Congrats to the SCN Lab’s most senior graduate student, Talha Alvi, after he successfully defended his dissertation several weeks ago. Talha did a masterful job and his committee was very impressed! Talha’s dissertation represents the culmination of his work on social anxiety and social cognition, and the first time that our lab has been able to examine the interaction between the two in predicting social functioning in daily life. We could not be more proud of all of Talha’s accomplishments and wish him well as he heads off to begin his clinical internship in Denver at the Colorado Psychology Internship Consortium, STRIDE Community Health Center! Have a great year Talha, we will miss you in the lab!
New Paper in Press from the SCN Lab and colleagues from UCLA!
In a large fMRI sample, we found that intranasal oxytocin or vasopressin administration did not have an effect on behavioral or neural responses when mentalizing. As researchers continue to investigate the potential benefits of altering the oxytocin and/or vasopressin systems, we believe it is important to highlight positive as well as null results. We hope this work assists future studies and the field as a whole!
Click on this thread for a brief summary of our findings on twitter.
Straccia, M. A., *Teed, A. R., Katzman, P. L., Tan, K. M., Parrish, M. H., Irwin, M. R., Eisenberger, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Tabak, B. A. (in press). Null results of oxytocin and vasopressin administration on mentalizing in a large fMRI sample: evidence from a randomized controlled trial. Psychological Medicine.
Congratulations to Talha Alvi!
Another belated congrats to the SCN Lab’s Talha Alvi for successfully matching for his clinical internship! We have no doubt that you will have an excellent year helping many people—and the folks in Denver will no doubt be thrilled to have you on their team.
Congratulations to Cici Sunahara!
A belated congrats to the SCN Lab’s Cici Sunahara for defending her Master’s Thesis examining the link between lab-based plasma oxytocin reactivity and support seeking after stress in daily life. Cici’s paper has already been submitted for publication—we think it’s going to be really important for the field.
Congratulations to Talha Alvi!
Congratulations to the SCN Lab’s Talha Alvi for successfully proposing his Dissertation! Talha will be examining the connection between social anxiety and social cognition through the use of a newer, well-validated task, an then connecting the lab-based measures with daily interpersonal functioning. We’re really looking forward to seeing the results!
Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholarship Awarded to Hannah Sheard and Thatcher Dunlap!
Congratulations to the SCN Lab's Hannah Sheard and Thatcher Dunlap who were awarded Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic year! Both Hannah and Thatcher will be looking at data from our “Thinking About People” study that includes a large battery of tasks assessing different aspects of social cognition.
Congratulations to Cici Sunahara!
Congratulations to the SCN Lab’s Cici Sunahara for successfully proposing her Master’s Thesis! Cici will be examining data from our recent study measuring endogenous oxytocin. We are very excited to see how the analyses turn out!
Congratulations to Talha Alvi!
Congratulations to the SCN Lab’s senior graduate student Talha Alvi who recently completed his qualifying exam and advanced to candidacy. Talha’s systematic review paper examines the relation between social anxiety and behavioral assessments of social cognition. This will be a very helpful addition to the literature given so many mixed findings.
Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholarship Awarded to Thatcher Dunlap!
Another late post—but we wanted to congratulate the SCN Lab's Thatcher Dunlap who was awarded a Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholarship for the Summer 2021. Thatcher used the award to examine data from our study, Thinking About People, which focuses on several different types of social cognitive processes.
Savannah Ostner wins Outstanding Presentation Award!
Congratulations to the SCN Lab’s Savannah Ostner who won the Outstanding Presentation Award at the Heart of Texas Undergraduate Research Conference! Savannah presented preliminary data from her ongoing project distinguishing the ways in which traits related to autism and social anxiety symptoms are associated with mentalizing. Great work Savannah!