Research

The Psychopathology and Emotion Processing Lab (PEP Lab) is directed by Dr. Laura M. Tully, Ph.D. in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the University of California, Davis. We are located on the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento, California. The PEP Lab uses behavioral, neuroimaging, and experience sampling methods to investigate how humans identify, evaluate, and regulate emotions, particularly in the context of social interactions. Specifically, we are interested in how atypical emotion processing may contribute to the development and maintenance of psychopathology, with a particular focus on psychosis.

Cognitive Control of Emotion

Individuals who experience psychosis often struggle to navigate social interactions, particularly those characterized by conflict. Psychosis spectrum disorders are known to interfere with daily social functioning. In particular, experiencing psychosis can make interpersonal conflicts more difficult to resolve, and cause worsened negative mood following them. However, the neural substrates of these social difficulties are not well understood. In this project, we use fMRI scanning to investigate how activation in the lateral prefrontal cortex is different between healthy controls and individuals with psychosis spectrum disorders when exerting cognitive control to direct attention away from emotional stimuli.

SocialStim

Within the confines of an MRI scanner, it can be difficult to evoke emotions similar to those which would be felt during an everyday social interaction. To provide a solution to this problem, and to facilitate our research on social functioning in psychosis spectrum disorders, we are creating a novel set emotional picture and video stimuli called the SocialStim. These stimuli feature a diverse set of actors making a variety of emotionally expressive faces, and saying statements that are positively, negatively, or neutrally valanced.

tDCS and Emotion Processing

Transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS, is an exciting technology that can stimulate specific regions of the brain with low-voltage electrical currents, delivered from noninvasive electrodes attached to the scalp with gel. In this project, we are investigating how delivering tDCS to the lateral prefrontal cortex, a region associated with emotion processing and top-down cognitive control, might result in improved performance on cognitive control of emotion tasks in participants with early psychosis spectrum disorders.