Our Projects
Get to know our research and current studies.
The cognition and perception experiment (CAPE)
The Cognition And Perception Experiment (CAPE), funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), aims to understand the relationship between brain activity, behavior, personality traits, and subjective experiences of the world. This project tests whether serum per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are linked to human reward processing deficits. We aim to identify correlations between serum PFAS, self-reported anhedonia severity, and interview-rated anhedonia severity; test for clinical specificity by examining correlations with broader symptoms of depression, mania, and psychosis; and identify correlations between serum PFAS and neurophysiological measures of reward sensitivity, which may represent intermediate phenotypes with disease relevance. We expect this project to have a significant impact on the understating of environment influences of neuropsychiatric diseases.
Culturally Adapting Remote EEG to Expand Research Generalizability (CREER)
Los investigadores de Purdue están buscando personas para participar en un estudio que busca (1) entender más sobre la salud mental de nuestra comunidad a través de encuestas y la actividad cerebral utilizando el sistema de electroencefalografía (EEG) (2) incrementar la oportunidad de participar en estudios que puedan contribuir al desarrollo de futuros tratamientos de salud mental para ayudar a mejorar la salud de nuestra comunidad. Las actividades del estudio incluyen completar (a) encuestas en línea, (b) grabar actividad cerebral utilizando el sistema de EEG, y (c) participar en una entrevista sobre su experiencia en este estudio (aproximadamente 3 horas en total). Las personas recibirán una compensación de $20 por hora por participar.
Si está interesado en obtener más información sobre este estudio, por favor vea el folleto para obtener más información o contáctenos en creer@purdue.edu o llamando al (765) 496-7219. ¡Gracias!
Laboratorio de Pacer | Dr. Dan Foti (foti@purdue.edu) | Purdue IRB-2024-1636
Ciencias Psicológicas | 703 3rd Street West Lafayette, IN, 47907
Past Projects:
The Infant Development Study
The Infant Development Study, led by Dr. Bridgette Kelleher of the Neurodevelopmental Family Lab here at Purdue, aims to understand how children develop from infancy to preschool. We are currently recruiting infants from the greater Lafayette community ages 10-13 months (corrected age, if born preterm) to participate in a series of assessment activities here at Purdue. We are particularly interested to learn how factors such as family, life experiences, and medical conditions (e.g. preterm birth, genetic disorders) might contribute to development. Our participants bring to the study a variety of unique abilities, experiences, and needs. We love watching them grow each year!
Depression Risk in Close Relationships
Dr. Foti and colleagues have received a $20,000 grant from the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute to conduct a new study on depression vulnerability in close relationships. This project, "Social context and neural markers of vulnerability to depression," examines how symptoms of depression affect the quality of family relationships, and vice versa. Of interest is testing how novel measures of brain activity involved in emotional reactivity may uniquely predict who is at the highest risk for depression in those family contexts. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Susan South of the Purdue Psychological Sciences Department.
BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR STUDY (BABS)
We conducted a natural history study to learn about brain activity and behavior in females living with the FMR1 premutation. The FMR1 premutation is known to cause an array of health concerns, including early menopause, increased risk for mood and anxiety disorders, and a tremor/ataxia syndrome in older age. As depression researchers, we are trying to understand what physiological processes are responsible for the drastically elevated incidence of depression among women with the FMR1 premutation. Participants were comprehensively phenotyped using EEG (to examine psychophysiological processes known to confer risk for depression in the general population), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (to directly quantify neurotransmitter concentrations in the brain), cognitive and neuropsychological testing, clinical interviews, and surveys. Further, participants completed a blood draw which we genotype for a number of factors related to the FMR1 premutation. We hope that the long-term impact of this research will be to improve treatment outcomes for those with depression.
See our findings
We disseminate our findings in multiple forms, including manuscripts and presentations. See our work below.