“Applying novel and traditional lesion methods to investigate self-related thought”

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Background: Dr. Philippi earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Iowa in 2011. She then completed a four-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she conducted neuroimaging (i.e., resting-state fMRI) and behavioral studies on self-related thought in brain injured patients, psychiatric patient populations, and psychopathic prison inmates.

Broadly, her research aims to understand the brain circuits underlying self-related processes, in both the healthy and dysfunctional brain (e.g., psychiatric illness). Self-related processing is essential for normal social and emotional functioning. For example, self-reflection helps individuals to generate social emotions (e.g., guilt) necessary for upholding social norms and forming social relationships. By contrast, a number of psychiatric and neurological conditions are associated with alterations in self-processing (i.e., excessive rumination in depression or diminished self-reflection in patients with medial prefrontal cortex damage) that can have detrimental consequences for our overall well-being.

Dr. Philippi’s research involves fMRI, psychophysiology, and a variety of behavioral paradigms to study different types of self-related processing—such as self-reflection and self-agency—with healthy subjects and psychiatric patient populations. Specifically, her current research interests include the following:

• Examining dimensional relationships among self-related processing, psychopathology, and resting-state brain activity
• Developing and validating performance-based assessments of self-related processing in healthy populations
• Using self-related processing tasks to predict treatment response in psychiatric patient populations

Neuroimaging and Informatics Analysis Center (NIAC) seminars 

For inquiries contact Cathy Gezella.