Dr. Elias and the OCAR primarily focus on understanding why ERP works (
e.g., fear tolerance versus fear
habituation; the roles of guilt, willingness, and acceptance; patterns of brain activation during exposure; functional connectivity among brain regions), tailoring treatment to the individual (
e.g., elucidation of predictors of response and their underlying processes / mechanisms and neural correlates; rigorous diagnostic characterization of obsessive compulsive related disorders), and evaluating innovative treatments and augmentation strategies (
e.g., acceptance and commitment therapy; optimization of inhibitory learning; pharmacological augmentation).