Marie Banich, PhD
University of Colorado
Marie Banich, Ph.D., is a professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science and the Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she serves as the Executive Director of the Intermountain Neuroimaging Consortium, the university’s neuroimaging center. Her research specializes in using brain imaging techniques to understand the neural systems underlying cognitive and emotional processes in neurologically typical individuals as well as in individuals with traits related to psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use) and those with developmental challenges (learning difficulties, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder).
Associations of brain morphology in youth with individual differences in emotional processing and experience related to internalizing psychopathology
This talk will briefly present four investigations from our laboratory examining the relationship between aspects of brain morphology and individual differences in emotional processing and experiences in a sample of approximately 100 youth and emerging adults. The first identified morphological characteristics associated with symptoms common to internalizing disorders, and also with symptoms specific to each of a) low positive aspect, b) anxious arousal (i.e., panic), and c) anxious apprehension (i.e., worry), many of which vary substantially by sex (Smolker et al,. 2022). Then independent of these relationships, the second identified aspects of brain morphology associated with intolerance of uncertainty, a cognitive characteristic commonly associated with internalizing disorders (Carlson, in preparation). The third examined associations of the frequency of life stressors with brain morphology, which revealed major sex differences (Fassett-Carman et al. 2022a). Then after accounting for stressor experience, the fourth examined the degree to which perceived control over those stressors is associated with brain morphology (Fassett-Carman et al. 2022b).