Research Areas
Neuroscience of Complex Feelings
Nearly all research emotion research has been focused on either traditional emotion categories (Happy, Sad, Fearful, etc.) or bipolar spectrums thought to underlie our feelings (such as negative to positive valence). My work aims to use neuroscience to understand the ‘messier’ feelings we have traditionally overlooked. My dissertation projects focused on developing the theories and experimental designs necessary for this type of research. These projects’ results excitingly have shown for the first time that mixed feelings can be predicted on an individual subject basis from spatiotemporally consistent patterns in fMRI data.
Emotion in Media and Technology
The primary applied goal of my research is using what we learn from the neuroscience of complex feelings to further our understanding of how we interact with media and affective technology. Some of my previous work in this area has included exploring how affective neuroscience can be used to develop a more nuanced understanding of video gaming behavior, investigating the neural basis of immersion into stories, and applying principles from the neurobiology of complex feeling to proposals for building artificial intelligence that better aligns with our goals.
What’s Next?
The program of research I am building bridges these two themes together, taking a developmental affective neuroscience approach to understand feelings and cognitive processes related to media and technology, such as FOMO, nostalgia, craving, immersion, and self-relevance.
This work will use real-world social media, video game, and AI paradigms in conjunction with fMRI, fNIRS, and detailed emotion reporting.
If you are interested in getting involved in this work, feel free to reach out, as I may be recruiting research assistants, PhD students, and a postdoc next year.