Current Projects
The projects listed below are currently being conducted by members of the Carolina Affective Science Laboratory. For more information about individual projects, see below.
Emotion and Physiology in Context
This study examines how the aging brain, peripheral nervous system, and their interaction, contributes to affective differences across the adult age span. We are particularly interested in whether age-related and individual differences in brain structure and function, physiological reactivity, and interoception predict variation in emotional experience in daily life.
This study is supported by the National Science Foundation. See more here.
SUPER Brain
This is a longitudinal project that will investigate the influence of socio-emotional processing and neurobiological development on adolescent social behavior and health risk behavior. This study aims to understand how children’s and adolescents’ perception of their social environment and their social networks impact peer influence and the onset of substance use.
This study is supported by the National Institutes of Health. See more here.
Physiology and Cognition
This study examines how interoception interacts with experimentally-induced allostatic shifts to shape emotions and affect-based decision-making.
Completed Projects
The projects below have completed data collection and are being written up for publication. Relevant manuscripts are cited but you can find more on our Publications page.
Social Affective Neural Integration
This study examines how pleasant and unpleasant social-affective states dynamically alter the organization of brain networks spanning the brain. We are particularly interested in how pleasant versus unpleasant states differentially alter the stability of neural connections and how this predicts social behaviors such as altruism and social connection.
This study was supported by the Mind and Life Foundation. See more here.
Project NeuroTeen
This was a 5-year longitudinal studying examining how adolescents’ social contexts (including parents and peers) impacted neurobiological development.
This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health. See more here.
Relevant manuscripts:
Dai, J., Kwon, S.J., Prinstein, M.J., Telzer, E.H. & Lindquist, K.A. (2023). Neural similarity in nucleus accumbens during decision making for the self and a best friend: Links to adolescents’ self-reported susceptibility to peer influence and risk taking. Human Brain Mapping, 44, 3972-3985. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26317 | PDF
Flannery, J.S., Jorgenson, N.A., Kwon, S.J., Prinstein, M.J., Telzer, E.H. & Lindquist, K.A. (2023). Developmental changes in habenular and striatal social reinforcement responsivity across adolescence linked with substance use. Biological Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.04.018 | PDF
Do, K.T., McCormick, E.M., Prinstein, M.J., Lindquist, K.A., & Telzer, E.H. (2022). Intrinsic connectivity within the affective salience network moderates adolescent susceptibility to negative and positive peer norms. Scientific Reports, 12, 17463. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17780-1 | OSF | PDF
Telzer, E.H., Jorgensen, N., Prinstein, M.J. & Lindquist, K.A. (2021). Neurobiological sensitivity to social rewards and punishments moderates the relationship between peer norms and adolescent risk-taking. Child Development, 92, 731-745. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13466 | PDF
Advancing a Situated Neuroscience of Emotion
This study examined how the neural spatial and temporal dynamics of emotions differ across different forms of context, including social v. non-social situations and in people from different cultural backgrounds.
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation. See more here.
Relevant manuscripts:
Pugh, Z. Huang, J. Leshin, J., Lindquist, K.A. & Nam, C.S. (2023). Culture and gender modulate dlPFC integration in the emotional brain: Evidence from dynamic causal modeling. Cognitive Neurodynamics, 17, 153–168. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-022-09805-2 | PDF
Pugh, Z.H., Choo, S. Leshin, J., Lindquist, K.A, & Nam, C.S. (2022). Emotion depends on context, culture, and their interaction: Evidence from effective connectivity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 17, 206-217. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsab092 | PDF
Individual Differences in Emotion Construction
This study examined the association between emotional experience, psychological reactivity, and interoception during acute stress in healthy, young adults.
Relevant manuscripts:
MacCormack, J.K., Bonar, A., & Lindquist, K.A. (2024). Interoceptive beliefs moderate the link between physiological and emotional arousal during an acute stressor. Emotion, 24, 269–290. PDF
Bonar, A., MacCormack, J.K., Feldman, M. & Lindquist, K.A. (2023). Examining the role of emotion differentiation on emotion and cardiovascular physiological activity during acute stress. Affective Science, 4, 317-331. OSF | PDF
Feldman, M. J., MacCormack, J.K., Bonar, A., & Lindquist, K.A. (2023). Interoceptive ability moderates the effect of physiological reactivity on social judgment. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001210 | OSF | PDF
Music and Emotion
This study examined network dynamics in brain regions associated with emotions while participants listened to evocative music.
Relevant manuscripts:
Doyle, C.M. Lane, S.T., Brooks, J.A., Wilkins, R.W., Gates, K.M. & Lindquist, K.A. (2022). Unsupervised classification reveals consistency and degeneracy in neural network patterns of emotion. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 17, 995-1006. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsac028 | OSF | PDF
