Erica Duncan, MD  is the Director of the Psychophysiology and Cognition Laboratory at the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Health Care System adjacent to Emory University, which conducts detailed phenotyping of subjects with psychiatric disorders with a primary focus on schizophrenia. Their methods include a wide array of cognitive assessments, psychophysiology (acoustic startle and EEG with evoked potentials), and markers of infection and inflammation as probes of the neurocircuitry, neuropharmacology, and underlying genetics of psychiatric diseases. The overarching goal for the lab is to discover biological markers that intersect with genetics to define biological subtypes of schizophrenia and identify personalized treatment targets for these subtypes. To this end the Duncan Lab is collaborating with preclinical colleagues at Emory to associate these clinical phenotypes with immune markers and molecular and electrophysiological measures on stem cell derived neurons from the subjects. She has had long career as a full-time clinician-researcher in the VA and at Emory, extensive experience with recruitment of subjects for studies, strong ties with other mental health providers at the Atlanta VA, and strong collaborations with researchers at Emory. She has had continuous funding from VA Merit Review grants along with NIH, foundation, and industry funding for her entire career. In addition to studies centered on phenotyping and pathophysiology of schizophrenia, she has served as site PI for many Phase II and III clinical trials of antipsychotics, served as site PI for VA Cooperative Studies, and leveraged the VA clinical databases to understand metabolic side effects of antipsychotics in the real-world cohort of VA patients with psychosis.

Dr. Duncan is also a practicing psychiatrist who provides clinical teaching of residents and medical students on the inpatient psychiatric unit at the Atlanta VA. Trained in both psychopharmacology and psychoanalysis, she provides a broad range of clinical approaches to her clinical supervision. 

Dr. Duncan is a member and fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American Psychiatric Association. She is also a member of the Society of Neuroscience, the Society of Biological Psychiatry,  the New York Academy of Science, and the American Psychoanalytic Association.

Research Interests:

Schizophrenia, psychophysiology, acoustic startle, cognition, cocaine dependence 

Publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1LYMapH9_eSkr/bibliography/public/

Phone: (404) 321-6111 x 207532

Fax: (404) 417-2911

Email: erica.duncan@va.gov

Link: http://www.psychiatry.emory.edu/faculty/duncan_erica.html


Title(s)/Position(s):

  • Principal Investigator
  • Attending Psychiatrist, Atlanta VA
  • Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine
  • Director, Psychophysiology and Cognition Laboratory at the Atlanta VA
  • Director of Research, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Program at the Atlanta VA