Thomas S. Ray
Professor, Zoology Sutton Hall 210 405-203-0703 tray at ou dot edu http://life.ou.edu/ Ph.D., Biology - Harvard University, 1981Research:
Neuropsychopharmacology. In his current research, the architecture of the human mind is being understood largely on the basis of interpretation of published reports of subjective experience, synthesized together with an exclusive data set provided by the National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program. Mental illnesses are understood through the writings of individuals who have suffered the illness (e.g. Carol North on schizophrenia, Donna Williams on autism, Kay Redfield Jamison on manic depression), and psychoactive drugs are understood through the writings of those who have experienced them (e.g. Aldous Huxley on mescaline). The synthesis of the subjective data together with the molecular data has made it possible to determine the mental effects mediated by twenty-one receptors in eleven groups. He is now in the process of understanding how variation in the proportioning of these various elements in individual minds contributes to the peculiarities of the personality, and in extreme variations or interactions, to a variety of mental disorders: schizophrenia, autism, depression, disorders of rage, post traumatic stress disorder, and addiction.