Guillermo Horga

Columbia University

Detecting auditory verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia with multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI

2012-2013

Guillermo Horga received his M.D. from the Miguel Hernandez University of Spain in 2004. He completed his clinical specialization in Psychiatry at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain, where he started his studies on the brain mechanisms underlying schizophrenia. His dissertation work explores brain metabolism during the experience of auditory verbal hallucinations, the perception of voices in the absence of corresponding stimuli, in patients with acute psychotic symptoms.
After his residency, he came to Dr. Brad Peterson's brain imaging laboratory at the New York State Psychiatric Institute (Columbia University Medical Center) under the auspices of a fellowship from the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation, where he applied functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) to the study of the neural mechanisms of learning and cognition in health as well as their disruption in a number of mental disorders in youth and adulthood (including obsessive-compulsive disorder, major depression and schizophrenia).
His current work aims to combine fMRI techniques and computational modeling to better understand the mechanisms that generate psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia. This work promises to afford detailed insight into the mechanisms underlying psychosis with the ultimate goal of uncovering novel treatment targets for patients who do not benefit from standard treatments.