My training began as an undergraduate student when I joined Dr. Gregory DiGirolamo’s Cognitive Neuroscience Lab. As a research assistant, I programmed eye tracking experiments to measure breakdowns in cognitive control in undergraduate students with elevated substance use. Through this position, I was not only able to bolster practical skills in research management and data analysis but also begin to explore the application of neuroscience techniques to answer clinically relevant questions. I also worked in Dr. Noah Berman’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Processes and Experimentation Lab, where I developed skills in multi-method assessment, including collection of heart rate and eye-tracking data, and contributed to a manuscript demonstrating that elevated negative emotional reactivity mediated the relationship between intrusion type (autogenous or reactive) and emotion dysregulation, which was strongest for those whose values were threatened by their intrusion. This work strengthened my interest in investigating treatment-relevant mediators and inspired me to pursue an undergraduate thesis examining within-session (e.g., habituation, sustained excitation) predictors of learning and perceived effectiveness during a single session of imaginal exposure in individuals with OCD.
After graduation, to gain more experience with clinical populations and transdiagnostic treatment mechanisms, I accepted a position as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Center for OCD & Related Disorders at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Under the supervision of Drs. Sabine Wilhelm, Jennifer Greenberg, and Ryan J. Jacoby, I assisted in studies investigating cognitive and attentional mechanisms in the transdiagnostic treatment of repetitive negative thinking, transcranial magnetic stimulation as a novel treatment for OCD, and the neural correlates of emotional learning, to name a few.
Finally, since starting my doctoral training at Teachers College, Columbia University, under the advisement of Dr. Douglas Mennin and collaborators, I have begun to investigate psychophysiological and neural correlates of state-level negative emotionality and PNT. This work has afforded me the unique opportunity to not only gain preliminary knowledge of these various types of data but also to acquire a better conceptual understanding of the interplay between autonomic nervous system regulation and neurophysiology. Further, I have been involved in designing and launching two trials, one of which is an open trial aimed at investigating idiographic treatment mechanisms during Emotion Regulation Therapy and the other that aims to assess the effect of three self-directed online skills trainings.
Taken together, these experiences have guided my research interest in examining and homing in on transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the treatment of PNT (particularly in the context of emotional disorders, such as anxiety, mood, and obsessive-compulsive related disorders). In the future, I hope to continue leveraging affective neuroscience and psychophysiology tools to investigate treatment mechanisms in individuals with transdiagnostic PNT, with the long-term goal of making treatments for this population more efficacious, efficient, and personalized.
After graduation, to gain more experience with clinical populations and transdiagnostic treatment mechanisms, I accepted a position as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Center for OCD & Related Disorders at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Under the supervision of Drs. Sabine Wilhelm, Jennifer Greenberg, and Ryan J. Jacoby, I assisted in studies investigating cognitive and attentional mechanisms in the transdiagnostic treatment of repetitive negative thinking, transcranial magnetic stimulation as a novel treatment for OCD, and the neural correlates of emotional learning, to name a few.
Finally, since starting my doctoral training at Teachers College, Columbia University, under the advisement of Dr. Douglas Mennin and collaborators, I have begun to investigate psychophysiological and neural correlates of state-level negative emotionality and PNT. This work has afforded me the unique opportunity to not only gain preliminary knowledge of these various types of data but also to acquire a better conceptual understanding of the interplay between autonomic nervous system regulation and neurophysiology. Further, I have been involved in designing and launching two trials, one of which is an open trial aimed at investigating idiographic treatment mechanisms during Emotion Regulation Therapy and the other that aims to assess the effect of three self-directed online skills trainings.
Taken together, these experiences have guided my research interest in examining and homing in on transdiagnostic mechanisms underlying the treatment of PNT (particularly in the context of emotional disorders, such as anxiety, mood, and obsessive-compulsive related disorders). In the future, I hope to continue leveraging affective neuroscience and psychophysiology tools to investigate treatment mechanisms in individuals with transdiagnostic PNT, with the long-term goal of making treatments for this population more efficacious, efficient, and personalized.
