Spotlight on Research
A vital and long-standing goal of the Psychology Department is to generate new knowledge that advances innovative solutions to challenges that face our society. Our basic research discoveries have had tremendous impact on our understanding of why we behave the way that we do: from how our behaviors impact others around us to how the world around us shapes our psychological well-being. The impact of our research is broad as it contributes to a) improved local and global behavioral health outcomes from infants to adults, b) local and national policy changes that improve the quality of our social and individual lives, and c) the development of novel interventions in cases of behavioral disorders and disease.
Although the current uncertain research funding environment has presented an unprecedented challenge to our ability to support our research mission, we are excited to celebrate recent successes of faculty who secured new research support this past year:
Dr. Jennifer Forsyth was awarded a Royalty Research Fund grant from the University of Washington Office of Research: Optimizing Gene-Set Analysis of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
In the last decade, genetic studies have identified many genetic variants associated with various psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Understanding whether genetic risk for each disorder converges onto specific biological processes and how these processes differ across disorders is critical for clarifying mechanisms underlying each disorder and developing better targeted interventions. However, some biological processes are active at only specific times in development, and biological processes are often nested within one another, such that they can be investigated at different levels of "zoom" in a given tissue or across different scales of time. By varying when during development and across what timespan of development biological processes are tested for enrichment for genetic variants for these disorders, this project will clarify whether processes that are active in earlier versus later brain development, or capture proximal versus extended brain developmental processes, are more useful for identifying the shared and distinct mechanisms underlying these disorders.
Dr. Cheryl Kaiser received a grant from the Templeton Foundation: Does Living a Religiously Inspired Life Reduce Affective Polarization Through Instilling Virtues of Compassion and Intellectual Humility.
Affective polarization, animosity towards opposing political parties, is at unprecedented levels. As a result, these partisan divides harm social cohesion and prevent people from seeing our common humanity and coming together as family, neighbors, friends, and a nation with a shared purpose. This project integrates the science of character virtues and religion to investigate whether living a life characterized by religion can increase intellectual humility and compassion to decrease affective polarization and encourage cross-party prosocial behavior. We examine these questions with ecological momentary assessment, experimental, and quasi-experimental approaches among multiple religious groups. This project is needed to identify approaches that can increase tolerance and civility in our politically divided nation and promote social cohesion and human flourishing.
Dr. Jeansok Kim received a 5-year grant from the National Institutes of Health: Neural Dynamics of Fear Circuits in Ecological Rodent Models of Risk and Trauma.
Fear is a fundamental mechanism that allows animals to evade predators in their habitats and enables humans to protect themselves from interpersonal threats in society. This research will employ ecologically-relevant 'approach food-avoid predator' paradigms to explore the neural dynamics of fear circuits that guide purposive behaviors—integrating navigation, decision-making, and vital actions—in real-world scenarios where threats from animate entities are often ambiguous. By deepening our understanding of the brain's fear response to biological dangers, both potential and actual attacks, we can develop more effective treatments for trauma disorders arising from spousal and child abuse, combat experiences, and other forms of assault.
Dr. Priscilla Lui was awarded a Small Grant from the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Addiction, Drug, and Alcohol Institute: The Asian BiCulturalism (ABC) Study.
Asian American young adults see the largest and fastest increase in drinking and alcohol use disorder rates among US adults, but they remain understudied in research because of the “model minority” myth. The objectives of this study are to examine personally relevant stress in relation to alcohol use, and identify interventions that reduce drinking. Findings will inform culturally centered interventions aimed at preventing and treating harmful drinking by promoting positive coping strategies.
Dr. Joseph Sisneros received a 3-year Accelerator Grant from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP): Vibrational sensing and production in fishes: investigations of the underwater vibroscape. HFSP supports international research collaborations for basic research on complex behavioral and biological systems.
While human ears are designed to detect sound, our fingertips introduce us to a sensory world where mechanical waves are “felt” as they travel through surfaces. Such sensing through vibration is, in fact, widespread across the animal kingdom. Fish behavior frequently involves the production of sounds or visual signals (such as “trembling”) when they are in, on, or near substrates. The extent to which vibrations travel through surfaces and their role in fish ecology, however, remain largely unexplored. The vibrational landscape, or vibroscape, may be a crucial component of a fish’s perceptual world, overlapping with the soundscape. Our investigation will focus on whether fishes produce and respond to vibrational signals and cues, and how far these vibrations propagate through substrates. To achieve this, we will measure substrate vibrations (using acoustical oceanography and engineering methods), conduct playback experiments (integrating behavior, bioacoustics, neurophysiology), and interpret our data through the lens of biotremology. Our interdisciplinary team is well-positioned to uncover a previously unstudied mode of communication in fish, and to reveal a previously uncharted sensory landscape in marine ecology, the underwater vibroscape. Ultimately, understanding the integration of auditory, visual and vibration information in fish can reveal new insights relative to sensory dysfunctions in humans.
Dr. Ariel Starr was awarded a Royalty Research Fund grant from the University of Washington Office of Research: The neural development of perspective taking.
Visual perspective taking is the ability to represent a physical viewpoint that is different from one’s own. For example, if you are talking on the phone with a friend who is trying to find your office, and you see them outside your office window, you need to give them directions respective to their position, not to your own (e.g., you should tell them to look for the door on the left, even though that door is to your right). Perspective taking plays a role not only in personal interactions, but also in solving abstract problems, from interpreting maps to designing complex structures. Individuals vary widely in the speed and accuracy of their perspective taking abilities, and perspective taking is notoriously difficult for young children. Perspective taking requires simulating another’s viewpoint as well as inhibiting one’s own viewpoint, and it draws on mental rotation, theory of mind, and inhibitory control abilities - all of which are skills that develop slowly over childhood. These differences in abilities suggest that, in comparison to adults, children may draw on a wider range of brain regions to engage in perspective taking. In the research funded through this grant, we will investigate the development of the perspective taking network in the brain in children between the ages of 6 and 10 years to provide insights into the dynamic relations between brain development, brain activation, and perspective taking abilities. Understanding how the involvement of different brain regions changes over development and as a function of children’s perspective taking abilities will give us clearer insights into the maturational and strategic factors that support successful perspective taking and help us develop more effective ways to teach perspective taking in childhood.
Dr. Yan Wang received a Royalty Research Fund grant from the University of Washington Office of Research: Investigating the behavioral and neural consequences of heat stress in an eusocial model.
No sustainable future can exist without understanding pollinator adaptations to climate change. To identify genes responsible for physiological and behavioral climate resilience, our lab will examine the collective social behavior and gene expression of bumblebees exposed to 6-day heat waves, which are becoming more and more common. We will use cutting edge machine learning techniques to track individual bees over time, conducting analysis of social networks before, during, and after heat exposure. We will then be able to link individual behavior to brain gene expression. Our results will provide important translational insights on how heat waves affect brain function and behavior in a species that is critical for human survival, paving the way for promoting heat resistance bees and other social animals in the future.