Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory

Our research is funded by NIH. Ongoing projects include:

The affective consequences of emotion regulation
This project is concerned with understanding the physiological, behavioral, and experiential consequences of important emotion regulation strategies such as expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, and rumination. One goal of this project is to better understand how differing forms of emotion regulation alter the trajectory of the emotion-generative process.

The neural bases of cognitive reappraisal
This project examines the neural bases of one important form of emotion regulation, namely reappraisal, which involves altering the emotional significance of a stimulus by changing how one things about that stimulus. Using fMRI measures of brain activation, this project tests hypotheses concerning specific prefrontal regions thought to be associated with cognitive control, as well as specific subcortical structures such as the amygdala, thought to be associated with emotion.

The coherence of emotion
One major postulate of many contemporary theories of emotion is that emotion imposes coherence across multiple response systems (e.g., experiential, behavioral, and physiological). Surprisingly, few studies have tested this core hypothesis, and those that have done so have yielded mixed results. In this project, we are obtaining continuous measures of emotion experience, expression, and physiology, and examining the conditions under which responses coherence is evident.

Personality, emotion, and emotion regulation
This project explores the relations between personality (measured at multiple levels, ranging from the broad - e.g. Extroversion, Neuroticism - to the specific -e.g., emotional expressivity) and measures of typical emotional experience, expression, and regulation. One goal of this work is to understand the role individual differences play in basic emotion and emotion regulation processes.

Emotion regulation and social functioning
This project examines the role of emotion and emotion regulation in social functioning. Social functioning is assessed in multiple contexts ranging from peer reports of typical behavior to conflict conversations between dating partners. One goal of this research is to understand how different forms of emotion regulation affect social functioning. A second goal of this project is to better understand the impact of individual differences in emotion regulation on important outcomes such as social networks and relationship longevity.

Emotional regulation and social-cognitive processing in social anxiety
This project assesses behavioral, experiential, autonomic, and brain responses in individuals with social anxiety. This research investigates how anxiety impacts brain-behavior correlates of emotional reactivity, emotion regulation, and social processing. For details regarding this and related projects, click here.

Clinical interventions for individuals with social anxiety disorder
We are conducting clinical interventions using cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation based stress reduction for adults with social anxiety disorder. These clinical fMRI research studies are examining the brain-behavioral mechanisms of therapeutic change associated with two distinct psychotherapy treatment programs. For details regarding this and related projects, click here.

Mindfulness-based attention and stress reduction training for children and families
This project involves training children in attention regulation and stress reduction skills through mindfulness based skills training (MBSR) courses taught in local schools and at Stanford University. For details regarding this and related projects, click here.

The developmental trajectory of emotion regulation
This project examines the development of emotion regulation processes over the lifespan. One aspect of this project focuses on children, and uses fMRI methods to test hypotheses concerning the maturation of neural circuits relevant to emotion regulation. A second aspect of this research concerns changes in emotion regulation in later adulthood, where there appears to be a normative shift to increasingly effects forms of emotion regulation.