August 2023
The LaBar Lab gathers for lunch (pictured above, left) to say goodbye to our visiting student, Eva Mei Vogt. Eva was a visiting student from Lafayette College who was selected for participation in their competitive LEARN program, which provides Lafayette College neuroscience majors with summer research opportunities in alumni labs nationwide. In this summer immersion experience, she learned how to measure insula volumes using semi-automated brain tracing tools, which she applied to existing data from the lab in healthy and emotionally dysregulated populations. On this project she worked closely with graduate student Nimesha Gerlus. Before returning to Lafayette, however, Eva kindly created this stunning piece of art (above, right) in which each flower represents a member of the lab. We will miss her presence and talent. Best of luck and congratulations, Eva!
July 2023
Outreach to High School Students and Educators
Graduate student Lucas Bellaiche (pictured above) taught local high school students and teachers the emotional benefits of creative thinking via art therapy. Graduate student Rachael Wright also spoke about her research. Attendees were from the NIH STAR clinical program hosted by Duke.
Dr. Kevin LaBar spoke at the National Student Leadership Conference held for high school students at Duke University.
We would like to welcome Alisa Schutz and Sebastian Sanchez to the LaBar Lab as new research assistants. They will be assisting with the Neurocomputational Approaches to Emotional Representation study, also known as "EmoRep."
June 2023
Eva Mei Vogt is an undergraduate Neuroscience major hailing from Lafayette College. She was awarded the LEARN (LafayettE Alumni Research Network) summer research scholarship, which provides Neuroscience majors at Lafayette an opportunity to conduct research with alumni at primary research institutions. Under the mentorship of Dr. LaBar, Eva is designing templates for LaBar lab semi-automated structural MRI pipeline and processing structural MRI analysis for lab projects on the Duke Computing Cluster. Additionally, she will be analyzing segmentation methods and comparing insula parcelation schemes. At the end of her summer research experience, she will present on her work at the annual Neuroscience Symposium at Lafayette. Welcome, Eva!
May 2023
The lab was awarded a collaborative NIH R01 grant (P.I.: Andrada D. Neacsiu) titled "“Neurostimulation enhanced cognitive restructuring for transdiagnostic emotional dysregulation."
Leonard Faul (pictured above, far right) defended his dissertation and has obtained a postdoctoral position at Boston University with Elizabeth Kensinger. Congratulations, Leonard!
April 2023
Nimesha Gerlus defended her Major Area Paper as a part of her MD-PhD program. This is the Psychology and Neuroscience department's equivalent of a Master's Thesis. Great job, Nimesha!
Graduate students Leonard Faul and Jane Rothrock have published their piece titled "Self-Relevance Moderates the Relationship between Depressive Symptoms and Corrugator Activity during the Imagination of Personal Episodic Events" in the journal Brain Sciences. The paper can be found here.
October 2022
As part of the ENIGMA Eating Disorders Workgroup, the lab's research on structural brain changes in anorexia nervosa, is being published in the November 1 issue of Biological Psychiatry, with an accompanying editorial commentary. The paper can be found here.
Led by graduate student Leonard Faul, the lab's research on the representation of emotional experience from imagined scenarios was accepted for publication in the journal Emotion.
September 2022
Led by graduate student Rachael Wright, the lab's research on intolerance of uncertainty, emotion regulation, and COVID anxiety was published in the Journal of Health Psychology. The paper can be found here.
August 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Leonard Faul, whose seminal review paper entitled "Mood-Congruent Memory Revisited" was accepted for publication in Psychological Review.
April 2022
First-year graduate student Lucas Bellaiche has been awarded the prestigious NSF graduate fellowship! Congrats, Lucas!
The lab has published a paper in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience titled The temporal dynamics of spontaneous emotional brain states and their implications for mental health. The paper can be found here.
March 2022
Graduate student Leonard Faul has been awarded the Katherine Goodman Stern Dissertation Fellowship. Congrats, Leonard!
The lab has published a paper in the Journal of Affective Disorders titled Enhancing cognitive restructuring with concurrent fMRI-guided neurostimulation for emotional dysregulation–A randomized controlled trial. The paper can be found here.
January 2022
Former grad student Natasha Parikh’s paper on counterfactual thinking and regulation of emotional memories in anxious individuals was published in Frontiers in Psychology (see attached).
Current grad students Leonard Faul, Rachael Wright, and Daniel Parr each received Graduate Grant Awards sponsored by the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program for Research in Psychology and Neuroscience.
CNAP first-year students Lucas Bellaiche and Jane Rothrock began their rotations in the lab.
The lab welcomes Yaohui Ding as a new postdoc, who completed his PhD work at the University of Arizona under John Allen.
September 2021
The lab has published a paper in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics titled Enhancing cognitive restructuring with concurrent repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: A transdiagnostic randomized controlled trial. (see attached).
February 2021
Dr. LaBar has been appointed Associate Chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, effective July 1, 2021. Congratulations, Dr. LaBar!
January 2021
Lab alumna Natasha Parikh has started her new role as a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill, where her primary responsibilities are to teach and develop technical courses in the Psychology & Neuroscience Department. Congrats, Dr. Parikh!
August 2020
Lab alumnus John Powers’ paper investigating the role of the parietal cortex in emotional distancing using TMS was accepted for publication at Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience.
Lab alumna Natasha Parikh’s paper on counterfactual thinking in anxious individuals has been posted on-line at Cognition & Emotion (see attached).
The lab has received a new NIH R01 grant that uses machine learning and computational modeling to decode emotions from fMRI and psychophysiological signals!
The lab is participating in a grant funded by the REAM foundation to pilot the use of fMRI-guided TMS as an intervention in misophonia (led by Andrada Neasciu in Psychiatry)!
Lab alumnus Phil Kragel has started a tenure-track professor position at Emory University. Congratulations, Dr. Kragel!
Dr. LaBar was nominated to be a standing Panel Member of the NIH Study Section on Mechanisms of Emotion, Stress, and Health
June 2020
The lab has published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA titled Proximal threats promote enhanced acquisition and persistence of reactive fear learning circuits. Graduate student Leonard Faul and lab post doc alumnus Daniel Stjepanovic are the first authors. The paper can be found here.
May 2020
Dr. Rajendra Morey, Dr. LaBar, lab alumni, and collaborators had their paper on conceptual fear generalization in PTSD formally published in Neuropsychopharmacology. The final publication can be found here.
Lab alumnus Dr. John Powers, PhD, and senior Post-doc Dr. John Graner, PhD, published a paper in Cerebral Cortex. Congrats, doctors!
Dr. LaBar has also been in the news this week! He was quoted in Discover Magazine on how anxiety influences time perception during the coronavirus outbreak, which was based in part on Jessica Lake’s dissertation in the lab.
Dr. LaBar also gave a talk at the virtual Cognitive Neuroscience Society annual conference (being held this week). The talk was selected for news coverage by the society, which was based on lab alumnus', Dr. Phil Kragel, PhD, dissertation work in the lab and ongoing collaboration.
March 2020
Graduate student Rachael Wright has been awardard the the prestigious NSF graduate fellowship! Congratulations, Rachael!
November 2019
Dr. LaBar has been elected as a Fellow into the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Congratulations Dr. LaBar on this prestigious honor!
Here is a link to the announcement page: https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-announces-leading-scientists-elected-2019-fellows
Here is a link to the Duke Today announcement page: https://today.duke.edu/2019/11/seven-duke-named-fellows-american-association-advancement-science
LaBaratory alumna Dr. Eleanor Hanna, PhD, has published a review of digust in psychiatric medicine in Clinical Psychological Science (in collaboration with the LaBar lab and other Duke University personnel). Here is a link to the review.
October 2019
Graduate student Rachael Wright has recieved a 2019 Research Germinator Award from the Duke Insitute for Brain Sciences (DIBS).Here is the link to the announcement page with information on the project: https://dibs.duke.edu/news/2019-research-germinator-awards-announced
September 2019
Dr. Powers has graduated from Duke University's Psychology and Neuroscience PhD program!
July 2019
Lab alumnus Dr. Phil Kragel, PhD, has published a paper this week in Science Advances on emotion schema representations in the visual system (via a collaborative effort between the LaBar lab and Dr.Tor Wager's lab).Here is the link to the article: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/7/eaaw4358
John Powers has sucessfully defended his dissertation! Congrats Dr.Powers!
May 2019
Drs. Hanna and Parikh have graduated from Duke University's Psychology and Neuroscience PhD program!
March 2019
Natasha Parikh has sucessfully defended her dissertation! Congrats Dr.Parikh!
Eleanor Hanna has sucessfully defended her dissertation! Congrats Dr.Hanna!
January 2019
John Power's review on emotional distancing was published in Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews.
Natasha Parikh has been seleted to receive the 2019 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Duke University Graduate School.
October 2018
Kevin LaBar received two new grants to support research on emotion regulation: a Duke Institute for Brain Sciences Germinator Award, and a Research Seed grant from the Charles Lafitte Foundation Program in Psychological Research at Duke University.
September 2018
Kevin LaBar has been named Associate Director at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University.
Graduate students Natasha Parikh and John Powers have had successful dissertation proposal defenses.
Kevin LaBar and Rajendra Morey have secured a new grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Department of Veterans Affairs I01 CX001783-02 "Investigating the neural basis of shame and guilt in veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder".
Leonard Faul has joined the lab as a graduate student from the Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program and is also a recipient of the prestigious NSF graduate fellowship.
Rachael Wright will be rotating with the lab this fall from the Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program
We would like to announce the following job placements for lab alumni: Jessica Lake, Director of Research at Limbix Corp.; Deepu Murty, Assistant Professor, Temple University; Siobhan Hoscheidt, Associate Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; and Daniel Stjepanovic, Postdoctoral Associate at University of Queensland.