Psychology

Fellous did his doctoral work in pattern recognition and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Southern California. He did postdoctoral work in experimental neuroscience (in vitro) at Brandeis University and the Salk Institute for Biological studies. He created the Computational and Experimental Laboratory (in vivo) at Duke University before moving to the University of Arizona where he is a full professor in the departments of Psychology and Biomedical Engineering. His research interests include the neurobiology of complex learning and emotional memory and the mechanisms and roles of neuromodulation in large neural networks in the context of spatial navigation. His laboratory uses a multi-disciplinary approach that includes computational, in vitro and in vivo techniques. The primary focus of the research is to understand how complex memories persist and are transformed in large populations of neurons. How are multiple memories simultaneously processed without interfering with each other? How does learning 'optimize' large scale computations? How do recent memories influence upcoming decision making? Can memories be selectively altered? How do memories change during sleep? Current research foci include complex spatial navigation processing by the hippocampal and prefrontal systems. The secondary focus is to understand how neural computations can be dynamically re-configured to reflect the constraints dictated by changes in behavioral, emotional and cognitive contexts. These contexts are often associated with the release of neuromodulators such as dopamine (e.g. reinforcement learning), acetylcholine (e.g. sleep and memory) or serotonin (e.g. motivation and emotion). How do these substances change the flow of information and regulate learning and memory? Current research foci include spatial memory consolidation during sleep, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and empathy. The experimental aspects of this research include a combination of in vitro and in vivo techniques in the rat. The lab uses state of the art neurophysiology techniques that include two-way real-time brain-machine interfaces, wireless recordings and "hyperdrives" allowing for the simultaneous recordings of many neurons in the behaving animal. The laboratory also recently started using optogenetic tools to manipulate neural activity in vivo using light, and small robots that co-navigate with the rats. The theoretical aspects of the work involves the use of computational modeling techniques to simulate the activity of single cells and networks of interconnected cells. These computer simulations reproduce and explain experimental data, and generate predictions that can in turn be tested experimentally. We also are interested in Artificial Intelligence techniques for the analysis of large datasets.

Jamie Edgin is an Associate Professor of Psychology and affiliated Faculty in the Sonoran UCEDD. She is a first-generation college student. For over 20 years she has contributed to research on developmental disorders, conducting studies that cross levels of analysis and incorporate several brain-based methodologies. She has over 60 peer reviewed publications and has a developed a patented system for assessing memory and learning in young children and children with developmental disorders. She merges cognitive and neuroscience approaches to study policy relevant questions, including 1) how do persistent sleep problems impact memory in developmental disorders, and how can we intervene? and 2) how can we better understand eyewitness reports from persons with disability? Dr. Edgin serves on numerous state and national boards for disability advocacy, including the National Down Syndrome Science Advisory Board, the State Criminal Justice working group, and she Co-Chairs the Council for Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness through the Arizona Center for Disability Law. She is the Director of the Disability Policy Fellowship at the Sonoran UCEDD. She has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2013 and received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for her work on sleep. Reflecting her emphasis on community-engaged research, she was awarded the 2018 Koffler Prize for Community Outreach and the 2020 Arizona Psychological Association award for Distinguished Contribution to Research. A recently awarded Udall/Bio5 Policy fellowship will allow her to conduct an analysis of current US policy gaps regarding children's eyewitness testimony in order to guide new research toward understanding the dynamics of those memory reports in children with and without disabilities.

Dr. John M. Ruiz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. Dr. Ruiz’s program of research focuses on psychosocial influences on health. His NIH-funded research examines relationships between individual level psychosocial factors, social behaviors, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk with an emphasis on biobehavioral mechanisms. In addition, Dr. Ruiz has recognized expertise in sociocultural aspects of racial/ethnic health disparities, particularly the epidemiological phenomenon referred to as the Hispanic Health Paradox. He is increasingly recognized for his efforts to advance health equity. Dr. Ruiz is on the editorial boards of several journals (Journal of Latina/o Psychology, Health Psychology, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of Behavioral Medicine), is an associate editor for 4 journals (PLOS One, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, Journal of Research in Personality) including Senior Associate Editor of Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and has guest edited several special issues. He has active leadership roles in multiple professional societies including as Member at large for the Society for Health Psychology, Program Chair for the American Psychosomatic Society, and is a founding member and current President of the Behavioral Medicine Research Council (BMRC). Dr. Ruiz is also a leader in the push for health equity as Past Chair for APA’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status (CSES), appointment to the 2021 APA Presidential Task Force on Health Equity, and as a member of the inaugural APA Health Equity Committee. He is a permanent member of the NIH Behavioral Medicine Interventions and Outcomes (BMIO) study section, and he serves on the external advisory board for NIH’s Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) effort. At the University of Arizona he is the Director of the Health Psychology doctoral training program, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in the Department of Psychology, is a member of the Sarver Heart Center, Center on Health Disparities, Center on Aging, and the Hispanic Center of Excellence and has multiple adjunct/affiliate appointments across campus.

Dr. Lai uses behavioral and neuroscience methods to study contextualized language meaning. Her current research can be put in three categories: (1) Figurative language: How do people comprehend metaphors, idioms, and irony? What are the cognitive and social-affective functions of these different types of figurative language? (2) Emotion and language: How do language activities, such as reading, give rise to emotion? How do readers’ mood states influence meaning making in language? (3) Language and thought in bilinguals: Do people who speak two languages that have conflicting semantic constructs perceive and reason about the world differently? Dr. Lai received her PhD at the University of Colorado Boulder. She conducted postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics first and then at the University of South Carolina. She has been a faculty in Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona since Fall 2016. She is an elected fellow at the Psychonomic Society.

My research has focused primarily on the cognitive and clinical neuroscience of aging and neurodegenerative disorders. Within this framework, my laboratory is particularly interested in integrating brain imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) techniques to 1) develop image-guided therapeutic TMS protocols and 2) explore TMS-derived and image-based biomarkers for early diagnosis and prediction of therapeutic outcomes for individuals with mild cognitive impairment as well as Parkinson’s disease. For past few years, I have been involved in a number of NIA-funded studies investigating brain function and its relation to cognitive performance. I am currently the Director of Brain Imaging and TMS Laboratory and teach undergraduate and graduate level courses in cognitive neuroscience, brain rehabilitation, and brain connectivity at the University of Arizona.

My research interests are broadly focused on understanding the reciprocal relations of self and memory. How does the self influence learning and memory retrieval? How does memory contribute to one's sense of self? Uncovering the ways in which the self and memory interact may advance understanding of identity, elucidate the conditions and experiences that modify the self, and inspire clinical interventions that improve quality of life and wellbeing for people who have neurological or mental health conditions. Ongoing projects are investigating how to improve memory through self-referential encoding strategies in individuals with traumatic brain injury and other neuropsychological conditions. My current research also is investigating how individuals with amnesia (a profound learning and memory impairment) construct a sense of self and experience a sense of continuity in life.

Fabian-Xosé Fernandez, PhD, Departments of Psychology and Neurology, McKnight Brain InstituteCircadian timekeeping is fundamental to human health. Unfortunately, under many clinical circumstances, the temporal organization of our minds and bodies can stray slowly from the Universal Time (UT) that is set with the Earth’s rotation. This disorganization has been linked to progression of several age-related and psychiatric diseases. Non-invasive phototherapy has the potential to improve disease outcomes, but the information that the brain’s clock tracks in twilight (or any electric light signal) to assure that a person entrains their sleep-wake cycles to the outside world is not understood. The central theme of my research program is to fill in this blank and to usher in an era where therapeutically relevant “high-precision” light administration protocols are institutionalized at the level of the American Medical and Psychiatric Associations to change the standard of care for a wide variety of conditions that impair quality of life. Of the conditions my lab is currently studying, we are particularly interested in how chronic and quick, sequenced light exposure can be designed to: 1. promote normal healthy aging and 2. strengthen adaptive cognitive/emotional responses to being awake in the middle of the night (12-6AM), a key interval of the 24-h cycle that we have associated with increased suicidal ideation and mortality. Our circadian work on suicide is done in very close partnership with the University of Arizona Sleep Health and Research Program directed by Dr. Michael A. Grandner.

Melinda F. Davis, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona College of Science. She is a member of the Statistics GIDP and the BIO5 Institute, the Evaluation Group for the Analysis of Data, and is affiliated with the College of Public Health. Dr. Davis’s interests focus on all aspects of health outcomes research, spanning research methodology and design, measurement, and quantitative analysis. Dr. Davis has published several dozen peer-reviewed publications, 5 book chapters, and is a frequent presenter at national meetings. Dr. Davis collaborates with investigators nationally and internationally. Her published work centers in the measurement of disease severity and treatment outcomes for physical and psychiatric conditions. Dr. Davis is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences (JMM). The Journal publishes articles related to methodology and research design, measurement, and data analysis. JMM is meant to further our understanding of methodology and how to formulate the right questions. It is broadly concerned with improving the methods used to conduct research, the measurement of variables used in the social sciences, and improving the applications of data analysis.

Carol A. Barnes, PhD, is a Regents' Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neurology, Neuroscience and BIO5, Director of the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, Director of the ARL Division of Neural Systems, Memory & Aging, Associate Director of the BIO5 Institute, and the Evelyn F. McKnight Endowed Chair for Learning and Memory in Aging at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. Dr. Barnes is past-president of the 42,000 member Society for Neuroscience, an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an Elected Foreign Member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. She earned her B.A. in psychology from the University of California at Riverside, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She did postdoctoral training in neuropsychology and neurophysiology in the Department of Psychology at Dalhousie University, The Institute of Neurophysiology, University of Oslo, and in the Cerebral Functions Group at University College London. The central goal of Dr. Barnes’ research program is to understand how the brain changes during the aging process and what the functional consequences of these changes are on information processing and memory in the elderly. Her research program involves behavioral, electrophysiological and molecular biological approaches to the study of young and aged rodents and non-human primates. This work provides a basis for understanding the basic mechanisms of normal aging in the brain and sets a background against which it is possible to assess the effects of pathological changes such as Alzheimer’s disease. Some current work also includes an assessment of therapeutic agents that may be promising in the alleviation or delay of neural and cognitive changes that occur with age. Dr. Barnes has written over 225 articles in the area of memory changes during normal aging and their possible neurobiological correlates.

Dr. Allen’s research spans several areas, but the main focus is the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. His work focuses on identifying risk factors for depression using electroencephalographic and autonomic psychophysiological measures, especially EEG asymmetry, resting state fMRI connectivity, and cardiac vagal control. Based on these findings, he is developing novel and neurally-informed treatments for mood and anxiety disorders, including Transcranial Ultrasound, EEG biofeedback, and Transcranial Direct Current and Transcranial Alternating Current stimulation. Other work includes understanding how emotion and emotional disorders influence the way we make decisions and monitor our actions. Keywords: Depression, Neuromodulation, EEG, Resting-state fMRI