Mark A. Geyer, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
225 W. Dickinson Street
San Diego, CA 92103-0804
Phone #: 619 543 3582
FAX #: 619 543 2493
E-mail: mgeyer@ucsd.edu

Biography 
Mark Geyer is a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UCSD, where he has worked since completing his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1972. He is actively involved in both the Ph.D. Group in Neurosciences and the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program. A pioneer in the translational study of sensorimotor gating deficits in schizophrenia and related animal models, Dr. Geyer is the Director of the Basic Neuroscience Unit of the VISN 22 VA Administration’s Mental Illness Research, Clinical, and Education Center that focuses on the treatment of schizophrenia. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers and many invited reviews and chapters. Dr. Geyer is an Editor for Psychopharmacology and Neuropharmacology, President and Fellow of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Vice-President of the international Serotonin Club, and a member of the Scientific Council of NARSAD. Dr. Geyer is supported by multiple grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

Research Focus 
Dr. Geyer’s laboratory uses behavioral measures and psychopharmacological manipulations in rodents and humans to examine the roles of monoamines in behavior, to develop animal models of human drug effects, and to explore information-processing deficits in schizophrenia. He uses startle measures of habituation and prepulse inhibition, which are deficient in schizophrenics and mimicked in rodents by pharmacological, developmental, and genetic manipulations. He also uses a Behavioral Pattern Monitor in rats and mice to provide multivariate assessments of spatio-temporal patterns of exploratory behavior, including nonlinear dynamical measures of behavioral organization. His recent work focuses on phenotypic characterizations of gene knockout mice, including mice lacking specific receptors for dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin. 

Clinical Focus 
Schizophrenia and related disorders involving abnormalities in information processing, gating, and habituation.

Selected Publications 

• Vollenweider, F.X. and Geyer, M.A.: A systems model of altered consciousness: Integrating natural and drug-induced psychoses. Brain Research Bulletin, 56:495-507, 2001.
• Geyer, M.A., Krebs-Thomson, K., Braff, D.L., and Swerdlow, N.R.: Pharmacological studies of prepulse inhibition models of sensorimotor gating deficits in schizophrenia: A decade in review. Psychopharmacology, 156:117-154, 2001.
• Ralph, R.J., Paulus, M.P., Fumagalli, F., Caron, M.G., and Geyer, M.A.: Prepulse inhibition deficits and perseverative motor patterns in dopamine transporter knockout mice: Differential effects of D1 and D2 receptor antagonists. Journal of Neuroscience, 21:305-313, 2001.
• Geyer, M.A. and Markou, A.: The role of preclinical models in the development of psychotropic drugs. In: Neuropsychopharmacology: The Fifth Generation of Progress, (eds. K.L. Davis, D. Charney, J.T. Coyle, & C. Nemeroff), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Chapter 33, pp 445-455, 2002. 
• Geyer, M.A. and Moghaddam, B.: Animal models relevant to schizophrenia disorders. In: Neuropsychopharmacology: The Fifth Generation of Progress, (eds. K.L. Davis, D. Charney, J.T. Coyle, & C. Nemeroff), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Chapter 50, pp 689-701, 2002.