Faculty

Beatriz Luna, PhD

Beatriz Luna, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Psychology, Bioengineering and Radiology, and Staunton Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Email
Website
LNCD
Assistant
Nathan Rockcastle
rockcastlenj@upmc.edu

Education & Training

PhD
Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences
Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh

Selected Honors & Awards

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, United States Government
Fellow, World Innovation Foundation
Gallagher Lecture, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine
Emerging Mentor Award, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Research Interests

Dopaminergic neurodevelopment; GABA/glutamate neurodevelopment; Neurocognitive development
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Montez DF, Calabro FJ, Luna B. The expression of established cognitive brain states stabilizes with working memory development. Elife. 2017 Aug 19;6. pii: e25606. doi: 10.7554/eLife.25606. PMCID: PMC5578740
  2. Jalbrzikowski M, Larsen B, Hallquist MN, Foran W, Calabro F, Luna B. Development of White Matter Microstructure and Intrinsic Functional Connectivity Between the Amygdala and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex: Associations With Anxiety and Depression. Biol Psychiatry. 2017 Oct 1;82(7):511-521. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.01.008. Epub 2017 Jan 17. PMCID: PMC5522367
  3. Hallquist MN, Geier CF, Luna B. Incentives facilitate developmental improvement in inhibitory control by modulating control-related networks. Neuroimage. 2018 May 15;172:369-380. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.01.045. Epub 2018 Jan 31. PMCID: PMC5910226
  4. Murty VP, Shah H, Montez D, Foran W, Calabro F, Luna B. Age-Related Trajectories of Functional Coupling between the VTA and Nucleus Accumbens Depend on Motivational State. J Neurosci. 2018 Aug 22;38(34):7420-7427. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3508-17.2018. Epub 2018 Jul 20. PMCID: PMC6104300
  5. Marek S, Tervo-Clemmens B, Klein N, Foran W, Ghuman AS, Luna B. Adolescent development of cortical oscillations: Power, phase, and support of cognitive maturation. PLoS Biol. 2018 Nov 30;16(11):e2004188. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2004188. eCollection 2018 Nov. PMID: 30500809

Clinical Interests

Selected Clinical Publications & Products
  1. Jalbrzikowski M, Murty VP, Tervo-Clemmens B, Foran W, Luna B. Age-associated deviations of Amygdala function connectivity in youths with psychosis spectrum disorders: relevance to psychotic symptoms. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2019 Jan 18. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.18040443 [Epub ahead of print]
  2. Murty VP, McKinney RA, DuBrow S, Jalbrzikowski M, Haas GL, Luna B. Differential patterns of contextual organization of memory in first-episode psychosis. NPJ Schizophr. 2018 Feb 15;4(1):3. doi: 10.1038/s41537-018-0046-8. PMCID: PMC5814439
  3. Tervo-Clemmens B, Simmonds D, Calabro FJ, Montez DF, Lekht JA, Day NL, Richardson GA, Luna B. Early Cannabis Use and Neurocognitive Risk: A Prospective Functional Neuroimaging Study. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2018 Aug;3(8):713-725. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2018.05.004. Epub 2018 May 29. PMID: 30033100
  4. Jalbrzikowski M, Murty VP, Stan PL, Saifullan J, Simmonds D, Foran W, Luna B. Differentiating between clinical and behavioral phenotypes in first-episode psychosis during maintenance of visuospatial working memory. Schizophr Res. 2017 Nov 11. pii: S0920-9964(17)30689-8. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2017.11.012. [Epub ahead of print] PMCID: PMC5948111
  5. Tervo-Clemmens B, Quach A, Luna B, Foran W, Chung T, De Bellis MD, Clark DB. Neural Correlates of Rewarded Response Inhibition in Youth at Risk for Problematic Alcohol Use. Front Behav Neurosci. 2017 Nov 3;11:205. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00205. eCollection 2017. PMCID: PMC5675888

Education Interests

Postdoctoral fellow research mentorship; Graduate student research mentorship

Beatriz Luna, PhD, and Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab) Are Elected Members of the National Academy of Medicine

Drs. Bea Luna and Mary Phillips

The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce that two faculty members, Beatriz Luna, PhD, and Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab), have been elected to membership of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to...

Nature Communications: A Canonical Trajectory of Executive Function Maturation from Adolescence to Adulthood

Luna and Colleagues Nature Communications 2023

Theories of human neurobehavioral development suggest executive functions mature from childhood through adolescence, a time when individuals may also experience peaks in risk-taking behaviors such as substance use, and increased vulnerability to psychiatric disorders. However, the timing of adolescent executive function development and the specific age when executive functions reach adult levels have been...

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium: Presenting Translational Research in Developmental Psychopathology

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium Collage

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium (DANS) presents recent translational research in developmental psychopathology. The 2023 DANS theme was “ Neurodevelopment of Regulatory Systems: A Focus on Emotions and Motivation,” featuring research focused on the development of neural networks and circuitries implicated in regulating or modulating neural response to emotionally or motivationally salient...

New Research on Brain Plasticity During Adolescence

Dr. Bea Luna

Postmortem studies of the prefrontal cortex have revealed changes in gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate across adolescence, which suggests shifts in excitation and inhibition balance consistent with critical period plasticity. However, questions have persisted regarding how gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate change through adolescence and how the balance of these inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters...