David Sturman grew up in Albany, NY, moving to Poughkeepsie, NY, in 1998 to attend Vassar College. David became interested in cognitive neuroscience through his coursework in the Vassar Cognitive Science Program and from reading books by Oliver Sacks and Antonio Damasio. He spent a summer working with Antoine Bechara, MD, PhD, at the University of Iowa, pursuing questions about the connections between emotion and rational decision-making processes during a gambling task. After receiving his BA in Cognitive Science in 2002, David worked with Leslie Ungerleider, PhD, in the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition at the National Institute of Mental Health. During that period, he participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments with Luiz Pessoa, PhD, to examine how correlates of neural activity in the amygdala, in response to briefly-presented pictures of emotional faces, were modulated by subjects’ awareness of the stimuli. In 2004, David enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training (MD/PhD) Program.

 

David joined the Moghaddam Lab in 2006. His main project involved comparing the motivated, goal-directed behavior of adolescents with that of adults and examining the neurophsyiological correlates of age-related behavioral differences. This work has led to a publication in Behavioral Neuroscience, which reported that certain adolescent behavioral differences are modulated by motivational factors like hunger and an external reward-associated cue.

 

Through the University of Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program, David received his PhD in Spring 2011 and his MD in Spring 2013. Following completion of the program, David accepted a position as a resident at Harvard/Mass. General Hospital.

 

Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2012) The striatum processes reward differently in adolescents versus adults.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 109(5): 1719-24.

 

Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2011). The neurobiology of adolescents: Changes in brain architecture, functional dynamics, and behavioral tendencies. Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 35:1704-12.

 

Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2011) Reduced neuronal inhibition and coordination of adolescent prefrontal cortex during motivated behavior. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(4):1471-1478.

Sturman, D.A., Mandell, D.R., Moghaddam, B. (2010) Adolescents exhibit behavioral differences from adults during instrumental learning and extinction. Behavioral Neuroscience, 124(1):16-25.

Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2010) Neurodevelopment and learning in adolescence: relevance to staging of psychiatric disorders. Book chapter in: Staging Neuropsychiatric Disorders: Implications for Etiopathogenesis and Treatment, (in press).

Sturman, D.A., Shakiryanova, D., Hewes, R.S., Deitcher, D.L., Levitan, E.S. (2006) Nearly neutral secretory vesicles in Drosophila nerve terminals. Biophysical Journal, 90(6):L45-7.

Pessoa, L., Japee, S., Sturman, D.A., Ungerleider, L.G. (2006) Target visibility and visual awareness modulate amygdala responses to fearful faces. Cerebral Cortex, 16(3):366-75.

 

Abstracts

Sturman, D.A., and Moghaddam, B. (2011) Adolescent neural processing differences in orbitofrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and dorsal striatum during motivated behavior. Wiring the Brain, (P3.4).

Sturman, D.A., and Moghaddam, B. (2010) Neuronal processing differences in the prefrontal cortex of adolescents and adults during motivated behavior. Society for Neuroscience, (707.17).

Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2009) Orbitofrontal cortical neural correlates of adolescent rat behavioral differences in instrumental learning and extinction. Society for Neuroscience, (99.15).

Mandell, D.R., Sturman, D.A., Moghaddam, B. (2009) Behavioral differences between adolescents and adults are modulated by motivational factors. Society for Neuroscience, (99.1).

Sturman, D.A., Mandell, D.R., Moghaddam, B. (2008) Instrumental learning and extinction in adolescent and adult rats. Society for Neuroscience, (687.18).

Sturman, D.A., Homayoun, H., Moghaddam, B. (2007) Stimulation of cannabinoid CB1 receptor reduces tic-like stereotypy in pharmacological rat models of Tourette’s Syndrome. Society for Neuroscience, (710.18).