Melissa Fisher, PhD

I received my BA in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MA in Psychological Research from San Francisco State University, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, San Francisco. I completed pre-doctoral training at the Defense and Veterans Head Injury Program, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and in Neuropsychology Services at the Northport VA Medical Center, and a postdoctoral fellowship in schizophrenia research at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

I am an adult research psychologist whose research focus is on the evaluation of neurocognition, clinical symptoms, and functional outcomes of individuals with psychosis, and the effects of neuroscience-informed cognitive training exercises. Within the department, I am Director of Assessment for the Vinogradov Lab where I provide training and supervision of behavioral assessments for studies of cognitive training and measurement-based care.

Recent areas of interest include the effects of cognitive training and assessments delivered remotely, the implementation of measurement-based care and cognitive training in clinics that specialize in early intervention services for individuals with psychosis, and in clinics that provide specialized care for pregnant women and mothers with and without emotional distress. 

1. Rowlands, A., Fisher, M ., Mishra, J., Nahum, M., Brandrett, B., Reinke, M., Caldwell, M., Kiehl, K. A., & Vinogradov, S. (2020). Cognitive Training for Very High Risk Incarcerated Adolescent Males. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY, 11 . doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00225
2. Ramsay, I. S., Roach, B. J., Fryer, S., Fisher, M ., Loewy, R., Ford, J. M., Vinogradov, S., & Mathalon, D. H. (2020). Increased global cognition correlates with increased thalamo-temporal connectivity in response to targeted cognitive training for recent onset schizophrenia. SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH, 218 , 131-137. doi:10.1016/j.schres.2020.01.020
3. Puig, O., Fisher, M ., Loewy, R., Miley, K., Ramsay, I. S., Carter, C. S., Ragland, J. D.,Niendam, T., & Vinogradov, S. (2020). Early-Versus Adult-Onset Schizophrenia as a Predictor of Response to Neuroscience-Informed Cognitive Training. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 81 (2). PMID: 32141724 doi: 10.4088/JCP.18m12369
4. Dale, C. L., Brown, E. G., Herman, A. B., Hinkley LBN, Subramaniam, K., Fisher, M., Vinogradov, S., & Nagarajan, S. S. (2020). Intervention-specific patterns of cortical function plasticity during auditory encoding in people with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia research, 215 , 241-249. PMID: 31648842 doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.10.022
5. Panizzutti, R., Fisher, M ., Garrett, C., Man, W. H., Sena, W., Madeira, C., & Vinogradov, S. (2019). Association between increased serum D-serine and cognitive gains induced by intensive cognitive training in schizophrenia. SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH, 207 , 63-69.doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2018.04.011