Psychology
Current work in my laboratory is focused on how the actions, thoughts, beliefs and feelings of others are represented in the brain. We refer to these processes collectively as social perception. We use a multimodal approach to characterize neural systems allowing for efficient execution of these processes. Current techniques employed in the lab include functional magnetic resonance imaging, event-related potential recordings and molecular genetic techniques. Most of our work is concerned with building basic neurobiological models of social function. However, we also explore the neural basis of social deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder. A more recent line of work is examining how individual differences in social perception may be related to epigenetic mechanisms.