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Clinical Psychology Program
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Research Interests
I’ve spent my research career investigating the phenomenology
and the successful treatment of depression. Much of my recent
clinical research in this area has been informed by the rich
conceptual and methodological framework provided by the
multidisciplinary domain of cognitive neuroscience, which
provides a useful meta-theoretical vantage point from which to
integrate discoveries across traditional disciplinary boundaries
(Ilardi & Feldman, 2001; Ilardi, 2002). Such integration is
especially important, I believe, because depression research now
encompasses several largely distinct research literatures that
span multiple levels of analysis: molecular, genetic,
neurological, cognitive, affective, social, behavioral, etc.
Over the past four years I have collaborated extensively with
neuroscientist Ruthann Atchley to investigate maladaptive
cognitive processes (e.g., attention, self-representation,
semantic processing, etc.) in depression. The collaboration
brings together her expertise in neuroimaging and neurocognitive
assessment with my own clinical expertise regarding the
cognitive phenomenology and treatment of depression. By
pioneering the use of divided visual field techniques to isolate
the functioning of each cerebral hemisphere, we have made
promising discoveries regarding the enduring nature of
negativistic, maladaptive depressive representations in the
brain’s right hemisphere – discoveries with considerable
potential clinical applicability. Moreover, we have utilized
electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques to develop a method of
investigating depressive self-representation (e.g., “I am a
loser”) in a fashion that completely obviates the need for
self-report, relying instead on real-time analysis of EEG
brainwave patterns as the individual reads a series of
self-referent sentences.
Another recent project involves the development of a novel
therapeutic treatment for depression that focuses upon numerous
modifiable lifestyle factors – e.g., aerobic exercise, omega-3
essential fatty acid supplementation, light exposure, sleep
hygiene, social intimacy, behavioral activation, and
anti-rumination techniques – that have each independently been
demonstrated to have antidepressant properties. Moreover, the
increasingly sedentary, isolated, and fast pace of modern life
appears designed to thwart, rather than to facilitate, the
cultivation of each of these factors – a fact which may help
explain the relentlessly increasing prevalence of depression in
the developed world over the past several decades.
Selected Publications
Ilardi, S.S. The cognitive neuroscience
perspective: A brief primer for clinical psychologists. The
Behavior Therapist. (in press).
Atchley, R. A., Ilardi, S. S., & Enloe, A.
(2003). Hemispheric asymmetry in the lexical processing of
emotion: The effect of current and past depression. Brain and
Language, 84(1), 105-119
Enloe, A.H., Ilardi, S.S., & Atchley, R.A.
Word valence, attention, and hemispheric activity in depressed,
remitted, and nondepressed controls. Brain and Cognition,
46, 129-133, 2001.
Ilardi, S.S., & Feldman, D. The cognitive
neuroscience paradigm: A unifying meta-theoretical framework for
the science and practice of clinical psychology. Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 57, 1067-1088, 2001.
Ilardi, S.S., & Feldman, D. Cognitive
neuroscience and the progress of psychological science: Once
more with feeling (and other mental constructs). Journal of
Clinical Psychology, 57, 1113-1117, 2001.
Ilardi, S.S., Rodriguez-Hanley, A., Roberts,
M.C., & Seigel, J. On the origins of clinical psychology
faculty: Who is training the trainers? Clinical Psychology:
Science and Practice 7, 346-354. [Lead article with six
invited commentaries], 2000.
Ilardi, S.S., & Craighead, W.E. The
relationship between personality pathology and dysfunctional
cognitions in previously depressed adults. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 108, 51-57, 1999.
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