Emotion Regulation Interest Group

We are interested in using cutting-edge neuroscience tools to examining role of the paraventricular nucleus of thalamus (PVT) in emotional regulation of sleep in rodent models.

My research utilizes human neuroimaging, high density EEG, computational methods, and mechanistic clinical trials to examine the role of sleep physiology in the development, maintenance, and treatment of psychopathology, particularly depression, across the lifespan. My current NIMH and NIDA funded studies examine emotion regulation brain function as a mechanistic target through which sleep disruption may contribute to negative affective symptoms including depression and anxiety. Specifically, these studies aim to determine to what degree that emotion regulation brain function is modified by the restoration of sleep and whether the degree to which a sleep intervention engages these neural targets mediates subsequent improvements in affective symptoms.

The Giardino Laboratory seeks to identify the neural mechanisms underlying interactions between psychiatric conditions of stress, addiction, and sleep disruptions. Working in animal behavioral models, we use advanced neurotechnologies to map, monitor, and manipulate circuits of the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BNST), an emotional processing center within the extended amygdala. Focusing on modulatory neuropeptide systems, our work aims to inform new therapeutic approaches for enhancing mental health through managing states of emotional hyperarousal.

The interplay between pathways for circadian system, emotion regulation, and sleep. Bidirectional effects of circadian rhythmicity disruption and emotion dysregulation. Nocturnal versus diurnal emotion regulation and differences among different sleep stages.

Maia ten Brink is a graduate student in Psychology who studies the interplay of emotions, emotion regulation, and sleep as nested, dynamic processes unfolding at different timescales. She uses multiple methods -- self-report, ecological momentary assessments, polysomnography, actigraphy, psychophysiology, natural language analysis, and virtual reality -- to understand associations between sleep and affective processes at different levels of granularity in adults and adolescents. She has ongoing projects related to the temporal dynamics of sleep and mood; beliefs and mindsets surrounding sleep; subjective experiences of sleep and fatigue; the moderating role of affect regulation in sleep-emotion links; and brain and physiological mechanisms impacting overnight changes in emotion.

Sylvia Kreibig, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology with a focus on Affective Sciences from the University of Geneva, Switzerland under the direction of Drs. Klaus Scherer and Guido Gendolla and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. James Gross. The overarching aim of her research is to better understand how emotions impact mental, physical, and sleep health and how emotion regulation can be used to improve our health and well-being. Core facets of her research address the role of appraisals in generating and differentiating emotions and the use of cognitive reappraisal for regulating emotions. Sylvia uses psychophysiological and neuroimaging methods in her research. Most recently, Sylvia has been exploring the link between processes taking place during wake and while asleep to better understand the potential role of emotion regulation impairments in sleep disorders.

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Psychology. I study (1) the nature and continuity of emotional experiences across different states of consciousness—from wakefulness to mind-wandering (or daydreaming) to sleep and dreaming; (2) the emotion regulation function of sleep and dreaming; (3) how emotional experiences during sleep and dreaming are associated with waking well-being; and, more recently, (4) how similar (or different) dream experiences are to other experiences occurring during non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as during the psychedelic state or meditation. In my research I use a variety of different methods--self-reports (questionnaires, diaries, experience sampling), natural language analysis, behavioral tasks, EEG/ERP, polysomnography--and strive to integrate the fields of sleep and dream research, emotion research, well-being research, and consciousness research.

I study sleep in posttraumatic stress disorder. Most people with PTSD experience dyssomnia and nightmares, and some experience problems with emotion regulation, so they represent an interesting test case in this domain.