Mentor: Donna Toufexis

Subprogram: Biobehavioral

Areas: Behavioral neuroscience, the development of habitual behavior, sex differences, stress

Mentor: Sayamwong Hammack

Subprogram: Biobehavioral

Areas: My research focuses on the effects of chronic stress and the mechanism how chronic stress might produce anxiety like behavior, using transgenic mouse model. I am also interested in the neuropeptide called the pituitary adenylate cyclase activating polypeptide in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and its effects on anxiety like behavior.

Areas:  I am interested in the intersection of social-environmental contexts and neurocognitive functioning in pediatric chronic illness with the larger goal of developing more effective, scalable behavioral interventions to support functional outcomes in adolescents and families. In particular, I am interested in the biosocial mechanisms that contribute to health behaviors in youths with chronic illness (e.g., food allergy and type 1 diabetes).

Mentor: Amy Hughes Lansing

Mentor: Sayamwong Hammack

Subprogram: Biobehavioral

Areas: My areas of interest include stress and anxiety and their effects on the brain, as well as the role of stress in reinstating behaviors related to addiction.

Mentor:  Diann E. Gaalema

Subprogram: Human Behavioral Pharmacology

Areas: I am interested in the intersection between physical fitness and psychology. Factors I'd like to explore include coping mechanisms, motivation, and body image.

Areas: I am interested in investigating the biopsychosocial underpinnings of drug dependence and interventions to more effectively treat it.

Subprogram: Social

Mentor: Elizabeth Pinel

Mentor:  Mark Bouton

Subprogram:  Biobehavioral 

Areas:  I am primarily interested in the biobehavioral mechanisms that generate, maintain, and extinguish habitual behavior. My research applies the sensory-specific satiety method of outcome devaluation to operant behavior as a means of both characterizing the effect of novel stimulus presentation on habit, as well as identifying underlying neural circuitry. I am also interested in the neurobiology of stress and its interaction with the neurovasculature. 

Mentor:  Sarah Heil

Subprogram:  Human Behavioral Pharmacology

Areas:  I am interested in substance use disorders and women’s health. My current focus is on the use and effects of cigarettes with varying nicotine content in pregnant and reproductive-aged women. 

Mentor:  Mark Bouton

Subprogram:  Biobehavioral

Areas: My research primarily focuses on animal models of behavior and learning, using Pavlovian/operant techniques, as well as a neurobiological approach, in order to translate findings into aspects of human behavior. My background was mainly concerned with rodent models of nicotine addiction behavior, but I am interested in all behavioral aspects of clinical issues as well as the brain mechanisms behind them.

Mentor: Elizabeth Pinel

Subprogram: Social

Areas: I am interested in I-sharing, existential isolation, and terror management theory. I am particularly interested in the roles of mediation and receptive awareness in reducing self-defensiveness and increasing I-sharing experience.