A5027144528- Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Neural dynamics and brain function
- COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Cultural Differences and Values
- Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Personality Traits and Psychology
- Humor Studies and Applications
- Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Face Recognition and Perception
California Institute of Technology
2016-2025
Rancho Research Institute
2021
Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Psychology
2019
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
2019
Columbia University
2007-2018
University College London
2006-2018
Marymount University
2018
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging
2007-2017
University of Oxford
2007-2017
Vanderbilt University
2007-2017
Humans, like other animals, alter their behavior depending on whether a threat is close or distant. We investigated spatial imminence of by developing an active avoidance paradigm in which volunteers were pursued through maze virtual predator endowed with ability to chase, capture, and inflict pain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that as the grew closer, brain activity shifted from ventromedial prefrontal cortex periaqueductal gray. This shift showed maximal expression...
Efforts to change behaviour are critical in minimizing the spread of highly transmissible pandemics such as COVID-19. However, it is unclear whether individuals aware disease risk and alter their early pandemic. We investigated perception self-reported engagement protective behaviours 1591 United States-based cross-sectionally longitudinally over first week Subjects demonstrated growing awareness reported engaging with increasing frequency but underestimated infection relative average person...
We often evaluate the self and others from social comparisons. feel envy when target person has superior self-relevant characteristics. Schadenfreude occurs envied persons fall grace. To elucidate neurocognitive mechanisms of schadenfreude, we conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. In study one, participants read information concerning characterized by levels possession self-relevance comparison domains. When person's was self-relevant, stronger anterior cingulate...
Postencounter and circa-strike defensive contexts represent two adaptive responses to potential imminent danger. In the context of a predator, postencounter reflects initial detection threat, whereas is associated with direct predatory attack. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging investigate neural organization anticipation avoidance artificial predators high or low probability capturing subject across analogous threat. Consistent defense systems models, threat elicited activity in...
We propose a Survival Optimization System (SOS) to account for the strategies that humans and other animals use defend against recurring novel threats. The SOS attempts merge ecological models define repertoire of contextually relevant threat induced survival behaviors with contemporary approaches human affective science. first goal nervous system is reduce surprise optimize actions by (i) predicting sensory landscape, through simulation possible encounters threat, selecting appropriate...
Affective cognitive control capacity (e.g., the ability to regulate emotions or manipulate emotional material in service of task goals) is associated with professional and interpersonal success. Impoverished affective control, by contrast, characterizes many neuropsychiatric disorders. Insights from neuroscience indicate that relies on same frontoparietal neural circuitry as working memory (WM) tasks, which suggests systematic WM training, performed an context, has potential augment control....
Phylogenetic threats such as spiders evoke our deepest primitive fears. When close or looming, engage evolutionarily conserved monitoring systems and defense reactions that promote self-preservation. With the use of a modified behavioral approach task within functional MRI, we show that, tarantula was placed closer to subject's foot, increased experiences fear coincided with augmented activity in cascade fear-related brain networks including periaqueductal gray, amygdala, bed nucleus stria...
Moral ideals are strongly ingrained within society and individuals alike, but actual moral choices profoundly influenced by tangible rewards consequences. Across two studies we show that real decisions can dramatically contradict made in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1). However, systematically enhancing the contextual information available to subjects when addressing a problem-thereby reducing opportunity for mental simulation-we were able incrementally bring subjects' responses line with...
Why do we self-sacrifice to help others in distress? Two competing theories have emerged, one suggesting that prosocial behavior is primarily motivated by feelings of empathic other-oriented concern, the other mainly because are egoistically focused on reducing our own discomfort. Here explore relationship between costly altruism and these two sub-processes empathy, specifically drawing caregiving model test theory trait concern (e.g. general tendency sympathy for another) personal distress...
By mid-March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread to over 100 countries and all 50 states in US. Government efforts minimize of disease emphasized behavioral interventions, including raising awareness encouraging protective behaviors such as social distancing hand washing, seeking medical attention if experiencing symptoms. However, it is unclear what extent individuals are aware risks associated with disease, how they altering their behavior, factors which could influence virus vulnerable...
A functional magnetic resonance imaging study reveals the interactions within brain that modulate feelings of reward on seeing a similar person win contest.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from social behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behavior with recommendations of epidemiologists public experts. Here we discuss evidence selection research topics relevant pandemics, including work navigating threats, cultural influences behaviour, science communication, moral...
Scientific evidence regularly guides policy decisions
With recent investigation beginning to reveal the cortical and subcortical neuroanatomical correlates of humor appreciation, present event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study was designed elucidate sex-specific recruitment these related networks. Twenty healthy subjects (10 females) underwent fMRI scanning while subjectively rating 70 verbal nonverbal achromatic cartoons as funny or unfunny. Data were analyzed by comparing blood oxygenation-level-dependent signal activation during unfunny...
Filmmakers have long recognized the importance of editing techniques to guide audiences' perceptions and enhance impact a scene. We demonstrate behaviorally that pairing identical faces with either neutral or emotionally salient contextual movies, an technique referred as 'Kuleshov Effect', results in both altered attributions facial expression mental-state. Using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), we show paired emotional movies BOLD responses bilateral temporal pole, anterior cingulate...