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Areas of interest

The overarching theme of my work is to understand the psychological and brain mechanisms that support adaptive emotional responding.

Using a range of methods, and with past and present talented trainees and collaborators, we have been studying how individual differences, such as advancing age and emotional disposition, affect how emotion is processed and regulated, and how being emotionally flexible can promote well-being. In our research, we commonly examine brain and body concomitants of “higher level” processes such as the meaning adhered to a situation or event (“appraisal”), changing the meaning adhered to an event (“reappraisal”), and more implicit processes such as threat conditioning and extinction. With respect to the brain, we are interested in how age-related structural brain changes affect (emotional) brain function, and generally in the brain mechanisms supporting emotion (dys)regulation.

Our work also starts to expand into brain-body interaction (with a focus on vagus nerve/heart rate variability as an index of emotion flexibility), and in training individuals on adaptive emotional responding and promote emotion flexibility. See my publication list for recent outputs which also gives an up to date overview of current and recently completed projects. Contact me for any interest in collaborations or training opportunities.