David A. Gansler, Ph.D., ABPP/ABCN

Associate Professor of Psychology
B.S. (Psychology) Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) State University of New York at Albany; Internship and Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Boston University’s Aphasia Research Center/Boston VAMC; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine; Former Chief Psychologist at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital; Former Director of Post-doctoral Fellowship Program in Clinical Neuropsychology at New England Medical Center.

Specialty Areas

Neuropsychology - adult and adolescent, functions of the frontal lobe, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, aggression and impulsivity.

My research career began with my introduction to and mentorship by Dr. Marlene Oscar-Berman, the well-known alcohol and frontal lobe researcher. This began a series of collaborations exploring frontal lobe dysfunction in traumatic brain injury and alcoholic populations using diverse methods such as delayed alternation and delayed response as well as regional cerebral blood flow defined by head SPECT. This collaboration to the development of my own current interests involving functions of the sub-divisions of the pre-frontal cortex and its applications to neurologic and psychiatric disease and criminal behavior. My research methods include image analysis of the brain (quantitative morphometry), neuropsychological assessment, and interview techniques. Recent work in the lab includes the neural networks of aggression and impulsivity.

Please click here to view the Brain Image Analysis Laboratory Web Page

Selected Publications

Sheth-Antonucci, A., Gansler, D.A., Tan, S., Bhadelia, R., Patz, S., & Fulwiler, C. (2006). Orbitofrontal correlates of aggression and impulsivity in psychiatric patients. Psychiatric Research: Neuroimaging, 147 (2-3), 213-220.

Gansler, D.A., Harris, G.J., Oscar-Berman, M., Streeter, C., Lewis, R.F., Ahmed, I., & Achong, D. (2000). Hypoperfusion of inferior frontal brain regions in abstinent alcoholics: apilot SPECT study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 61 (1), 32-37.

Gansler, D.A., Fucetola, R., Krengel, M., Stetson, S., Zimering, R., Makary, C. (1998). Are there cognitive subtypes in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186 (12), 776-781.

Gansler, D.A., Covall, S., McGrath, N., & Oscar-Berman, M. (1996). Measures of prefrontal dysfunction after closed head injury. Brain and Cognition, 30, 194-204.