The ability to navigate social interactions and cultivate social bonds are central to healthy, adaptive development. The Laboratory on Affective Neuroscience & Development conducts research aimed at identifying brain-behavior mechanisms that underlie the development of externalizing behaviors, acts that are, by definition, directed socially outward and disruptive toward others. We utilize a multi-method approach that includes electroencephalogram (EEG), psychophysiology, eye-tracking, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), and behavioral paradigms.

AREAS OF RESEARCH

• Parsing shared and unique effects of underlying mechanisms (eg. inhibitory control, empathy, frustrative non-reward) on the development of externalizing behaviors

• Identifying social and psychological risk factors for for political extremism and targeted violence

• Probing real time associations between health behaviors (eg. sleep), inhibitory control, emotion lability, and externalizing symptoms and behaviors