Luigi Mazzone

Università degli Studi di Catania

Developmental and Adolescent Psychiatry

The influence of risperidone on emotional stimuli processing in a sample of individuals with autism: a functional MRI study

2006-2007

Luigi Mazzone received his Italian degree in Medical School in 1998 at the University of Catania, Italy. He completed his residency in Children's Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Catania in 2003 and discussed a thesis on "Behavioural and temperamental characteristics of children and adolescents suffering from primary headache." In 2001, he worked as a visiting student at the division of child neurology and psychiatry at "Stella Maris" in Pisa, Italy, where he focused his attention on the psychopharmacological treatment of psychiatric disorders in childhood. In 2005-2006 he worked as visiting fellow at the Development and Affective Neuroscience Section of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, MD. During this period he worked on the relationship between high levels of Glucocorticoid and psychiatric disorders by using functional magnetic resonance. Currently, he is a PhD student in Clinical Paediatrics at the University of Catania. The main focus of Dr. Luigi Mazzone's research is the use of neuroimaging to identify the mechanisms underlying the neurobiological function of psychiatric disorders in childhood such as Anxiety Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism. During his fellowship at Columbia University, Dr. Luigi Mazzone will use functional MRI to study the alteration in the reward system in patients with ADHD and Anxiety Disorder compared to healthy controls. He was founder and is currently President of the Organization "Progetto AITA," an association of voluntary service that promotes care of Children and Adolescents with Neurological and Psychiatric disease in Italy. He has been member of the Italian Fencing National Team and winner of the Italian National Championship of Fencing in 2002.