Studies of Early Anxiety Lab (SEAL)

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Director: Chad Sylvester, MD, PhD

We use brain imaging, clinical interviews, eye tracking, surveys, and various computer-based tasks to help better understand the biological basis of anxiety disorders. Our research focuses on brain function and development in children both with and without anxiety disorders as well as infants at risk for anxiety disorders. Our goal is to work toward better understanding, earlier detection and more effective treatments for anxiety disorders.


Stopping Harmful Aggression: Research in Kids (SHARK)

Director: Michael Perino, PhD
Established 2023

We are a research lab with the long-term goal of reducing harmful aggression in youth populations. We take a biopsychosocial approach to identify mechanisms underlying maladaptive behaviors (e.g. bullying, fighting) and externalizing psychopathology (e.g. borderline traits, conduct disorder). We utilize behavioral tasks and neuroimaging techniques (resting-state functional connectivity, fMRI) to elucidate neurodevelopmental patterns of socio-emotional processing that confer risk for externalizing behaviors (aggression, substance use, impulse control issues). To accomplish this, we study social and emotional processing in young children and adolescents.


Sensory Questions in Development (SQUID)

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Director: Rebecca Schwarzlose, PhD

Our lab studies the neural bases and clinical relevance of individual differences in sensory processing during childhood. Sensory processing profoundly shapes neurodevelopment and mediates how individuals respond to their environment throughout life. A particular focus of the lab is understanding how adaptive mechanisms of sensory processing may be altered in children with sensory over-responsivity and why these traits predict emerging autistic traits and psychiatric symptoms, especially anxiety. We use brain imaging (task- and resting-state functional MRI and structural MRI), observational assessments, videos, and parent- and self-report measures to understand the role of sensory processing in shaping neurodevelopment and promoting later behavioral and clinical challenges.


The Computational, Relational, and Affective Brain Lab (CRAB)

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Director: Cat Camacho, PhD

We are a research lab with the long-term goal of using computational models and naturalistic data acquisition (like movies and home observation) to identify neurodevelopmental patterns of emotion processing that confer risk for depression and/or anxiety. To accomplish this, we use neuroimaging (fMRI, DOT), video recordings, eye tracking, and other measures to study social and emotional processing in infants, preschoolers, and school-age children.