• Obesity prevention and treatment
• Physical activity promotion
• Lifestyle modification
• Behavioral therapy
• Cancer prevention

• Cognitive neuroscience
• Neural bases of memory, language, and executive functions
• Neurocognitive processes associated with problem solving and flexible thought
• Functional neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation in healthy and psychiatric populations (mood and anxiety disorders)
• Translational neuroscience
• Neuropsychology

How does my research make a difference?

How do we use what we know to solve problems or come up with creative ideas? What does it mean to think flexibly and be able to focus on different kinds of information depending on our goals? Cognitive flexibility and creative thinking are the cornerstones of the type of complex mental operations that make us, humans, unique relative to all other species. My lab uses cognitive neuroscience techniques, such as brain imaging and noninvasive brain stimulation, to understand the neural mechanisms enabling this type of flexible thought. The impact of our findings is threefold.

• Education: Our results demonstrate that cognitive flexibility is not a special, innate quality for the lucky few, but rather, it relies on common cognitive processes that can be altered and developed by experience.
• Discovery: Training people to be more creative and flexible is not only possible, but it can increase the kinds of discoveries that can advance our civilization.
• Treatment: Understanding the brain mechanisms that support flexible thinking can help treat inflexibility, a hallmark of most neurological and psychiatric disorders, like dementia and depression.

• School mental health
• Mental health promotion
• Socioemotional learning (SEL)
• Evidence-based practice
• Trauma
• Risk and resilience
• Child and adolescent intervention

• Psychopathy
• Forensic Psychology
• Forensic mental health assessment
• Testing in forensic assessment contexts
• Drug policy research

How We Make a Difference:

The DeMatteo Lab focuses on conducting social science research that can be used to inform practice and policy in the criminal justice system, particularly as those practices and policies relate to offenders with substance use and/or mental health problems. By examining juror and judicial decisions in criminal justice contexts, evaluating the effectiveness of novel criminal justice interventions, and studying how courts use social science evidence, the DeMatteo Lab is contributing to the continued development of the criminal justice system. Through collaborations with a number of criminal justice entities, our work is designed to promote the consideration of social science research by courts, legislatures and policymakers.

• NeuroHIV
• Aging and neurodegenerative disease
• Cognitive health disparities
• Diagnosis and prognosis
• Cognitive heterogeneity
• Structural equation modeling
• Everyday functioning

• Health behavior change, obesity, weight loss
• Technological innovations to promote health behavior change
• Innovations in cognitive-behavioral treatments
• The development and evaluation of acceptance-based interventions for health behavior change
• Neurocognition of eating

• Clinical and health psychology
• Stressful life events and mental and physical health outcomes particularly in the area of women's reproductive health

• Juvenile justice system reform
• Using social science research to improve juvenile justice policy and practice
• Addressing inequality and promoting equity in the justice system
• Psychology, criminal justice, and law
• Forensic psychology

• Enhancing treatment outcomes for eating disorders and obesity
• Acceptance-based behavioral treatments
• Evaluating mechanisms of action in behavioral treatments
  
  

How We Make a Difference: Public/Civic Impact

Eating disorders are considered critical public health issues and are associated with significant negative physical and psychosocial consequences. According to a recent study using a nationally-representative sample, as many as 3.7 million Americans will have a lifetime bulimia or binge eating disorder diagnosis and as many as 42.2 million Americans will experience clinically-significant binge eating. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), including an enhanced transdiagnostic version, is the current frontline treatment approach for binge eating. However, although CBT can be an effective treatment for many individuals, recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found that 40-50% of patients with binge eating disorder and nearly 70% of patients with bulimia remain symptomatic after a full course of CBT.

Juarascio’s work focuses on identifying new and more effective treatment approaches for eating disorders. In particular, her work focuses on the identification of factors that maintain eating pathology (e.g. impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, altered reward responsivity) that are inadequately targeted in existing treatment approaches and the development of novel treatment approaches that can better target these maintenance factors.

The main focus of my research is the neural basis of creativity, insight, and problem solving. I specialize in high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) recording of brain activity and, through collaborations, also use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Other research interests include cognitive enhancement and neuromarketing.

• Brain networks
• Mental health
• Spontaneous thought
• Attention
• Experience sampling
• fMRI
• Intracranial EEG

Clinical utility of food addiction as a unique phenotype of disordered eating, the addictive potentials of ultra-processed foods, overlapping mechanisms implicated in substance-use disorders and eating and weight disorders, assessment of addictive-like eating behaviors, treatment development for eating and weight disorders

• Novel treatments for adolescents and adults with eating disorders
• Momentary drivers of binge eating
• Self-regulation
• Ecological momentary assessment

John Medaglia, PhD, applies models and methods developed in neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and network science to optimize brain function. His research group studies control and the human brain – how people control themselves and how control theory can guide noninvasive brain interventions. The laboratory uses network-based approaches in diverse data modalities including neuroimaging (MRI, fNIRS, EEG), brain stimulation (TMS, tDCS), and behavioral assessment (neuropsychology, cognitive psychology) to meet these goals. Lab members additionally study public perceptions and moral attitudes toward cognitive optimization.

Impact in Science and Society

Medaglia and members of the Cognitive Neuroengineering and Wellbeing Laboratory (CogNeW) use neuroscience and psychology in individuals to promote wellbeing and improve treatments with brain stimulation. They use advanced network analysis and brain stimulation to study and improve self-control in health and disorders like dementia, ADHD, and stroke. In addition, CogNeW laboratory studies how the public and professionals view cognitive enhancement – improving the mind – with education and technology.

While new techniques are exciting, it’s important to understand the ethical and moral context of enhancing individuals. The public contributes funding and votes to what is preferable to research and use at home, in clinics, and in classrooms, but we know little about how their beliefs guide their actions. Medaglia and his team study what people think is right and wrong to do to help shape public policy and educate people about the stakes and possibilities in human enhancement. Medaglia also works closely with students to run a “Power and Privilege in Professional Psychology” series to improve equity in the field.

I am interested in the use of innovative technologies for meeting the clinical needs of individual with neurological compromise. Much of our work is focused on using virtual reality simulation, neuropsychological measures and portable imaging systems (i.e., fNIRS). I work with cognitively impaired populations—traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke, dementia—in order to understand the effects of neurological involvement on functions, such as driving, returning to work and everyday activities of living. Our work intersects psychology, biomedical engineering, transportation, and rehabilitation medicine.

• Multimodal Neuroimaging
• Data Mining
• Data Integration
• Mobile Health
• Wearable Computing

Obesity prevention and treatment; Physical activity promotion; Lifestyle modification; Behavioral therapy; Cancer prevention

School mental health; Mental health promotion; Socioemotional learning (SEL); Evidence-based practice; Trauma; Risk and resilience; Child and adolescent intervention

Psychopathy, forensic psychology, forensic mental health assessment, testing in forensic assessment contexts, and drug policy research

Health behavior change, obesity, weight loss; Technological innovations to promote health behavior change; Innovations in cognitive-behavioral treatments; The development and evaluation of acceptance-based interventions for health behavior change; Neurocognition of eating

Clinical and health psychology; Stressful life events and mental and physical health outcomes particularly in the area of women's reproductive health

Juvenile justice system reform; using social science research to improve juvenile justice policy and practice; addressing inequality and promoting equity in the justice system; psychology, criminal justice, and law; forensic psychology

Forensic mental health assessment; Violence risk assessment; Risk management

Treatment development and Evaluation for Eating Disorders, Acceptance-based Behavioral Treatments, Using Technology to Augment Behavioral Treatment Approaches

Cognitive psychology/cognitive neuroscience, focusing on human memory, problem solving, intelligence, and creativity; Specialization in electrophysiological methods (EEG, ERP), and other behavioral and neuroimaging methods (e.g., fMRI)

Neuropsychological and neuroanatomic correlates of intellectual and developmental disabilities; Language, reading, and executive function in Down syndrome and other genetic disorders; Comorbid autism spectrum disorder symptoms in youth with genetic disorders; Neuroanatomic correlates of individual differences in typical and atypical cognition

Restrained eating; dieting; obesity; eating disorders; weight suppression; set point; hedonic hunger

Emotion-centered Problem-Solving Therapy (PST) for mood, personality, stress-related disorders; EC-PST as an evidence-based, trans-diagnostic intervention across many clinical problem areas and populations including Veterans/US Service Members, and their families; cinical case formulation; integrative psychotherapy approaches; emotionally-focused interventions and CBT; Departmental concentration areas of cognitive behavioral and clinical health psychology

Social problem solving as a moderator/mediator of stress and psychopathology; applications of Emotion-Centered Problem-Solving Therapy; treatment and prevention of depression; treatment and prevention of suicide; behavioral health of U.S. military veterans

Neurorehabilitation; Application of technology to psychology; Virtual reality technology; Driving capacity after neurological compromise; Rehabilitation of functional, everyday activities

Multimodal Neuroimaging; Data Mining; Data Integration; Mobile Health; Wearable Computing