Graduate Students
Andrew Fox
206 Waisman
608-310-5531
Drew's website
Advisor: Davidson
Program:
I am interested in the way that emotional and empathetic brain systems influence decision-making and pro-social behaviors. During my graduate career I hope to use functional brain imaging in both humans and rhesus monkeys (Macaque mulatta), to investigate how these interactions occur. Eventually I hope my research leads to novel ways of triggering these brain systems to produce positive behavioral outcomes.
Daniel Grupe
Waisman S111
608-890-1389
Dan's website
Advisor: Nitschke
Program: IGM
I am interested in the use of neuroimaging methods to investigate individual differences in cognitive and affective processes, with the goal of understanding how extreme differences in these processes leads to psychopathology. My current research is focused on the anticipation of future events under conditions of uncertainty, as well as the relationship between cognitive biases surrounding uncertainty and anxiety disorders.
Deok Han
Waisman T129
608-890-2671
Advisor: Alexander
My research interest is to develop innovative brain image segmentation, especially in WM of DTI images using digital image processing and machine vision technique.
Jamie Hanson
Waisman 394
608-890-2482
More about Jamie
Advisor: Davidson/Pollak
Program: IGM
Currently, I am directing a large study examining brain development and early experience. This work seeks to answer how brain development and plasticity give rise to both the commonality and individual differences in a behavioral repertoire.
Upon the completion of that project, I plan to investigate the neural substrates of reward from a development perspective. I am interested in normative aspects of these functions and also how they can be altered via early experience. I hope to interweave and understand individual differences in impulsivity and decision-making in this investigation.
Aaron Heller
Waisman S109
608-890-3076
Advisor: Davidson
Program: Clinical
My research interests include the influence of body states and positions on emotion and memory, as well as the neural underpinnings of approach and avoidant behaviors. Additionally, I plan to pursue a research project investigating the degree to which one's goals may affect or even override the encoding, perception, and memory of stimuli in one's environment.
Awards: 2008 James L. Davis Memorial Graduate Support Fund, "Using neuroscience methodology to advance understanding of clinical depression".
Ansel Hillmer
Waisman T166
608-890-2959
1005 WIMR
608-262-2170
ahillmer@wisc.edu
Pasha Hosseinbor
T117 Waisman
608-265-2062
Samuel Hurley
B1138q, 1005 WIMR
608-318-3063
Advisor: Alexander
Program: Medical Physics
My research interests focus on MRI imaging of white matter disease, specifically multiple sclerosis (MS). My goal is to develop novel quantitative MRI methods to measure the properties of white matter through the use of new acquisition and mathematical modeling strategies.
Deb Kerr
Waisman S111
608-890-1389
Advisor: Nitschke
Program: Clinical
I am currently in the Clinical Neuroscience doctoral program at UW Madison. My present study, advised by Dr. Jack Nitschke, involves neuro-imaging of snake phobia. Specifically, I am interested in how the elements of anticipation and uncontrollability operate in specific phobia, including what brain regions they recruit.
I am particularly interested in the cognitive basis of mood and anxiety disorders, specifically: depression, phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder. I am fascinated by the phenomenon of ‘resilience’ and attempting to parcel out its many complex factors. I would like to continue doing research using neuro-imaging methods, but am experienced with other approaches. Ultimately, I would like to be involved in research that will lead to the treatment and prevention of mood and anxiety disorders.
Regina Lapate
Waisman 206
608-263-3672
Advisor: Davidson
Program:
My research interest lies in the possibility of reforming the description and assessment of manifestations and disturbances along the spectrum of mental processes. I am attracted to affective neuroscience due to its utilization of a psychophysiological approach to mental disorders as an alternative to an exclusively phenomenological one. Such perspective brings direct implications to the conceptualization and appraisal of health in a broad dimension.
I am especially interested in the relationships between interoceptive abilities, affective chronometry and pain processing. Currently, I am involved in psychophysiological and neuroimaging data acquisition, processing and analysis for the MIDUS (MidLife in the US) and Pain Regulation studies.
Awards: 2009 Psychology travel award from the "Hertz Foundation and Royalty Research Fellowship" for travel to HBM; 2009 SPR Student Poster Award for her poster entitled "The Contribution of Affective Style to the Successful Downregulation of Pain: A Psychophysiological and Neuroimaging Investigation"; 2010 James L. Davis Memorial Graduate Support Fund; 2011 Hertz Travel Award; 2011 Menzies Award for Independent Graduate Student Research; 2012 Schwartz Fellowship.
Daniel Levinson
Waisman S119C
608-890-2960
Advisor: Davidson
Program: Clinical
I'm taking part in developing behavioral games sensitive to ways meditation influences emotion and attention. The vision is to understand the brain processes that allow people excel at these behaviors, and how these processes may be facilitated.
Awards: 2008 Fetzer Institute Fellowship, Fetzer Initiative on the Neuroscience of Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness; Mind & Life Institute’s 2010-2011 Francisco J. Varela Research Award; 2012 Hertz Travel Award, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Sharee Light
Waisman S119C
608-890-2960
Advisor: Davidson
Program: Clinical
Sharee's primary research interest is focused on elucidating the neural bases of positive emotion, with an emphasis on empathy (i.e., the process of understanding and interpreting the mental and emotional states of others and experiencing resultant, related emotions and an other-oriented feeling of goodwill) and contentment as distinct types of positive emotion. Her interest in studying the neural bases of contentment and pleasure comes from her interest in the symptom of anhedonia (i.e., a lack of, or reduced ability to experience pleasure) observed in major depressive disorder (MDD). Sharee also has an interest in separating empathy into its component parts—(a) vicarious emotion and (b) feelings of goodwill using behavioral and psychophysiological methods.
First year project (2005): "The Role of Right-Frontal Activity in a Distinct Form of Positive Affect and Its Relation to Empathetic Temperament."
Awards: 2006 SPR Tursky Award for Excellence in Predoctoral Research in Psychophysiology poster "Reduced activity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the regulation of positive affect is a neural marker of anhedonia;” 2009 Ford Dissertation Fellowship Honorable Mention; 2010 Advanced Opportunity Fellowship (National Science Foundation); 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory workshop on "Biology of Social Cognition" scholarship.
Jenny Liu
Waisman S119C
608-890-3624
Advisor: Li/Davidson
Program: Clinical
My main research plan is to study the social-cognitive-affective processes of meditation for both regulation of negative emotion as well as facilitation of well-being and positive emotions.
Martina Ly
Waisman
mly2@wisc.edu
Advisor: Bendlin/Davidson
My main research interests lie in further understanding socioemotional processing in the aging brain and its impact on decision making. In addition to functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, I hope to apply methods for multimodal imaging and network connectivity analysis. I am currently investigating the effect of contemplative practice on cortical structure and studying the temporal relationship between white matter integrity and grey matter atrophy with Dr. Barbara Bendlin in the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
Jeff Moirano
Waisman T117
608-265-2062
Advisor: Converse
My main research interests include functional imaging of cognitive disorders and neuroreceptor mapping. I am currently working on a project to image dopaminergic neuromodulation using two simultaneous PET tracers. I also collaborate on several studies of novel therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disorders.
Pouria Mossahebi
1310E WIMR
mossahebi@wisc.edu
Advisor: Alexander
David Perlman
Waisman A127
608-890-1386
Fun with Dave's head
Advisor: Davidson
Program: IGM
My original background is in physics, with followup in statistics and computer programming. I have taken course work with a focus on statistical methodology, functional neuroimaging, model-based psychology including neuroeconomics and behavioral game theory, and clinical psychology, particularly depression. My research work has focused on an in-depth development of fMRI methodology skills, and execution and analysis of fMRI experiments relating to cognitive modulation of pain perception in normal participants as well as in long-term meditation practitioners. I am currently developing the outline of my dissertation research program, which will involve using neuroeconomic paradigms to study altruistic reward and the hedonic treadmill effect. I am also studying relations between affective chronometry/affective hysteresis, cognitive models of depression, and cognitive modulation of pain perception. In the bigger picture, I am interested in how techniques such as meditation and fMRI neurofeedback could be used to generate improvements in the functioning of these systems. I have been involved in the design of studies of meditation, as well as piloting fMRI neurofeedback on our scanner. In the long run, I am also interested in using advanced PET tracers to look at the involvement of modulatory neurotransmitters, particularly dopamine, in these potential improvements.
Awards: 2009 Fetzer Institute Fellowship, Fetzer Initiative on the Neuroscience of Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness; 2010 Mind and Life Institute Varela award recipient, "Hedonic sustainability in the BOLD response to selfish and altruistic rewards"
Brianna Schuyler
Waisman T117
608-265-2062
Advisor: Davidson
Program: NTP
My work has focused on ways to analyze connectivity between brain regions in functional MRI data. I am currently using these methods to look at connectivity between specific regions of the brain during the regulation of negative emotion. I am also researching the neural and behavioral correlates of forgiveness.
Helen Weng
Waisman A125
608-263-0269
Advisor: Davidson
Program: Clinical
My main research interest is how we may most effectively regulate both negative and positive emotion which leads to increased personal well-being as well as altruistic behavior towards others. I study meditation as a set of practices which may increase effective emotion regulation. I am also interested in how meditation may help to alleviate and maintain remission from mood and anxiety disorders.
My current research involves studying compassion meditation as an alternate form of emotion regulation compared to cognitive reappraisal using fMRI and economic behavioral measures. I am collaborating with Drew Fox to develop an economic decision-making task that will be sensitive to compassion training. I am also studying how mindfulness meditation training affects automatic emotion regulation processing compared to an active control group.
Awards: 2007 Francisco J. Varela Memorial Grant Award; 2007 Hertz Foundation Research Fellowship Award; 2007 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention; 2008 Fetzer Institute Fellowship, Fetzer Initiative on the Neuroscience of Love, Compassion, and Forgiveness; 2008 Travel Award: International Symposium "Foundations of Human Social Behavior"; 2008 Hertz Foundation Research Fellowship Award (and Travel Grant); 2012 Graduate Student and Travel Award - Cognitive Neuroscience Society
Joe Wielgosz
Waisman S119C
608-890-2960
Advisor: Davidson
My broad motivation is to explore integrated models of emotional health that recognize the complex interactions of cognition, emotion, the body, and the interpersonal environment. I plan to focus my research on phenomena that cross these boundaries in interesting ways.
Dustin Wooten
Waisman T166
608-890-2959
Advisor: Christian
Program: Medical Physics
Elizabeth Zakzewski
Waisman T117
608-265-2062
Advisor: Alexander