Thomas D. Parsons
Research Scientist
Thomas D. Parsons, PhD is a Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychologist, Assistant Research Professor of Gerontology, and Research Scientist at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. Dr. Parsons was recruited to the University of Southern California in 2006 by the Institute for Creative Technologies. Prior to coming to ICT, Dr. Parsons was in the Neurology Department at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Medical School, where he conducted research on the frontostriatal system and the cognitive sequelae of deep brain stimulation. He currently co-directs the VRPSYCH Laboratory with his longtime collaborator, Dr. Skip Rizzo, helping to facilitate research integrating Virtual & Augmented Reality, Psychology, Rehabilitation, and Social Neuroscience.
In addition to his patents (with eHarmony.com), he has over 100 publications and a wide array of interest areas: social/clinical neuroscience, philosophy (mind/semiotics), neuropsychiatry, neuropsychoanalysis, neurology, artificial neural networks, and human-computer interaction. Currently, he is engaged in the design, development and evaluation of virtual/augmented reality systems targeting the assessment and rehabilitation of neurocognitive functioning: orientation, learning/memory, intelligence, language, visuoperception, psychomotor, and executive-control/self-knowledge (self-awareness).
His research makes use of artificial neural networks and virtual/augmented reality to investigate frontal subcortical circuits that underlie neurocognitive functioning and emotion regulation in persons throughout the life course. Much of this research focuses upon the frontostriatal system’s (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, lateral orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, supplementary motor area, and associated basal-ganglia structures) adaptive responses (initiation, execution, or withholding) to environmental situations, and the ways in which changes in specific frontostriatal regions involve effectively excessive release or withholding of various types of response.