Mather, Mara
Professor of Gerontology, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering
The autonomic nervous system plays an underappreciated role in age-related change in the brain and cognition. But the sympathetic hub region in the brain (the locus coeruleus) is one of the first brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease pathology and deep sleep, a period of high parasympathetic activity, is critical for clearing out the potentially toxic proteins generated by the brain’s activity during the day (it is the aggregation of such proteins that leads to the hallmark plaques and tangles seen in Alzheimer’s disease). Our research is investigating how both sympathetic and parasympathetic function affect brain function and cognition in aging and how interventions that increase parasympathetic activity may enhance brain function in older adults.
McKemy, David
Professor of Biological Sciences
The McKemy laboratory studies the neurobiological basis of pain, focusing on general somatic sensations of pain, painful neuropathies associated with chronic injury and disease, and the mechanisms that lead to migraine headaches. The lab is also interested in how the microbiome alters general physiological functions that can lead to pain and other disorders.
Monterosso, John
Associate Professor of Psychology
Our lab is primarily focused on decision-making, especially in the context of addiction and obesity. We use self-report, behavior, and fMRI. Our lab is currently (through 2028) participating in USC’s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (supported by NIH & FDA).
Nastase, Samuel
Assistant Professor of Psychology
The core questions driving my research are “What is shared between individual brains?” and “How do we share our thoughts with one another?”—using language and other coordinated actions. My research combines naturalistic neuroimaging paradigms (fMRI, ECoG) and deep neural networks to better answer these questions in real-world contexts. In current work, we leverage large language models to better understand how humans use language to transmit complex thoughts from one brain to another.
Oghalai, John
Our research is designed to better understand the fundamental changes in the inner ear that underlie progressive hearing loss and to develop novel techniques to treat this problem before it leads to a severe disability. We strive to understand the biological mechanisms of hearing loss and then translate this knowledge to directly and rapidly improve the care of patients with hearing loss.
Page, Katie
Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics
The Brain Regulation of Appetite, Nutrition, Cognition, & Health (BRANCH) Lab has two major research programs: (i) Neuroendocrine regulation of appetite & glucose homeostasis (ii) Maternal-fetal programming of metabolism. Our translational research program addresses questions from a broad perspective by combining a number of disciplines (neuroscience, physiology, nutrition, psychology) and novel techniques to understand neural mechanisms of metabolic diseases.
