Erin A. Hazlett, PhD
Dr. Hazlett is a VA CSR&D Senior Research Career Scientist and this award supports her full-time VA position. She is the Associate Director and an investigator in the Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC VISN 2) at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center (JJPVA). At the academic affiliate, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), Dr. Hazlett is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience. She is the Director of the Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory within both the MIRECC and the Department of Psychiatry at ISMMS. Dr. Hazlett conducts translational clinical research on neuro- and social-cognition in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and emotion processing in mood disorders. Additionally, she has a strong track record of mentoring MIRECC Advanced Psychology Fellows on cutting-edge clinical neuroimaging and more recently, clinical trial research for Veterans at high risk for suicide. Dr. Hazlett has >175 publications with an H-index of 75 (total citations >17,750 as of June 2024). She is an Associate Editor for the journal Psychophysiology and is on the editorial board for several psychiatry journals including the Journal of Personality Disorders and Psychiatry Research.
Dr. Hazlett conducts multidisciplinary clinical research using neuroimaging and psychophysiological approaches to examine the neurobiology of psychiatric illness. She primarily examines the neurobiology of impaired attention and social cognition in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder) and emotion-processing deficits in mood disorders (major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder). She has received funding for her research from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Mental Health, and private foundations (e.g., Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, Dana Foundation). Recently-funded federal grants include: (a) VA CSR&D Collaborative Merit: employing functional/structural MRI and psychophysiology to examine emotion regulation and impulsivity in Veterans at low and high risk for suicide with and without mild traumatic brain injury; (b) VA RR&D SPiRE: examining the feasibility and acceptability of a novel cognitive remediation plus bridging intervention administered via telehealth in Veterans at high risk for suicide; (c) NIMH R01 and supplement: delineating risk and protective factors using MRI, neurocognition, social cognition, and natural language processing assessments across the schizophrenia spectrum (from healthy controls to individuals with schizotypal personality disorder to patients with schizophrenia) in a longitudinal study design.
Research Interests
Schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, suicidal behavior, fMRI, diffusion tensor imaging, psychophysiology
Grants
Longitudinal Neuroimaging and Neurocognitive Assessment of Risk and Protective Factors Across the Schizophrenia Spectrum; Examining Natural Language Processing Across the Spectrum (2021-2025).
Role: Principal Investigator. MPI: Szeszko. Funding source: NIMH.
A Novel Cognitive Remediation Intervention Targeting Poor Decision Making and Depression in Veterans at High Risk for Suicide: A Safe, Telehealth Approach During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2022-2023).
Role: Principal investigator. Funding source: VA.
VA CSR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application (2018-2023).
Role: Principal investigator. Funding source: VA.
CTBI: Traumatic Brain Injury-Induced Inflammation Effects on Cognitive Evaluations and Response Inhibition: Mechanisms of Increased Risk for Suicidality (2019-2024).
Role: Principal Investigator. MPI: Goodman. Funding source: VA.
Predicting Suicidal Behavior in Veterans with Bipolar Disorder Using Behavioral and Neuroimaging Based Impulsivity Phenotypes (2020-2024).
Role: Co-Investigator. PI: Szeszko. Funding source: VA.
Reward Processing and Depressive Subtypes: Identifying Neural Biotypes Related to Suicide Risk, Resilience, and Treatment Response (2020-2023).
Role: Co-Investigator & Mentor. PI: Fryer. Funding source: VA.
Mapping treatment components to targets in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (2020-2023).
Role: Co-Investigator. PI: Dixon-Gordon. Funding source: NIMH.
Training the next generation of clinical neuroscientists (2020-2025).
Role: Mentor. PI: Kahn. Funding source: NIMH.
Mount Sinai Medical Scientist Training Program (2022-2027)
Role: Co-Investigator/Mentor. PI: Baron. Funding source: NIH
Publications (Selected)
A full list of Dr. Hazlett’s publications can be found here.
Dr. Hazlett’s five most recent publications (of >170) are listed below. Asterisk (*) denotes Fellow/junior faculty that Dr. Hazlett is supervising.
Hazlett EA, Goldstein KE, Haznedar MM, McClure MM, Perez-Rodriguez MM, New AS, Goodman M, Kapil-Pair KN, Feinberg A, Smith E, & Dolgopolskaia E (in press). Hyperreactivity and impaired habituation of startle amplitude during unpleasant pictures in borderline but not schizotypal personality disorder: Quantifying emotion dysregulation. Biol Psychiatry. PMID: 35717211.
Myers CE, Dave C, Callahan M, Chesin MS, Kelip JG, Beck KD, Brenner LA, Goodman M, Hazlett EA, Niculescu AB, St. Hill L, & Interian A (2022). Improving the prospective prediction of a near-term suicide attempt in Veterans using a Go/NoGo task. Psychological Med Jul 28:1-10. PMID: 35899406.
Szeszko PR, Gohel S, Vaccaro DH, Chu KW, Tang CY, Goldstein KE, New AS, Siever LJ, McClure MM, Perez-Rodriguez MM, Haznedar MM, Byne W, & Hazlett EA (2022). Frontotemporal thalamic connectivity in schizophrenia and schizotypal personality disorder. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 322:111463. PMID: 35240516.
Hazlett EA (2022). Section on Schizotypal Personality Disorder in Personality Disorders. In: (M Zimmerman, Section Ed.) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth Edition; Text Revision; DSM-5-TR. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
*Edwards ER, Gromatsky M, Sissoko DRG, Geraci J, Hazlett EA, & Goodman M (2022). Arrest history and psychopathology among Veterans at risk for suicide. Psychol Serv 19:146-156. PMID: 33119341.
