I am interested in how stress, loneliness and social isolation affect the brain and mind, especially during adolescence. My PhD research in Psychology at University of Vienna (supervised by Claus Lamm) focused on the effects of acute stress on social cognition and the underlying brain processes. I then completed 3 years of postdoctoral training in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT (working with Rebecca Saxe) investigating how deprivation of social needs affects the human brain. In 2020, I was awarded a Henslow Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge (working with Sarah-Jayne Blakemore) during which I aim to identify brain markers predicting vulnerability to the effects of isolation and loneliness in adolescents and young adults. I am also interested in investigating whether and how social media can fulfill social needs.
