Reinforcement learning (or not) in substance use and depression
Recently I’m working on a few projects focusing on how reinforcement learning is achieved through the time course of an experimental session, especially, how the reward-sensitive event-related potentials (ERPs) can be backpropagated from the feedback presentation to cue presentation. Through this phenomenon observed in healthy individuals, I’m interested in learning whether people with depression and substance show altered learning behavior. The projects also involve using close-loop TMS to investigate whether phase-specific brain stimulation can influence learning behavior.
Reward processing in people with high family risk for depression
My project was a part of a 3-generation longitudinal study. My mentor Dr. Jürgen Kayser and I examined how the 2nd and 3rd generation in this study respond to monetary reward using EEG. We found that we tend to be more responsive to the negative than positive reward but this effect was not seen to be significantly different in people at high risk for depression or who have had depression. This project has been accepted by the journal Psychophysiology.