James M. Gold

James M. Gold, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a researcher at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC). He holds primary appointments in Psychiatry with expertise in schizophrenia's cognitive and motivational deficits. He earned his B.A. from Hampshire College (1977), completed graduate studies at the New School for Social Research (1980), and received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Adelphi University (1986). His postdoctoral training was in Clinical Neuropsychology at Cornell Medical Center (1986-87).

Dr. Gold's research focuses on understanding schizophrenia's cognitive and motivational impairments using behavioral experiments, EEG, fMRI, and computational modeling. His work emphasizes working memory, attention, motivational deficits, and negative symptoms. He has led major grants including NIMH-funded studies on dopamine function ($500k annual), cognitive neuroscience task reliability, and schizophrenia's attention/working memory deficits.

• Highlighted Awards: Alexander Gralnick Investigator Award (2012), ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2014, 2015)
• Key Contributions: Hyperfocusing hypothesis in schizophrenia, computational models of reward processing deficits, and neurocognitive biomarkers

His research has produced influential publications in Archives of General Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, and Biological Psychiatry, advancing understanding of schizophrenia's neural and behavioral mechanisms. He continues to investigate transdiagnostic approaches to psychopathology and novel interventions for cognitive impairments.