Dylan Gee, PhD
Yale University
Dr. Dylan Gee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where she directs the Clinical Affective Neuroscience and Development Laboratory. Dr. Gee received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from UCLA, and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her lab’s research focuses on neurodevelopmental mechanisms of early adversity and risk for psychopathology in childhood and adolescence, with a translational focus to inform interventions. She currently leads NIH- and NSF-funded research on child and adolescent brain and behavioral development, and serves as a principal investigator at the Yale site of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Dr. Gee’s work has received broad recognition, including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association of Psychological Science, and the American Psychological Association’s Early Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Children, Youth, and Families.
Early Experiences and Affective Neurodevelopment: Implications for Youth Anxiety Treatment
The majority of mental health disorders emerge during the course of development. While evidence-based treatments can be highly effective for youth with anxiety disorders, a substantial proportion of youth do not benefit sufficiently from existing treatments. Delineating how affective brain and behavioral development unfold can inform interventions that are tailored toward specific developmental stages. Corticolimbic circuitry, which supports emotional learning and regulation, is sensitive to stress and undergoes dynamic changes throughout childhood and adolescence. In this talk, I will 1) highlight developmental and stress-related changes in corticolimbic circuitry, 2) describe recent efforts in my lab to begin to translate this knowledge to optimize treatments for youth with anxiety disorders, and 3) discuss core challenges and lessons learned in the realm of clinically translating developmental affective neuroscience.