College of Arts and Sciences

Education:

• PhD, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Temple University, 2005
• BA, Psychology, Panteion University of Athens, 2000

Research Interests:

• Cognitive control
• Creativity
• Semantic memory
• Cognitive and affective regulation
• Design cognition
• Cognitive flexibility
• Noninvasive brain stimulation
• Functional neuroimaging

Bio:

Dr. Chrysikou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Drexel University, the Director of the Applied Cognitive and Brain Sciences PhD Program, and the Associate Dean for Research for the College of Arts and Sciences. She is also a co-leader of the new B.S. Neuroscience major at Drexel. She holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from Temple University, where she also completed a year-long postdoctoral appointment in cognitive neuropsychology, followed by postdoctoral training at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Drexel, Dr. Chrysikou was an Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Chrysikou uses cognitive neuroscience methods, especially functional brain imaging (fMRI) and noninvasive electric brain stimulation (tECS), to study cognitive flexibility and creative thinking and problem solving (particularly in design), as well as the implications of such flexibility for theories of creativity, semantic knowledge organization, and cognitive control. Her lab further explores the translational implications of cognitive flexibility for the characterization of neuropsychiatric disorders marked by prefrontal cortex hypofunction, such as depression and anxiety.

Dr. Chrysikou has authored over 60 articles and book chapters, as well as multiple conference presentations on semantic memory, cognitive control, and the neuroscience of creativity and problem solving. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and others. She is an Associate Editor for Creativity Research Journal, Psychology of Aesthetics Creativity and the Arts, and Royal Society Open Science, and a member of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Association for Psychological Science conference committees. Dr. Chrysikou has received many distinctions for her research and teaching, including multiple teaching awards and the McNair Scholars Program Outstanding Mentor Award. She has also served as the President for the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity from 2022-2024.

Selected Publications:

_{†Indicates publications or presentations with graduate students and postdocs; ††indicates publications or presentations with undergraduate students;}

• Chrysikou, E. G., Wintering, N. A., Hriso, C., Shahrampour, S., Wong, E., †Yaden, D. B., Kaufman, S. B., Alizedah, M., Mohamed, F., & Newberg. (2023). Differences in functional connectivity between eminent and non-eminent thinkers. Creativity Research Journal, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2023.2200617
• Chrysikou, E. G., ††Morrow, H. M., ††Flohrschultz, A., & ††Denney, L. (2021). Augmenting ideational fluency in a creativity task across multiple transcranial direct current stimulation montages. Scientific Reports, 11, 8874, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85804-3
• Chrysikou, E. G., †Wing, E. K., & †van Dam, W. O. (2022). Transcranial direct current stimulation over prefrontal cortex in depression modulates cortical excitability in emotion regulation regions as measured by concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging: An exploratory study. Biological Psychiatry: CCNI, 7, 85-94 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2019.12.004
• †van Dam, W. O. & Chrysikou, E. G. (2021). Effects of unilateral tDCS over left prefrontal cortex on emotion regulation in depression: Evidence from concurrent functional magnetic resonance imaging. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 21, 14-34 PMID: 33432545 https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00830-4
• Chrysikou, E. G., & Gero, J. S. (2020). Using neuroscience techniques to understand and improve design cognition. AIMS: Neuroscience, 7(3): 319–326. https://doi.org/10.3934/Neuroscience.2020018
• Chrysikou, E. G., ††Jacial, C., †Yaden, D. B., Kaufman, S. B., Wintering, N. A., Jung, R. E., & Newberg. (2020). Differences in. brain activity patterns during creative idea generation differ between eminent and non-eminent thinkers. NeuroImage, 220, 117011, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117011
• Chrysikou, E. G., Wertz, C., †Yaden, D. B., Kaufman, S. B., Bacon, D., Wintering, N. A., Jung, R. E., & Newberg, A. (2020). Differences in brain morphometry predict creative performance in eminent and non-eminent thinkers. NeuroImage, 218, 116921, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116921
• Chrysikou, E. G. (2019). Creativity in and out of (cognitive) control. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 27, 94-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.09.014
• Chrysikou, E. G., Casasanto, D., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2017). Motor experience influences object knowledge. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(3), 395–408. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000269
• ††Hanson, G. K, & Chrysikou, E. G. (2017). Attention to distinct goal-relevant features differentially guides semantic knowledge retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 1178-1193. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01121
• Chrysikou, E. G., ††Gorey, C., & Aupperle, R. L., (2017). Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alters decision making during approach-avoidance conflict. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, 12(3), 468-475 https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsw140
• Chrysikou, E. G., ††Motyka, K., ††Nigro, C., ††Yang, S., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2016). Functional fixedness for object use in open-ended tasks depends on stimulus modality. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10, 425-435. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000050
• Chrysikou, E. G., Weber, M., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2014). A matched filter hypothesis for cognitive control. Neuropsychologia, 62, 341-355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2013.10.021
• Chrysikou, E. G., Hamilton, R. H., Coslett, H. B., Datta, A., Bikson, M., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2013). Non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation over the left prefrontal cortex facilitates cognitive flexibility in tool use. Cognitive Neuroscience, 4, 81-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/17588928.2013.768221
• Chrysikou, E. G., Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2011). Dissociable brains states linked to common and creative object use. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 665-675. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21056
• Chrysikou, E. G. (2006). When shoes become hammers: Goal-derived categorization training enhances problem solving performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 32, 935-942. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.32.4.935
• Chrysikou, E. G., & Weisberg, R. W. (2005). Following the wrong footsteps: Fixation effects of pictorial examples in a design problem-solving task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 31, 1134-1148. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.31.5.1134