Assistant Professor
CH 325
(205) 934-3850
Research Interests: Severe mental illness, Avolition and related negative symptoms, Mobile health interventions and assessment, Reward-processing, Cognitive neuroscience
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
- B.S., Psychology, Oberlin College
- M.S.Ed., Counseling and Mental Health Services, University of Pennsylvania
- M.S., Clinical Psychology, Indiana University Indianapolis
- Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Indiana University Indianapolis
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia
Negative symptoms (reduced motivation, experience of pleasure, speech output, and facial expressions) are some of the most functionally disabling symptoms of psychosis, yet available psychosocial and pharmacological treatments do little to ameliorate these symptoms. Thus, Dr. Luther’s research program uses a two-pronged experimental therapeutics approach that focuses on:
- elucidating the neural and psychosocial factors that cause and sustain negative symptoms and
- rapidly translating that information into the development of novel mobile health (mHealth) and psychosocial treatments for negative symptoms for youth and adults on the severe mental illness-spectrum.
Her lab uses a multi-modal approach, integrating methods from neuroscience (EEG, fMRI, eye tracking) and ambulatory assessments (EMA, passive sensing) to better elucidate, assess, and treat the processes underlying negative symptoms in people at risk for and with a severe mental illness.
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Select Publications
- Luther, L., Raugh, I.M., Grant, P.M., Beck, A.T., Strauss, G.P. (in press). The Role of Defeatist Performance Beliefs in State Fluctuations of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia Measured in Daily Life via Ecological Momentary Assessment. Schizophrenia Bulletin.
- Luther, L., Jarvis, S.A., Spilka, M.J., & Strauss, G.P. (in press). Global reward processing deficits predict negative symptoms transdiagnostically and transphasically in a severe mental illness-spectrum sample. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.
- Luther, L.,* Raugh, I.M.*, Collins, D.E., Berglund, A., Knippenberg, A.R., Mittal, V.A., Waler, E.F., & Strauss, G.P. (in press). Environmental context predicts state fluctuations in negative symptoms in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis. Psychological Medicine. (*Co-first authors)
- Luther, L., Westbrook, A., Ayawvi, G., Ruiz, I., Raugh, I., Chu, A.O.K., Chang, W.W., & Strauss, G.P. (in press). The role of defeatist performance beliefs on cognitive effort-cost decision making in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research.
- Luther, L., Buck, B., Fischer, M.A., Johnson-Kwochka, A.V., Coffin, G., & Salyers, M.P. (2022). Examining potential barriers to mHealth implementation and engagement in schizophrenia: Phone ownership and symptom severity. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 7, 13-22.
- Luther, L., Fischer, M.W., Johnson-Kwochka, A.V., Minor, K.S., Holden, R., Lapish, C.L., McCormick, B., Salyers, M.P. (2020). Mobile enhancement of motivation in schizophrenia: A pilot randomized controlled trial of a personalized text message intervention for motivation deficits. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 88(10), 923-936.
- Luther, L., Firmin, R. L., Lysaker, P. H., Minor, K. S., & Salyers, M. P. (2018). A meta-analytic review of self-reported, clinician-rated, and performance-based motivation measures in schizophrenia: Are we measuring the same stuff? Clinical Psychology Review, 61, 24-37.
Please visit Dr. Luther’s Google Scholar page for more information about her publications.