Research

Does stress bring us together, or does it drive us apart ?

I am investigating how stress, and its related biomarkers, influences our self-perceptions and how we interact with our social environment. To this end, I study the effects of stress on processes such as empathy, mentalizing, and prosocial helping behaviors. In addition, I am also studying how hormones like testosterone and oxytocin impact our ability to foster and maintain social relationships.

To understand these effects, I draw on various psychological disciplines - such as biological, social, and cognitive psychology.

In a second line of research, I study the effects of acute psychosocial stress on cognition. I am particularly interested in understanding how stress impacts cognitive process such as memory updating, separation of information, and autobiographical memories. To investigate these mechanisms, I collaborate with Dr. Signy Sheldon.

I am currently affiliated with the McGill Lab for Affiliation and Prosociality, the Pruessner Stress Lab, and the Sheldon Memory Lab.

Publications

(2019). Lower Digit-Ratio and Higher Endogenous Testosterone Are Associated with Lower Empathic Accuracy. In Hormones and Behavior (in press).

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(2019). An Affect in its Own Right: Investigating the Relationship of Social Safeness with Positive and Negative Affect. In Personality and Individual Differences (in press).

(2019). Oxytocin Selectively Improves Empathic Accuracy: A Replication in Men and Novel Insights in Women. In Biological Psychiatry: CNNI (in press).

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(2019). Post-learning Stress Reduces the Misinformation Effect: Effects of Psychosocial Stress on Memory Updating. In PNEC.

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(2018). Oxytocin and Human Sociality: An Interactionist Perspective on the 'Hormone of Love'. In Schultheiss, O.C. & Mehta, P.H. (Eds.), Routledge, International Handbook of Social Neuroendocrinology. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

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(2018). The dynamic interplay between acute psychosocial stress, emotion and autobiographical memory. In Scientific Reports.

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(2017). Suppressing the endocrine and autonomic stress systems does not impact the emotional stress experience after psychosocial stress. In PNEC.

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Manuscripts: under review & in prep

(2019). The Effects of Acute Psychosocial Stress on the Ability to Pattern Separate at Retrieval: Decreased Pattern Separation Abilities in Stressed Individuals. under review.

(2019). When a Smile is Not Enough. Acute Psychosocial Stress Disrupts Affiliative Mimicry. under review.

(2019). Systematic manipulation of the biological stress systems in humans results in sex specific compensatory stress responses and negative mood outcomes. under review.

(2019). The effects of suppressing the biological stress systems on social threat-assessment following acute stress.. submitted.

(2019). The Effects of Acute Stress on Empathic Accuracy. in prep.

Curriculum Vitae

My CV is available here: gDocs.

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