Dr. Heckers studies the neural basis of psychiatric disorders. He is particularity interested in the disease mechanisms of two psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The Heckers laboratory combines neuroimaging experiments of brain structure and function in psychotic patients with post-mortem studies of the cellular and molecular basis of psychosis. Of particular interest are the mechanisms of cognitive deficits and psychotic symptoms (hallucinations and delusions) in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The hippocampus, a small brain region in the temporal lobe, appears to play an important role in both memory deficits as well as psychotic symptoms. Using functional neuroimaging experiments, Dr. Heckers has demonstrated that an impaired recruitment of the hippocampus is related to information. Complementary studies of post-mortem hippocampal specimens have shown decreased neuron number and gene expression for subsets of interneurons in both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.