Alexander J.
Shackman, Ph.D.
I am interested in how
cognitive and emotional processes interact. Studying such interactions is a promising
means of answering more general questions about how the prefrontal cortex is
functionally organized and how it contributes to adaptive and maladaptive
behavior.
My research falls into three
more specific lines of work.
One line aims to understand
the psychological and neural mechanisms that mediate anxiety's impact on how we
think and act. Here, we have examined the effects of experimentally induced
anxiety on cognitive tasks thought to rely on prefrontal cortex. We have also
sought to better characterize how individual differences in anxious
temperament, emotion regulation, and working memory capacity can minimize or
intensify threat's impact.
A second line aims to
identify the functional significance of aberrant activity in the prefrontal
cortex of individuals afflicted with major depression. In particular, we are
trying to tease apart the contributions of exaggerated emotional reactivity
from deficient emotion regulation.
A third line of work uses
transcranial magnetic stimulation (
Common to each of these areas
is a strong interest in quantitative and physiological methodology.
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