All research laboratories conducting studies at CCBBI are invited to participate in the program. Participation will require PIs to mentor students to achieve academic success and prepare students for continued success.
Mentorship Expectations:
- Identify a graduate student and/or post-doctoral scientist in their lab to provide direct mentorship to the undergraduate student. The lab mentor will advise student(s) through weekly meetings to provide training in data acquisition, designing of neuroimaging studies, and neuroimaging analyses. Additionally, the lab mentor in collaboration with the PI, will also provide support and encourage personal and professional growth, including identifying and working through challenges the student may experience.
- Establish guidelines, clearly communicate the expectations of the student’s employment as an undergraduate research assistant and provide evaluation to ensure student is receiving the guidance and support needed to succeed.
- Provide updates to the CCBBI Director regarding the student’s progress on an annual basis.
CCBBI-affiliated Labs Accepting ADNiR Scholars
Dr. Jewel Crasta, PhD, OTR/L
Assistant Professor, School of Health and Rehabilitation
Research Interests:
Our research focuses on examining the relationship between attention and sensory processing in children and young adults with autism spectrum disorders using neuroimaging tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) along with performance-based measures. Additionally, we work with children with traumatic brain injury, sports-related concussion, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) examining brain-behavior relationships.
Current Projects:
- Sensory processing in autism spectrum disorders
- Brain-behavior relationships using EEG and fMRI in children with neurodevelopmental disorders
- Attention interventions in Occupational Therapy
For more information:
Dr. Jay Fournier, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Director of the Mood and Anxiety Program, Co-director of the Division of Cognition and Emotion
Research Interests:
Our research program focuses on identifying patient characteristics that are associated with differential response to treatments for depression and related disorders. In addition, our work investigates the neural and behavioral mechanisms through which those characteristics either facilitate or inhibit response to relevant treatments. As such, our research bridges work in clinical interventions, mood disorders, personality and neuroscience.
Current Projects:
- Functional neuroanatomy of depression, anxiety, and other disorders of negative affect
- Links between dimensions of negative affect and functioning in everyday life
- Predictors and mechanisms of differential response to treatments for mood and anxiety disorders
- Development and refinement of individualized treatment strategies
For more information:
Julie Golomb, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
The Vision & Cognitive Neuroscience lab explores the interactions between visual attention, memory, perception, and eye movements using human behavioral and computational cognitive neuroscience techniques. We focus on how objects and their spatial locations are perceived and coded in the brain, and how these representations are influenced by eye movements, shifts of attention, and other top-down factors
Current Projects:
- Neural representations of 3D visual space.
- Reconstructing the contents of visual working memory.
- How dynamic attention influences visual feature representations.
For more information:
Vision and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Stephanie Gorka, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Research Interests:
My research has focused on how individual differences in reactivity to stress relate to psychopathology using multimodal psychophysiological techniques including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and startle eyeblink potentiation. The overarching goal of my work is to develop and validate a multilayered neurobiological model of stress reactivity to serve as human lab targets and aid in the development of novel clinical interventions.
Current Projects:
- Trauma in youth/young adults
- Treatments for persons with suicidal ideation
For more information:
Dr. Stacy Harnish, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Speech and Hearing Science
Research Interests:
The Aphasia Laboratory is dedicated to researching ways to maximize the benefits of aphasia therapy. We are committed to the study of assessment and treatment of language and cognitive impairment in individuals with aphasia. We hope to collaborate with other departments and laboratories, here at Ohio State and elsewhere in the nation, to foster a more interdisciplinary approach to aphasia rehabilitation.
For more information:
Dr. Jasmeet Hayes, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
The MINDSET lab (MRI Investigation of Neurodegenerative Disease, Stress Effects and Traumatic brain injury) is a research laboratory dedicated to studying the long-term effects of traumatic brain injury and psychological stress on the brain, cognition, and broader health outcomes. We use neuroscience tools such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging including structural T1-weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and fMRI to examine potential links between trauma and neurodegenerative disease.
Current Projects:
- Understanding the effects that traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological stress have on the human brain and health outcomes
- Examine how genetic and epigenetic factors moderate outcomes after injury and through the aging process
- Investigate the long-term consequences of injury to the brain, including links to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, and interactions with mental health disorders
For more information:
Dr. Scott Hayes, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
My lab studies age related changes in memory, brain structure, and brain function. A primary area of interest in the lab is to examine modifiable lifestyle factors (sleep, physical activity, nutrition) and the extent to which they mitigate or accelerate cognitive and neural decline.
Current Projects:
- See fasterstudy.org
- Examining acute effects of exercise on cognitive and brain function
For more information:
Dr. Kristen Hoskinson, PhD
Principal Investigator, Center for Biobehavioral Health at The Research Institute, and Pediatric Neuropsychologist, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Nationwide Children's Hospital
Research Interests:
As a member of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James, I focus my research on pediatric neuropsychology with an emphasis on improving the understanding of cognitive, emotional and behavioral conditions that result from neurologic injury, such as pediatric brain tumors. In particular, I integrate neuroimaging methods with social and emotional functioning to improve early identification of children at elevated risk who can benefit greatly from intervention.
Current Projects:
Explore the neuroanatomical and functional correlations of social and adaptive difficulties in children who have been treated for pediatric brain tumors.
For more information:
Dr. Anthony King, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Research Interests:
I am a neuroscientist and licensed psychologist/psychotherapist who is committed to clinical and translational research aimed at elucidating the social, psychological, neural, physiological and genomic factors and processes underlying risk and resilience for mental health, and the relationships of social-emotional and mental health to physical health. I also research the neural and physiological mechanisms underlying effective psychotherapies, and is dedicated to developing improved, neuroscience-based treatments for trauma- and stress-related disorders such as PTSD and depression.
Current Projects:
- Psychological and Physiological Resilience
- Neurobiology of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Mindfulness- and Compassion based Interventions for Mood and Trauma-related Disorders
For more information:
Dr. Scott Langenecker, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Research Interests:
Dr. Langenecker tries to understand the neurobiology of mood disorders (neuroimaging, neuropsychology), from a lifespan perspective, currently focusing on the adolescent to adult transition and changes with treatment.
Current Projects:
The MEND2 lab (Multifaceted Explorations of the Neurobiology of Depressive Disorders) is running several studies presently. One study is a neuroscience based exploration of the effects of rumination focused CBT in reducing rumination in teens, and concurrent reductions in resting state MRI connectivity. We also have several studies using cognitive testing predicting effectiveness of treatments, stepped cared for depression treatment in Tajikistan, depression treatment in Uganda. Legacy datasets are also available for brain imaging task and resting state data in understanding recurrence of depression in young adults.
For more information:
Dr. Andrew Leber, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
We study attention and cognitive control in humans, using behavioral, eye-tracking, EEG, and fMRI methods. We are largely focused on understanding a) how individuals resist distraction from salient, irrelevant information, and b) how and why individuals vary in the way they use cognitive strategies.
Current Projects:
- Suppression of salient, distracting stimuli
- Individual differences in cognitive strategy optimization
- Electroencephalographic indices of chunking in visual working memory
- Using whole-brain connectome-based analysis to understand individual variation in cognitive traits
For more information:
Dr. Eric Nelson, PhD
Principal Investigator, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and Professor of Pediatrics, OSU College of Medicine
Research Interests:
My research is focused on understanding brain mechanisms of cognitive and emotional development in a variety of adolescent populations. I assess brain structure and function with MRI imaging and psychological, emotional, and cognitive states with standardized neuropsychological tests and other self-report measures.
Current Projects:
- Brain development and mental health in transgender adolescents
- Functional and structural organization of brain in youth with early onset psychosis
- Brain markers of exposure to adversity and resilience in youth and adults
- Cognitive and neural development in children with acquired demyelinating syndrome
- Brain maturation in children with congenital kidney disease.
For more information:
Dr. James Onate, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Research Interests:
His main research focus lies in developing functional motion assessment research that bridges the gap across research to clinical systems to allow for evidence-based outcomes for aiding individuals to sustain optimal health and performance throughout their careers and lives.
Current Project:
ACL injuries and their relationship to the brain
For more information:
Dr. David Osher, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
We aim to understand the relationship between brain connectivity, function, and behavior, with a special focus on visual perception and attention. We do this through a variety of machine learning techniques, enabling us to use a subject’s own unique brain connectivity pattern to parcellate their brain into meaningful units, predict how their brains will respond to new stimuli, and even predict behavior. We use combination of behavioral assessments, eye-tracking, functional and diffusion neuroimaging, and computational modeling.
For more informaton:
Cognition and Brain Circuitry Lab
Dr. Stephen Petrill, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
The Western Reserve Reading Project is a longitudinal study that has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and Child Development of the NIH. Presently, we have around 450 pairs of twins who have participated in annual data collection sessions over the past 15 years. This was the first time any study integrated brain scanning to understand how genetic and environmental differences affect how and where people process reading and math skills in the brain.
Current Project:
Examine the genetic and environmental contributions to the development of cognitive skills related to reading, mathematics, language, and attention.
For more information:
The Western Reserve Reading Project
Dr. Ruchika Prakash, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology, and Director, CCBBI
Research Interests:
Understanding neuroplasticity in the context of healthy aging and neurological disorders, specifically multiple sclerosis, and applying the knowledge gained through research in basic sciences to design interventions that tap into such neuroplasticity.
Current Projects:
- Mindfulness meditation and its impact on neural and behavioral correlates of sustained attention in older adults.
- Impact of physical activity intervention on working memory connectome of people with MS.
- Deriving a functional connectivity-based biomarker of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology.
For more information:
Dr. Zeynep Saygin, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
The Z-Lab studies Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. We use longitudinal neuroimaging and computational modeling to investigate the developing human brain, answering questions like: What are the brain building blocks that we are born with, how do they change with maturation and experience, and can we use this information to predict the development of individual abilities later in life?
Current Projects:
- fetal and infant precision fMRI and predictive modeling
- predictive modeling of future developmental outcome in children
- susceptibility to brain injury and effects of head impacts to neurodevelopment in children
For more information:
Dr. Jessica Turner
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Research Interests:
Our research program focuses on structural and functional neuroimaging to understand neural underpinnings of psychotic disorders, particularly schizophrenia and related disorders, with an emphasis on large-scale data sharing and re-use. Neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease are also of interest with regard to neuropsychiatric symptoms (depression, delusions, hallucinations, e.g.).
Current Projects:
- Cerebellar structure and function in the schizophrenia spectrum
- Structural and functional correlates of negative symptoms across disorders
- The effect of aging on resting state networks in psychosis
For more information:
Dr. Dylan Wagner, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
Research in the lab is primarily focused on investigating the brain basis of how humans take disparate facts and observations about other persons and weave these into the complex and multidimensional character portraits that form the basis of our person knowledge. A separate topic of research focuses on examining the behavioral and neural mechanisms of self-regulation and its failure.
For more information:
Dr. Baldwin Way, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Research Interests:
Our lab studies the psychological and neural mediators of the bidirectional influences between the immune system and social and emotional behavior.
Current Projects:
- Geospatial exposures to violence and neural effects on threat and reward processing (link).
- Effect of anti-inflammatory drugs on emotional processing.
- Effects of inflammatory challenge on socio-emotional processing.
For more information: