Neuroscience

PROJECTS IN SOCIAL AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE SUPERVISED BY KELLY FAIG

Professor Faig will supervise projects relating to how different types of stress affect social behavior, emotional processes, motivation, and health. One-semester projects will consist of a literature review and a research proposal. Two-semester projects will involve a full empirical study and a research manuscript. Students may conduct studies using a variety of approaches including behavioral research that is laboratory-based or online, analytic approaches that examine questions using existing datasets, and psychophysiological methods involving the investigation of behavior and autonomic activity together. I am particularly interested in supervising projects related to the following research areas:

The Behavioral Immune System and Social Perception

Organisms have evolved many strategies to avoid pathogens in the environment; this set of strategies is referred to as the behavioral immune system. My work examines emotional, social, and physiological mechanisms that promote pathogen avoidance. Recent research suggests that individuals show specific avoidance of outgroup members and report increased motivation to interact with close-others during an immune challenge. Senior projects on this topic may examine questions related to how social (facial cues, loneliness, political beliefs, ethnocentrism, personal space), emotional (disgust, fear, anxiety, arousal), and physiological processes (interoception, autonomic nervous system activity, hormonal changes, cytokine signaling) relate to pathogen avoidance and health-related beliefs and behaviors. 

Depression and the Autonomic Nervous System

How individuals perceive stimuli and events in their environments is influenced by a variety of traits, predispositions, and prior experiences. The autonomic nervous system facilitates brain-body communication that plays a role in perception, affect, and engagement with stimuli in the environment. Depression is a debilitating and heterogeneous condition involving a range of symptoms affecting mood, motivation, and perception, among other aspects of health. Prior work has reported inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between symptoms of depression and patterns of autonomic activation. In my own work, I have found that individuals with higher depressive symptomatology and lower resting parasympathetic cardiac control show biased perceptions of emotional stimuli. Senior projects on this topic may examine how individual differences in experiences of depression and/or anxiety are related to alterations in perception, mood, and motivation, and the role of the autonomic nervous system.

Loneliness and Emotion Perception

Experiences of social exclusion including loneliness, isolation, and rejection have negative impacts on health and well-being. Loneliness is a stressful experience characterized by subjective feelings of isolation and a discrepancy between desired and actual social relationships. Current work suggests that increased loneliness is associated with increased sensitivity to negative social cues, including facial expressions of negative emotions. In my work, I am examining how experiences of loneliness impact perception of emotional stimuli in general and in a social context. I am also interested in behavioral responses to social exclusion and rejection. Some research has shown that being socially excluded motivates individuals to reconnect with others, while other work suggests that exclusion leads to aggressive reactions or depression. Senior projects on this topic may explore how experiences of loneliness and social exclusion affect subsequent perceptions of emotional stimuli and social behaviors. Students may also be interested in examining loneliness and social exclusion in relation to the behavioral immune system (e.g., Is social exclusion associated with increased or decreased interpersonal disgust? How has social distancing from COVID-19 impacted mental and physical health?).