Adolf Pfefferbaum
Senior Director Basic Sciences and Distinguished Scientist
Adolf Pfefferbaum, M.D., has been at the forefront of neuroimaging and electrophysiological research in normal aging and neuropsychiatric disorders for more than three decades. At SRI, he has focused on devising novel approaches for quantitative neuroimaging data to yield measures of brain structures and tissue composition (using magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), microstructure (MR diffusion tensor imaging, DTI), chemistry (magnetic resonance spectroscopy), and function (functional MRI) in the living human.
Pfefferbaum is a principal investigator in the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA).
His research in chronic alcoholism has enabled detection of alcoholism’s dynamic course, through drinking, sobriety, and relapse, and has demonstrated an increased vulnerability of the aging brain to excessive drinking. Recently, he has implemented neuroimaging methods to parallel human conditions in animal models to identify mechanisms of harm with drinking and healing with sobriety.
In 2011, the Research Society on Alcoholism selected Pfefferbaum for its Distinguished Researcher Award. In 2013, he was named to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Advisory Council for a four-year term.
Pfefferbaum was named an SRI Fellow in 2007.
Recent publications
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Multi-domain predictors of grip strength differentiate individuals with and without alcohol use disorder
Grip strength is considered one of the simplest and reliable indices of general health. Although motor ability and strength are commonly affected in people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), factors…
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Aging, HIV infection, and alcohol exert synergist effects on regional thalamic volumes resulting in functional impairment
Regional thalamic volumetry detected normal aging declines, differential and accelerated volume losses in HIV, relations between age-related nuclear and performance declines, and exacerbation of volume declines in comorbid alcohol use…
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Anterior and Posterior Thalamic Nuclei Correlates of Memory, Attention, and Motor Processes in HIV Infection and Alcohol Use Disorder Comorbidity
Here, we examined relations between thalamic subregions (anterior, ventral, medial, and posterior) and neuropsychological functions (attention/working memory, executive functioning, episodic memory, and motor skills) in relation to HIV and alcohol…
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Metadata-conditioned generative models to synthesize anatomically-plausible 3D brain MRIs
To generate high-quality T1-weighted MRIs relevant for neuroscience discovery, we present a two-stage Diffusion Probabilistic Model (called BrainSynth) to synthesize high-resolution MRIs conditionally-dependent on metadata (such as age and sex).…
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Multi-dimensional predictors of first drinking initiation and regular drinking onset in adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study.
Early adolescent drinking onset is linked to myriad negative consequences. Using the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) baseline to year 8 data, this study (1) leveraged…
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Multi-level prediction of substance use: Interaction of white matter integrity, resting-state connectivity and inhibitory control measured repeatedly in every-day life
Substance use disorders are characterized by inhibition deficits related to disrupted connectivity in white matter pathways, leading via interaction to difficulties in resisting substance use. By combining neuroimaging with smartphone-based…