Employment Opportunities
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
We have many ongoing research projects in the Lab providing ample opportunities for undergraduate students to gain valuable research experience. Students have the opportunity to work with staff, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, other undergraduate students and to perform a variety of duties as needed for each project.
Requirements: Students must be willing to commit to register for a minimum of two semesters (fall & spring) of research credit in the laboratory or have work-study funding financial aid. Current positions may have additional requirements.
How to: Please complete this application and email it to the supervisor listed for the position you are interested in, or the Laboratory Manager, Isa Dolski.
Project Coordinators interested in hiring students for Spring 2009 :
- Kim Dalton
- Lisa Flook
- Aaron Heller
Summer Research
UW Students:
We only consider exceptional UW-Madison undergraduate students able to work in the lab beyond summer. UW-Madison students have the option to work on a paid hourly basis during the summer and to earn research credit during the academic year. If interested, please submit a completed application to Isa Dolski.
Non-UW Students:
We rarely accept non-UW students for summer-only work. Because our laboratory is a large and complex place, it takes a significant amount of time to be trained to do meaningful tasks. We may consider accepting exceptional non-UW-Madison undergraduate students for the summer on a volunteer basis only. If you are a non-UW-Madison student and wish to volunteer in the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience for a summer, please send your CV, transcript & a cover letter explaining why you wish to work in the lab to Isa Dolski. Please be sure to detail any prior research experience or special skills you may have.
Graduate Research Opportunities
For information on applying to the Department of Psychology as a graduate student, please see the Psychology Department's Graduate Studies webpage.
Please see here for a description of our facilities and here for more information on our research. Who are our current graduate students, post-docs and scientists?
Students interested in pursuing graduate or post-doctoral training in our laboratory should be familiar with our research. For an overview, we suggest the following articles:
- McMenamin, B. W., Shackman, A. J., Maxwell, J. S., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Validation of regression-based myogenic correction techniques for scalp and source-localized EEG. Psychophysiology, 46. DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2009.00787.x. PMCID: PMC2677703
- Fox, A. S., Shelton, S. E., Oakes, T. R., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2008). Trait-like brain activity during adolescence predicts anxious temperament in primates. PLoS ONE, 3(7), e2570. PMCID: PMC2430534
- Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Voluntary regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of expertise. PLoS One 3(3), e1897.
- Slagter, H. A., Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Francis, A. D., Nieuwenhuis, S., Davis, J. M. & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Mental training affects use of limited brain resources. PLoS Biology Vol. 5, No. 6, e138.
- Dalton, K. M., Nacewicz, B. M., Alexander, A. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Gaze-fixation, brain activation and amygdala volume in unaffected siblings of individuals with autism. Biological Psychiatry 61 (4), 512-520. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2006.05.019
- Johnstone, T., van Reekum, C. M., Urry, H. L., Kalin, N. H. & Davidson R. J. (2007). Failure to regulate: Counter-productive recruitment of top-down prefrontal-subcortical circuitry in major depression. Journal of Neuroscience 27: 8877-8884; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2063-07.2007
- Larson, C. L., Nitschke J. B., & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Common and distinct patterns of affective response in dimensions of anxiety and depression. Emotion. Feb;7(1):182-91
- Nacewicz, B.M., Dalton, K.M., Johnstone, T., Long, M., McAuliff, E.M., Oakes, T.R., Alexander, A.L. & Davidson, R.J. (2006) Amygdala volume and nonverbal social impairment in adolescent and adult males with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry 63:1417-1428.
- Shackman, A. J., Sarinopoulos, I, Maxwell, J. S., Pizzagalli, D. A., Lavric, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Anxiety selectively disrupts visuospatial working memory. Emotion, 6, 40-61.
- Urry, H. L., van Reekum, C. M., Johnstone, T., Kalin, N. H., Thurow, M. E., Schaefer, H. S., Jackson, C. A., Frye, C. J., Greischar, L. L., Alexander, A. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 4415-4425.
- Rosenkranz, M. A., Busse, W. W., Johnstone, T., Swenson, C. A., Crisafi, G. M., Jackson, M. M., Bosch, J. A., Sheridan, J. F., & Davidson, R. J. (2005). Neural circuitry underlying the interaction between emotion and asthma symptom exacerbation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 13319-13324.
- Dalton KM, Nacewicz BM, Johnstone T, Schaefer HS, Gernsbacher MA, Goldsmith HH, Alexander AL, Davidson RJ. (2005) Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nature Neuroscience. 8(4):519-26.
- Fox AS, Oakes TR, Shelton SE, Converse AK, Davidson RJ, Kalin NH. (2005) Calling for help is independently modulated by brain systems underlying goal-directed behavior and threat perception. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 102(11):4176-9.
- Lutz A, Greischar LL, Rawlings NB, Ricard M, Davidson RJ. (2004) Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 101(46):16369-73.
- Davidson RJ, Shackman AJ, Maxwell JS. (2004) Asymmetries in face and brain related to emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 8(9):389-91.
- Chung MK, Dalton KM, Alexander AL, Davidson RJ. (2004) Less white matter concentration in autism: 2D voxel-based morphometry. NeuroImage. 23(1):242-51.
- Salomons TV, Johnstone T, Backonja MM, Davidson RJ. (2004) Perceived controllability modulates the neural response to pain. Journal of Neuroscience. 24(32):7199-203.
- Davidson, R. J., Maxwell JS, Shackman AJ (2004). The privileged status of emotion in the brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(33):11915-6.
- Urry HL, Nitschke JB, Dolski I, Jackson DC, Dalton KM, Mueller CJ, Rosenkranz MA, Ryff CD, Singer BH, Davidson RJ. (2004) Making a life worth living: neural correlates of well-being. Psychological Science. 2004 Jun;15(6):367-72.
- Jackson DC, Mueller CJ, Dolski I, Dalton KM, Nitschke JB, Urry HL, Rosenkranz MA, Ryff CD, Singer BH, Davidson RJ. (2003) Now you feel it, now you don't: frontal brain electrical asymmetry and individual differences in emotion regulation. Psychological Science. (6):612-7.
- Davidson RJ. (2003) Seven sins in the study of emotion: correctives from affective neuroscience. Brain and Cognition. 52(1):129-32.
- Davidson, R. J., Pizzagalli, D., Nitschke, J. B., & Putnam, K. M. (2002). Depression: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 545-574.
- Davidson, R.J., Jackson D.C., & Kalin, N.H. (2000). Emotion, plasticity, context and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Psychological Bulletin, 126(6), 890-906.
Pre- and Post-Doctoral Research Opportunities
The Training Program in Emotion Research, funded by an NIMH Institutional National Research Service Award training grant, supports 7 pre-doctoral and 3 post-doctoral trainees in emotion research each year.
Staff Opportunities
None at this time.