David I. Leitman, Ph.D. (P.I.)

I am a cognitive neuroscientist. My research focuses on social communication, its development and the auditory processing mechanisms in music and speech. I apply these interests to the study of neurodevelopmental illnesses and, in particular, schizophrenia. I have a longstanding interest in emotion, music, philosophy and mental illness.

Most of my work to date has focused on vocal emotion as conveyed through intonation change (prosody). I have examined vocal affect signal transmission in terms of how such signals are coded, the channels used for such coding, and the receiver’s ability to process such signals. This information theoretic approach heavily relies on gestalt principles, perception and the interaction between sensory and higher-order cognitive processes.

My research approach strives for both theoretical import and applied utility. Whenever possible I employ converging methodologies, situating methods of psychophysics and neuropsychology alongside descriptions of behavior related brain activity and brain structure using EEG or spatially sensitive MRI.

Building on this foundation, I have recently begun to focus the behavioral and neural processes involved in prosodic perception develop we mature. I recently received a career development award, which will enable me to conduct a multimodal investigation (MEG, fMRI and DWI) of prosodic processing, as well as develop and pilot social
communication tasks tailored for children and adolescents.