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Affective Science

Affective science is the interdisciplinary field focused on understanding emotional and affective processes. Affective science involves research on emotion, emotion regulation, mood disorders, and affective neuroscience. Affective scientists use a variety of methods and approaches in their work, from purely behavioral and organizational studies in humans to molecular and cellular studies in animals. There are multiple faculty in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, across program areas, who focus on affective processes in their research programs. This research cluster has formed a discussion group with faculty in the department and across campus, with the aim of catalyzing emotion research that crosses traditional disciplines and methods to address important societal issues, such as substance abuse and fear disorders.

Affiliated Faculty

Anderson, Brian

Affective Science. Reward learning, punishment learning, and attention.

Bolaños, Carlos

Affective Science. Causal relationships between early-life experience, brain, biochemistry, and behavior; regulation of mood and motivated behaviors.

Brooker, Rebecca

Personality Processes, & Affective Science. Developmental psychology; emotional and biological risk factors for anxiety and psychopathology in early life.

Hicks , Joshua

Personality Processes. Existential psychology; meaning in life; authenticity.
Affective Science. Affect and motivation; cognitive processes related to drug and alcohol abuse; positive emotions as predictors of objective life outcomes.

Lench, Heather

Personality Processes. Emotion and cognition; forecasting; optimism.
Affective Science. Affective reactions and emotions when thinking about the future; decision making.

MacNamara, Annmarie

Neuroscience. Emotions in psychiatric health and disease; cognitive factors; neuroimaging and psychophysiology in humans.
Affective Science. Affect and cognition; psychophysical measures of emotional response to health and disease.

Maren, Stephen

Neuroscience. Neural systems for emotion, learning, and memory; fear and anxiety; rodent models.
Affective Science. Extinguishing fear memories; developing neurotherapeutic interventions for fear.

Mathur, Vani

Neuroscience, Diversity Science, & Affective Science. Disparities in pain in humans; social and cultural factors affecting pain experience and pain physiology; empathy for physical, social, and emotional pain and suffering.

Meagher, Mary

Neuroscience. Psychoneuroimmunology; pain; stress and disease in humans and animal models.
Affective Science. Interactions of pain, emotion, and stress; effects on motivation and decision making; affect regulation in clinical pain.

Moscarello, Justin

Neuroscience. Memory systems; psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of emotional memory; rodent models.
Affective Science. Control and fear; aversive memory.

Nagaya, Naomi

Neuroscience & Affective Science. Hormonal regulation of behavior; sex differences; fear and anxiety; neurosteroids; rodent models.

Orr, Joseph

Neuroscience & Affective Science. Voluntary task selection behavior; prefrontal cortex; neuroimaging; addiction and psychosis in humans.

Packard, Mark

Neuroscience & Affective Science. Neurobiology of memory; multiple memory systems; acquisition and expression of learned behavior; rodent models.

Schmeichel, Brandon

Personality Processes & Affective Science. Willpower; emotion regulation; self-control, motivation, and behavior; ego defenses; individual differences in cognitive ability.

Smith, Rachel

Neuroscience & Affective Science. Neural mechanisms underlying drug addiction and relapse; maladaptive behavior; rodent models.