Catherine Fassbender, Ph.D.
Fassbender Catherine, Ph.D., Assistant Professional Researcher, Department
of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Education
B.A., Psychology, University College Dublin, Ireland, 2000
H.Dip. Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2002
Ph.D. Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2005
Biography
Dr. Fassbender graduated from the Trinity College Dublin, Department of
Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience, graduate program in the field of
cognitive neuroscience in 2005. Her graduate work involved investigating
cognitive control through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI). She subsequently moved to the University of Maryland, Baltimore,
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, where
she examined cognitive control in children and adolescents with ADHD. In
2007 she accepted a position at the UC Davis MIND Institute and Department
of Psychiatry where she continued researching cognitive control in ADHD.
She has also expanded her research interests to include the examination of
cognitive impairments in other clinical disorders such as substance
dependence at the UC Davis Imaging Research Center. Dr. Fassbender
became a member of the MIND Institute faculty in 2012. Her interests include
understanding the neural correlates of cognitive control processes in clinical
disorders, examining cognition and reward processing following long-term
substance abuse, determining neural risk factors for relapse from sobriety in
substance users and examining the neural and behavioral risk factors for
substance abuse in adolescents. She conducts her research using
behavioral, functional neuroimaging and electrophysiological methods. Dr.
Fassbender’s goal is to better understand the cognitive impairments in clinical
disorders in order to inform targeted treatments. She is also interested in
identifying patterns of brain and behavior function that will inform the early
identification of individuals vulnerable to substance dependence with the goal
of prevention.
Publications
Fassbender C, Krafft CE, Schweitzer JB. (2015) Differentiating SCT and
inattentive symptoms in ADHD using fMRI measures of cognitive control.
NeuroImage: Clinical, 21(8):390-7
Weissman, D.G., Schriber, R.A., Fassbender, C., Atherton, O., Krafft, C.,
Robins, R.W., Hastings, P.D. & Guyer, A.E. (2015) Earlier adolescent
substance use onset predicts stronger connectivity between reward and
cognitive control brain networks. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 16,
121-9
Fassbender, C., Lesh, T.A., Ursu, S. & Salo, R. (2015) Reaction Time
Variability and Related Brain Activity in Methamphetamine Psychosis,
Biological Psychiatry, 77(5): 465-74
Fassbender C., Houde S, Silver-Balbus S., Ballard K, Kim B.K., Rutledge
K.J., Dixon J.F., Iosif A.M., Schweitzer J.B., McClure S.M. (2014) The decimal
effect: behavioral and neural bases for a novel influence on intertemporal
choice in healthy individuals and in ADHD, Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, 26(11):2455-68
Fassbender C., Scangos, K., Lesh, T.A. & Carter, C.S. (2014) RT
distributional analysis of cognitive-control-related brain activity in first-episode
schizophrenia. Cognitive Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(1): 17588.
Mazaheri A, Fassbender C, Coffey-Corina S, Hartanto TA, Schweitzer JB,
Mangun GR (2014) Differential Oscillatory Electroencephalogram Between
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Subtypes and Typically Developing
Adolescents. Biological Psychiatry, 76(5):422-9
Salo R, Fassbender C, Buonocore MH, Ursu S. (2013) Behavioral regulation
in methamphetamine abusers: an fMRI study. Psychiatry Research,
30;211(3):234-8
Salo R, Fassbender C, Iosif AM, Ursu S, Leamon MH, Carter C. (2013)
Predictors of methamphetamine psychosis: history of ADHD-relevant
childhood behaviors and drug exposure. Psychiatry Research, 210(2): 529-35
Green CT, Long DL, Green D, Iosif AM, Dixon JF, Miller MR, Fassbender C,
Schweitzer JB. (2012) Will working memory training generalize to improve offtask behavior in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?
Neurotherapeutics, 9(3):639-48
Fassbender C., Schweitzer, J.B. Cortes, C.R., Tagamets, M.A., Windsor,
T.A., Revves, G.M. & Gullapalli, R. (2011) Working memory in attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder is characterized by a lack of specialization of
brain function. PLos One, 6(11):e27240
Salo R, Ravizza S, Fassbender C. (2011) Overlapping cognitive patterns in
schizophrenia and methamphetamine dependence. Cogn Behav Neurol,
24(4):187-93
Salo R, Gabay S, Fassbender C, Henik A. (2011) Distributed attentional
deficits in chronic methamphetamine abusers: evidence from the Attentional
Network Task (ANT). Brain and Cognition, 77(3): 446-52
Miller M., Hanford, R.B., Fassbender, C., Duke, M. & Schweitzer, J.B. (2011).
Affect recognition in adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,
Journal of Attention Disorders 15(6): 452-60
Fassbender, C., Zhang, H., Buzy, W.M., Cortes, C., Mizuiri, D., Beckett, L.
and Schweitzer, J.B. (2009). A lack of default network suppression is linked to
increased distractibility in ADHD, Brain Research, 1273:114-28
Fassbender, C., Hester, R., Murphy, K., Foxe, J. J., Foxe, D. M. and
Garavan, H. (2008). Prefrontal and midline interactions in behavioural control,
European Journal of Neuroscience, 29(1): 181-187.
Fassbender, C., Simoes-Franklin, C., Murphy, K., Hester, R., Meaney, J.,
Robertson, I. H. and Garavan, H. (2006). The role of a right fronto-parietal
network in cognitive control: Common activations for “cues-to-attend” and
response inhibition, Journal of Psychophysiology, 20(4): 286-296.
Fassbender, C., Foxe, J. J. & Garavan H. (2006). Mapping the functional
anatomy of task preparation: priming task- appropriate brain networks.
Human Brain Mapping,27(10), 819-827.
Fassbender, C and Schweitzer, J.B. (2006). Is There Evidence for Neural
Compensation in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder? A Review of the
Functional Neuroimaging Literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(4), 445465.
Garavan, H., Hester, R., Murphy, K., Fassbender, C. & Kelly, C. (2006).
Individual differences in the neuroanatomy of inhibitory control. Brain
Research, 1105, 130-142.
Fassbender, C., Murphy, K., Foxe, J., Wylie, G., Javitt, D.C., Robertson, I.H.
& Garavan, H. (2004). A topography of executive functions and their
interactions revealed by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Cognitive
Brain Research, 20, 132-143.
Hester, R., Fassbender, C. & Garavan, H. (2004). Individual differences in
error processing: A review and Reanalysis of three event-related fMRI studies
using the GO/NOGO task. Cerebral Cortex, 14, 986-994.
Presentations
Will Computerized Working Memory Training Generalize to Improve Off-Task
Behavior in ADHD? Cogmed Network Annual Conference, Chicago, IL,
September 2010
Executive Functioning in ADHD. U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Summer Institute on
Neurodevelopmental Disorders, California State University, Sacramento, CA,
August 2007.
Mixed Block and Event-related fMRI Investigation of Response Inhibition in
the Sustained Attention to Response Test (SART). 33rd Annual Conference of
the Psychological Society of Ireland, Waterford 14 –17 November, 2002.
Research Funding
Active:
Cognitive and Reward processes in risk for relapse in poly substance
dependence
NIH/NIDA, 04/01/2015 – 03/31-2017
Role: Principle Investigator
Charting the Gateway Years: Linking Brain Connectivity Trajectories and
Psychosocial Risk Profiles with Substance Use from Early Adolescence into
Young Adulthood
UC Davis Behavior Center for Excellence Award, 6/01/2015-5/31/2016
Role: Co-Investigator
Developmental Changes in Neural Processes Underlying Impulsivity and
ADHD (Schweitzer, J),
NIH/NIMH, 8/15/2012 – 8/31/2016 (no cost extension to 5/17)
Role: Co-Investigator
Building Resistance to Distraction via Virtual Reality Therapy
Joe P. Tupin Research Award, UC Davis Dept. Psychiatry, 07/01/16-06/30/17
Role: Co-Investigator
Completed:
Identifying Cognitive and Neural Risk Factors for Substance Dependence in
ADHD
NIH/NIDA, 2/1/2012-1/31/2013, (no cost extension until 01/31/2015)
Role: Principle Investigator
Attention Bias in Comorbid ADHD and Stimulant Dependence
Joe P. Tupin Research Award, UC Davis Dept. Psychiatry 7/01/20136/30/2014 (no cost extension until 06/30/2015)
Role: Principle Investigator
Community Service
Serves on the UC Davis Imaging Research Center MRI Safety Committee
Academic Editor for the International Neuropsychiatric Disease Journal
Reviewer for the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry,
Archives of General Psychiatry, Human Brain mapping, Brain Research,
Clinical Psychology Review, Journal of Addiction Medicine, Psychiatry
Research and Brain Imaging and Behavior.
Awards and Honors
2001
Government of Ireland Research Scholarship for the Humanities
and Social Sciences
2008
Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship
in ADHD
2013
Joe P. Tupin Research Award, UC Davis Dept. Psychiatry