Joseph Laboratory

Our lab studies the neural basis of cognitive and affective behavior in typical and atypical development and, more recently, in neurodegeneration. We use fMRI to examine brain activation and connectivity across a wide spectrum of behaviors. A primary focus of the lab has been on the development of functional brain organization for face processing in both typically developing children and individuals with autism. We also have projects on personality risk for drug use in adolescents. I also work closely with collaborators from Psychiatry to study the impact of stress on functional brain organization in individuals with substance dependence. We have recently employed advanced approaches to characterize network topology and communication (graph-theory) and have been applying these analyses to the majority of our projects.