Our beloved Carina is leaving us to go on to experience the grad-school life! To celebrate, we went to Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery. She will be attending Duke University this fall, specializing in clinical psychology. We will see you later, Dr. Fowler! You are forever a part of the DSNLab family!

Ayaon Yadav, a rising senior who attends Enloe High School in Raleigh, NC, is our new summer intern! Through Enloe Medical Bio-Science Academy (MBSA), an organization within Enloe High School that focuses on student career development, she will be spending the next nine weeks in our lab learning more about research and data entry; how to be independent; organizational skills; and becoming familiar with the research we do at the DSNLab. Welcome, Ayaon!

Graduate student Ethan McCormick joined the Brain and Development Research Center in Leiden, the Netherlands this summer to collaborate on his dissertation project with Drs. Eveline Crone and Sabine Peters. Ethans’ dissertation focuses on disentangling changes to neural systems that arise from experience and learning from those driven by changes in biological maturation.

Graduate student Michael Perino presented his poster “Trick or treat: Neural sensitivity to social risk in adolescents with severe conduct problems” at the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society 2018 Annual Meeting in Brooklyn.

Members of the DSNLab recently presented on exciting new research projects at the Society for Research on Adolescence biennial meeting in Minneapolis, MN. Below you will find a sampling of the posters and talks presented by our researchers.

Symposia

Do, K.T., Guassi Moreira, J.F., van Hoorn, J., & Telzer, E.H. Taking risks to help others: An experimental study of “prosocial risk taking” in late adolescents.

Rogers, C. R., McCormick, E., Van Hoorn, J., & Telzer, E. H. Siblings and the teenage brain: Sibling closeness and birth order modulate adolescent neural activity during safe decision-making.

van Hoorn, J., McCormick, E., Rogers, C.R., Perino, M., & Telzer, E.H. Risk-taking behavior and peer effects in high-risk youth: A developmental neuroscience perspective.

Posters

Do, K.T., McCormick, E.M., & Telzer, E.H. Is blood thicker than water? How conflicting parent and peer attitudes influence the neural correlates of adolescent conformity.

Rogers, C. R., Perino, M., & Telzer, E. H. And again, mothers know best: Promoting adolescent inhibition in socially positive contexts.

On April 14, over 10,000 visitors packed Cameron Ave for the 2018 UNC Science Expo. The DSNLab booth was a big hit for the second year in a row. Visitors of all ages learned about the regions of the brain in our brain toss, raced to see who could build a brain the fastest, and played some of the games that we use in our MRI scans. Between the interesting science and the beautiful weather, we couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Learn more about the UNC Science Expo here and here. Maybe we’ll see you next year!

We are very excited to announce that three of our undergraduate research assistants have recently presented on their independent research projects!

Cassidy Fry traveled to The University of Central Oklahoma to present her research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. In her project, Cassidy investigated the role of sibling support as a buffer between family conflict and internalizing symptoms in adolescents. She has been working on this research as a part of the Carolina Sibling Study with her mentor, Dr. Christy Rogers, for over a year.

Additionally, two of our undergrad RAs presented at the UNC Celebration of Undergraduate Research. They both started these projects during the summer of 2017, and refined their ideas as a part of the 395 research course at UNC.

Melissa Burroughs investigated the relationship between daily peer exclusion, school functioning, and cortisol patterns in adolescents. Melissa was mentored on this project by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Jorien van Hoorn.

Charlie Wright examined the role of intimate self-disclosure as a central aspect of adolescent well-being. Graduate student Paul Sharp mentored Charlie as he has worked on this project.

We are very proud of our undergraduate RAs for exploring their own research questions in the lab. Way to go Cassidy, Charlie, and Melissa!

We are very excited to announce that Michael Perino has passed his dissertation defense! Michael’s dissertation is titled “A social neuroscience approach to understanding adolescent delinquency.” Huge congratulations to Michael! We all look forward to seeing the amazing work that you’ll do as Dr. Perino.

Graduate student Michael Perino presented at the 2017 Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium in Pittsburgh, PA. This year’s theme was Development of the Emotional Brain in Social Context: Implications for Affective Psychopathology. Congratulations Michael!

Perino, M.T., Moreira, J.F.G., & Telzer, E.H. These violent delights have violent ends. Neural correlates of aggression selectivity in delinquent youth based on differential motivations.

Neeltje Blankenstein joined the DSNLab as a visiting scholar for a few weeks this fall.  Neeltje is currently pursuing her PhD in developmental and educational psychology at Leiden University. During her time in North Carolina, Neeltje presented her newest work and findings to the DSNLab, and spoke at Duke University.