Members
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Gabriel S. Dichter, PhD, Director
Research Statement: We are dedicated to the use of neuroscience methods to better understand psychiatric disorders. Research methods include psychophysiology, functional MRI, eye-tracking, and behavioral approaches. Our strategy is to first validate methods in non-clinical contexts, then to apply paradigms in psychiatric conditions, and finally to test our measures as potential biomarkers of treatment response.
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Jared Minkel, post-doctoral fellow
I am interested in studying relationships among sleep, stress and emotion to improve our understanding of mood and anxiety symptoms. I completed the doctoral program in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Prof. David Dinges and later completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience & Depression Research Unit under the supervision of Profs. Sharon Thompson-Schill and Robert DeRubeis. I have also completed postdoctoral training in imaging genetics with Prof. Ahmad Hariri at Duke University. My research in the CAN lab will focus primarily on imaging genetic predictors of psychotherapy response in affective disorders, but will also include multi-method investigations into mechanisms of depression and recovery.
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Crystal Edler Schiller, Ph.D, post-doctoral fellow
My research focuses on the impact of ovarian hormones on behavior and brain function in women. My previous work has demonstrated that estrogen and progesterone play a role in bulimia nervosa, smoking behavior, and postpartum depression. I am currently using functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how estrogen and progesterone influence emotion and reward processing. This research may improve our understanding of how hormonal changes during pregnancy and the postpartum period precipitate the onset of major depression in some, but not all, women. I also hope that by contributing to our knowledge of the biological basis of postpartum depression, this work may also serve to reduce the stigma and self-blame associated with mental illness in women.
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Anna Sabatino, Developmental Psychology Graduate Student
Research Statement: I am interested in the development of executive function and aspects of cognitive control in typical and atypical development particularly children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders.
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Cara Damiano, Clinical Psychology Graduate Student
Research Statement: I am broadly interested in the neurobiological bases of autism spectrum disorders. More specifically, I’m interested in how measures of brain activation and neural connectivity are related to atypical sensory processing and repetitive behaviors in infants at risk for ASD, as well as children and adults with ASD.
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Megan Kovac, School Psychology Graduate Student and LEND Fellow
Research Interests:
Autism Psychophysiology
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Jeremy Ford, Medical Student
Research Statement: Jeremy has been conducting research examining the effects of candidate genes on diffusion tensor imaging. Jeremy’s work has been supported by a UNC Office of Medical Student Research Administrator summer fellowship as well a UNC School of Medicin Special Psychiatry Elective.
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Stephanie Miller, Research Coordinator
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Ellie Hanna, Research Assistant
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Dillon Cockrell, Honors Student
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Charles Zhou, Student Research Assistant, Functional Connectivity Analyses
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Brittany Glass; Research Assistant, Duke Program in Child Affective and Anxiety Disorders
Undergraduate Honors Students (2011-2012):
Joey Aloi (Thesis: Reward Motivation in Autism); Ryan, Delapp (Thesis: fMRI of Aripiprizole Treatment in Autism)
Undergraduate UNC and Duke Research Assistants (2011-2012)
Elizabeth Kinsey; Kaiti Dunlap; Matthew Ryan; Caley Burrus; Brittany Mcveigh; Jasmine Thompson
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