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Graduate Students |
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Lab Director |
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Stewart Shankman, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Dept of Psychology Clinical Associate Professor, Dept of Psychiatry University of Illinois at Chicago Ph.D. - Stony Brook University (2005) Click here for CV Office:1062D BSB |
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In addition to my interest in researching psychophysiological measures of depression and anxiety, I am interested in investigating the associations between personality and depression. My master’s project looks at personality variables and their associations with clinical characteristics of depression, such as age of onset and chronicity. I am also interested in the role that gender plays in emotional and personality processes and vulnerability to depression. |
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Jenna Robison |
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Brady Nelson M.A. University of Illinois-Chicago (2008) |
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I am interested in how emotional dysfunction can lead to the development of mood and anxiety disorders. I am currently involved in several ongoing projects within our lab. First, we are examining the biobehavioral processes involved in the anticipation of reward and threat in individuals with depression and/or panic disorder using EEG, EMG, and fMRI. Second, we are examining single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that predict these biobehavioral processes in a healthy control sample. Other projects I have been involved with include a 20 year follow-up study on the course of physical anhedonia within depressed individuals, examining the effects of predictability on the startle reflex, and examining the relation between resting EEG asymmetry and laboratory measured temperament in a sample of toddlers. |
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Sarah Altman |
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Generally, I am interested in how different emotions (anxiety, negative affect) are perceived and experienced by individuals. Specifically, I am interested in anxiety and it's relationship to sensitivity to threat, anxiety's role in eating disorders, and other anxiety-related processes. Currently, I am working on a couple of lab projects, as well as working on my preliminary exam. In the lab, the projects include 1) examining the effect of uncertainty on anxiety, 2) diagnostic interviews for a project examining the biobehavioral processes involved in anticipation to reward and threat in individuals with depression and/or panic disorder, and 3) working on a project examining the escalation of subthreshold conditions to homotypic and/or heterotypic full syndrome conditions. My preliminary exam is focused on the relationship between eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder, and possible shared underlying mechanisms of both. |
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· Juli Faust Senior Thesis: Resumption of Menses in Relation to Ideal Body Weight and Other Psychosocial Factors in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa · FeiFei Gao Senior Thesis: My study will explore relationships between personality traits and pain threshold in healthy participants. Specifically, we will test whether pain threshold is predicted by positive or negative emotionality, behavioral inhibition or approach, anxiety sensitivity, anxiety control, or experimenter gender. · Kumud Kataria Senior Thesis: For my senior thesis I will review four different domains of vulnerability to depression: personality, relationship dysfunction, cognitive, and biological. · Allison Lee |
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Undergraduate Research Assistants |
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Miranda Nelson |
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Casey Sarapas B.S. Fordham University (2007) |
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My interests include biological (both neural and genetic) mechanisms underlying the experience and regulation of emotion. I am interested in how these mechanisms may be altered in psychopathology, including anxiety disorders. Methodologically, I am interested in laboratory emotion induction techniques which allow state observations of emotions and their biological correlates. |
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Broadly, my research interests include, but are not limited to: psychophysiological manifestations of anxiety and depression, neuropsychology, pediatric mental health, and health psychology. My master's project involves looking at the timecourse of the startle response, and how that relates to personality characteristics related to anxiety symptoms and disorders. I also am working on a project looking at personality predictors of treatment response in depression. Additionally, I also have an interest in developing ways to better serve rural populations with mental health services. |
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Shankman Lab 2011 Pictured (Left to right): Casey, Andrea, Miranda, Sarah Kate, Stew, Brady, Kumud, Stephanie, Juli, FeiFei |
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Stephanie Gorka |
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My research interests broadly include the examination of biological processes underlying psychopathology. I am particularly interested in the neural correlates of reward and deficits in reward processing among those with depression. |
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Andrea Katz |
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I am interested in mood and anxiety disorders, specifically in how and why they typically co-occur, as well as the biological and physiological aspects of each disorder. Currently, I am working on a project examining brain activity during reward processing, which may help identify markers for psychopathology. |
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Sarah Kate McGowan |
