Biographical Sketch:
Dr. Schlund received his B.A. and M.S in Psychology from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology in 1995 from Auburn University.
Dr. Schlund joined Department of Behavioral Psychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in 1995. He worked as the Clinical Director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute Residential Programs for Adults and Medically Fragile Children for one year. He then worked as a Psychologist in the Home and Community Rehabilitation Program for Adults and Children with Neurological Disorders for 5 years. Since 2001, Dr. Schlund has served as a scientific reviewer for KKI and the Neurobehavioral Research Unit. He is also the Director of the Neurobehavioral Imaging laboratory. He is also a Research Scholar (Cognitive Neuroscience focus) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh where he continues to investigate learning processes using fMRI.
Research Summary:
Understanding the neural substrates of learning is of great importance to the design of effective treatments. Often times, developmental disorders or brain injury produce maladaptive learning patterns. How poor decision-making is related to forming relations between stimuli, events and even one’s behavior and the environment (behavior-environment contingencies) has been the focus of intense research. Using behavioral testing procedures alone and with BOLD fMRI, the research is being guided by the fundamental question of whether some learning related problems reflect reductions in sensitivity to cause-effect relations or contingencies. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of behavioral assessments that adequately measure deficits in forming cause-effect relations and suggest methods for improving learning. The research being conducted is designed to improve assessment and provide information on how the brain forms cause-effect relations or contingencies.
Dr. Schlund’s primary research interests involve coupling novel behavioral assessments and brain imaging technology (fMRI) to examine the neural correlates of relational learning in adults and children. Several projects are underway which are currently supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health. At the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Dr. Schlund collaborates with Dr. Michael F. Cataldo in the study of learning mechanisms. In addition, he collaborates with Dr. Rudolf Hoehn-Saric in the study of anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders. At the University of Pittsburgh, he collaborates with Dr. Julie Fiez in the study of decision-making and contingencies.
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Schlund, M. (2002). Effects of acquired brain injury on adaptive choice and the role of reduced sensitivity to contingencies. Brain Injury, 16, 527-535
Schlund, M. (2002). The effects of brain injury on choice and sensitivity to remote consequences: Deficits in discriminating response-consequence relations. Brain Injury, 16, 347-357.
Schlund, M., Pace, G., & McGready, J. (2001). Relations between decision-making deficits and discriminating contingencies following brain injury. Brain Injury, 15, 1061-1071.
Schlund, M. W. (2000). When instructions fail: The effects of stimulus control training on brain injury survivors’ attending and reporting during hearing screenings. Behavior Modification, 24, 658-672. | 