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Graduate Students

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Research Interests: I am broadly interested in the insidious onset of psychosis and hope to refine profiles of psychotic disorders to improve risk factor calculations and intervention strategies. More specifically, I’m interested in elucidating inflection points in the specialization of brain networks in early life, and in how the timing and biological embedding of stress, concomitant with genetic risk, may relate to neuroinflammation and the emergence of psychopathology in adolescence and early adulthood.

Advisor: Elaine Walker

Nikita Agarwal nikita.agarwal@emory.edu

Research Interests: Development of ethics and morality in early childhood with emphasis on conforming to authority.

Advisor: Philippe Rochat

Angelle Antoun angelle.antoun@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in comparative work with primates on the evolution of cognition, with a focus on the evolution of language and cooperation.

Advisor: Benjamin Wilson

Amanda Arulpragasam amanda.arulpragasam@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in using neuroimaging and neuromodulatory approaches to better understand the role synaptic plasticity and neural networks play in the etiology and maintenance of psychopathology.

Advisor: Michael Treadway

Lauren Aulet lauren.s.aulet@emory.edu

Research Interests: Numerical cognition. Specifically, spatial representations of magnitude (number, object size, area, etc).

Advisor: Stella Lourenco

Devika Basu devika.basu@emory.edu

Research Interests: Models of risk and resilience related to obesity and eating disorders in children and adolescents; incorporating these models into interventions and evidence-based treatments.

Advisor: Linda Craighead

Nia Barbee nia.barbee@emory.edu

Research Interests: My interests center on stressful environmental exposures during gestation and interventions that can be implemented to prevent adverse health outcomes for African American mothers and children.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Lauren Bertin lauren.michelle.bertin@emory.edu

Research Interests: The interplay between cognitive, behavioral, and genetic factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of substance use disorders.

Advisor: Rohan Palmer

Shauna Bowes sbowes@emory.edu

Research Interests: Psychopathic personality, specifically the potential behavioral, emotional, and neurobiological underpinnings of psychopathy; etiological models of pathological personality features; effectively communicating about scientific thinking.

Advisor: Arber Tasimi

April Brown april.l.brown@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am primarily interested in studying the “cycle of violence” hypothesis and examining the biological and psychosocial stress mechanisms that link adverse childhood experiences to child psychopathology.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Research Interests: I am interested in understanding more about the mechanisms associated with encoding, consolidating, and retrieving declarative memories.

Advisor: Joseph Manns

Ruu Harn "Annie" Cheng ruu.harn.cheng@emory.edu
Research Interests: Functional organization of the visual cortex and neural processes underlying visual perception.

Advisor: Daniel D. Dilks

Cyrus Chi cyrus.n.chi@emory.edu

Research Interests: How ETBD may be codified in neurological activity, quantification and detection of behavioral feedback loops, and technologically aided prevention and treatment models.

Advisor: Jack McDowell

Madeleine Cohen mfcohe3@emory.edu

Research Interests: Modifiable environmental influences (e.g., parenting behaviors, sleep) on maternal and child psychopathology (e.g., anxiety symptomatology) and wellbeing.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Tom Costello thomas.hennessee.costello@emory.edu

Research Interests: Processes underlying psychopathic personality, including those relating to narcissism, empathy, etiologic factors, and cognitive functioning; belief systems; the philosophy of science.

Advisor: Arber Tasimi

Lucy Cronin-Golomb lucy.miranda.cronin-golomb@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in memory development in relation to knowledge acquisition in formal and informal settings.

Advisor: Patricia Bauer

Kristina Dahlgren kristina.dahlgren@emory.edu

Research Interests: Brain systems and structures underlying memory, emotional processing, and stress.

Advisor: Stephan Hamann

Research Interests: The development, processing, and production of language (especially grammar in terms of syntax and pragmatics) as a means of constructing and organizing knowledge.

Advisor: Lynne Nygaard

Melissa Engel mlengel@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in studying pediatric chronic illness through a developmental psychopathology framework, with particular emphases on psychobiological mechanisms, stress, and resilience.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Jonathan Engleberg jonathan.engelberg@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am studying how humans decode meaning and emotion from vocal cues, specifically screams.

Advisor: Harold Gouzoules

Sarah Etuk sarah.etuk@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in using neuroimaging approaches to examine how stress and adversity alter reward-related brain function and increase risk for psychopathology. I am also interested in relating neural data to measures of inflammation.

Advisor: Michael Treadway

Charles Ferris charles.s.ferris@emory.edu

Research Interests: Emotional modulation of memory in humans.

Advisor: Stephan Hamann

Brandon Fricker bfrick2@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in understanding the neural underpinnings of social behaviors. In particular, my research interests focus on how brain circuits produce helping and cooperative behaviors as well as how those circuits change with experiences.

Advisor: Aubrey Kelly

Research Interests: Heterogeneous developmental trajectories and predictors of psychosis (i.e. at-risk states).

Advisor: Elaine Walker

Cynthia Guo xinran.guo@emory.edu

Research Interests: Early social and cognitive development, especially social rejection across cultures.

Advisor: Philippe Rochat

Ana Maria Hoffmann ana.maria.hoffmann@emory.edu

Research Interests: Investigating information integration between two languages and the physiological changes that occur during autographical retrieval in relation to age and gender.

Advisor: Lynne Nygaard

Shabnam Hossein shabnam.hossein@emory.edu

Research Interests: My primary research interests lie in understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms that maintain psychopathological symptoms especially present in anxiety and mood disorders. I am also interested in applying methods of network science to study mental disorders.

Advisor: Michael Treadway

Ami Ikeda ami.ikeda@emory.edu

Research Interests: Understanding the gene- environment interaction in the development of substance use disorders. Additionally, examining the neurological, biological, and behavioral changes that occur in individuals exposed prenatally to substances of abuse and how that impacts later substance use.

Advisor: Rohan Palmer

Natalia Jaume natalie.jaume@emory.edu

Research Interests: My research interests include the effects of stress and environmental factors on one’s genome, and how that may affect one’s predisposition and risk for substance use disorders.

Advisor: Rohan Palmer

Kiana Jodeiry kiana.jodeiry@emory.edu

Research Interests: Neurobiological correlates of genomic variants associated with higher-order psychopathology dimensions, particularly the externalizing spectrum; genetic contribution to disruptive behavior disorders in youth.

Advisor: Irwin Waldman

Christopher Jones christopher.jones2@emory.edu

Research Interests: How the visual cortex is functionally organized to facilitate perception of higher-level information.

Advisor: Daniel D. Dilks

Elaine Johnson ejjohn5@emory.edu

Research Interests: Exploring the relationship between resilience, environmental stress factors and the development of mood disorders in individuals who have faced repetitive traumas or live in high-stress environments.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Christopher King christopher.king2@emory.edu

Research Interests: Investigating how the nature of nurture and exposure to violence and trauma contribute to the development of externalizing psychopathology across the lifespan.

Advisor: Irwin Waldman

Joshua Krasney joshua.levi.krasney@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in using optogenetics and electrophysiology to better understand the interconnectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus, and the influence this interaction has on learning and memory.

Advisor: Joseph Manns

Ryno Kruger ryno.kruger@emory.edu

Research: Inherent Biases, the influence of early experience on later-life spatial navigation, cognitive processes behind risk taking behavior.

Advisor: Stella Lourenco

Victoria Lawlor vlawlor@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in computational modeling of value-based decision-making, the role of decision-making in mood disorders, and the biological basis of reward learning.

Advisor: Michael Treadway

Yaxin Liu yliu668@emory.edu

Research Interests: Spatial representation, particularly mental rotaion, spatial training, and spatial development in early childhood.

Advisor: Stella Lourenco

Kathleen Martin kmart43@emory.edu

Research Interests: Gene-environment interaction in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.

Advisor: Rohan Palmer

Brooke McKenna bgmcken@emory.edu

Research Interests: Biological and environmental influences on developmental psychopathology; interaction of early adversity and genetic liability.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Adriana Mendez adriana.isabel.mendez@emory.edu

Research Interests: Understanding the development, identification, and treatment of developmental disabilities (DD), particularly autism spectrum disorder. Furthermore, I’m interested in working towards eliminating healthcare disparities within the DD field, which unfairly and profoundly impact underserved communities.

Advisor: Ami Klin

Leonardo Michelini

Research: The relationship between language and cognition, how language perception and meaning are influenced by lived experience.

Advisor: Lynne Nygaard

Paul Moon paul.e.moon@emory.edu

Research Interests: My interests include visual perception, circadian rhythms, limbic structures, and mood disorders. Specifically, I am interested in the ways in which environmental lighting, through non-classic visual pathways (i.e., non-image forming pathways) impact mood, emotion and cognition, both in the immediate sense as well as developmentally.

Advisor: Hillary Rodman

Jad Nasrini jad.nasrini@emory.edu

Research Interests: Broadly speaking, I am interested in studying how animals (including humans) develop higher cognitive functions across the evolutionary and developmental timelines. By looking at cognition across species, I hope to investigate how the underlying components of what we think of as “human intelligence” came about in the natural world.

Advisor: Robert Hampton

Chaela Nutor chaela.nutor@emory.edu

Research Interests: I aim to better understand the environmental risk factors that lead to disparities in child development. I am particularly interested in exploring the role of race, socioeconomic status, and exposure to environmental toxicants in the earliest stages of the neurodevelopment.

Advisor: Patricia Brennan

Research Interests: Prevention and treatment of obesity in children and adolescents. I’m also interested in utilizing digital health technology as a component of intervention programs targeting populations at-risk for obesity.

Advisor: Linda Craighead

Natalie Pilgeram npilger@emory.edu

Research Interests: My interests include social behaviors, early development, and autism spectrum disorder. I am specifically focused on social reward and how it modulates vocal learning in songbirds.

Advisor: Donna Maney / Jocelyne Bachevalier

Blaire Pingeton blaire.caroline.pingeton@emory.edu

Research Interests: The link between maternal prenatal bio/psycho/social behavior and child development.

Advisor: Sherryl Goodman

Holly Poore holly.e.poore@emory.edu

Research Interests: Studies genetic and environmental contributions to the development of aggression, social behavior, and social cognition.

Advisor: Irwin Waldman

Jeanne Powell jeanne.marie.powell@emory.edu

Research Interests: Evolution of social behavior in rodents and computational approaches to ethology.

Advisor: Kelly Aubrey

Mackenzie Prichard mackenzie.prichard@emory.edu

Research Interests: Physiological mechanisms of behavior and the evolution of behavior.

Advisor: Donna Maney

Research Interests: Quantitative analysis and modeling of behavior, and extending the reach and efficacy of clinical treatments via tools developed for consumer technology (e.g., smartphones and VR devices).

Advisor: Jack McDowell

Brittany Robbins blrobbi@emory.edu

Research Interests: The maintenance of non-restrictive eating disorders in young adults, as well as the use of mindfulness-based approaches for the treatment of such disorders.

Advisor: Linda Craighead

Rael Sammeroff rael.sammeroff@emory.edu

Research Interests: I am interested in learning how attention and cognitive control develop throughout the lifespan of monkeys and how these two behavioral systems interact with each other. I also want to understand the impact of psychosocial stress (such as subordination) on cognition.

Advisor: Robert Hampton

Susan Shepardson swshepa@emory.edu

Research interests: Emotional memory, brain systems and structures of emotion, false memories, metacognition.

Advisor: Stephan Hamann

Shosuke Suzuki ssuzuk2@emory.edu

Research Interests: Neurobiological mechanisms underlying cost-benefit decision making and motivation, and their failure, in psychopathology. Social, psychological, and biological factors that interact with motivation to expend effort.

Advisor: Michael Treadway

Viviane Valdes viviane.valdes@emory.edu

Research Interests: Psychosocial determinants of early child developmental outcomes.

Advisor: Linda Craighead

Julia Wilson julia.taylor.wilson@emory.edu

Research Interests: The development and the neurocognitive processes associated with self-derivation of new knowledge and other facets of semantic memory.

Advisor: Patricia Bauer