People

Core Faculty

Susan M. Rivera, PhD (University of California, Berkeley) , Professor, Psychology: tel: 530-747-3802 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 245

Dr. Rivera uses classic behavioral as well as neuroimaging (fMRI) techniques to investigate such things as the development of dorsal vs. ventral visual processing, object representation, numerical cognition and affective processing. As a member of the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, she also conducts research contrasting typical development with that of children with neurodevelopmental disorders including Autism and fragile X Syndrome. One of her main research goals is to build a framework for integrating the previously disparate methodological and theoretical orientations of cognitive developmental and neuroscience research. By employing a variety of converging research techniques, she strives to elucidate the complex brain-behavior relationships that underlie cognitive development.

Trainees

Alireza K. Javan, BS (UC Berkeley) , Graduate Student, Rivera Lab: office: Center for Neuroscience

Alireza is a neuroscience graduate student in Rivera Lab. He is interested in the couplings and interactions/modulations of brain regions contributing to formation and dynamics of functional networks. He is currently interested in identification of network patterns for Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Fragile X–associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) using functional connectivity analysis of brain activation patterns as they manifest at rest, as well as during performance of a variety of cognitive tasks using fMRI. Also, using structural MRI, he utilizes manual tracing protocols to establish volumetric characteristics of variety of brain structures in those disorders and to investigate possible correlations between the systematic volumetric differences of particular brain structures and their functional connectivity patterns.

Emily Owen, BA (UC Berkeley); BS (Johns Hopkins University), Graduate Student, Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249

Emily is a psychology graduate student with a background in psychology and pediatric nursing. She is interested in early development of visual attention and attention shifting. She is also interested in HPA axis functioning, specifically, parental stress and sensitivity as it relates to children's own stress reactivity and executive function. Emily plans to use eye-tracking in conjunction with measures of stress physiology to conduct research comparing the development of stress reactivity and attention in typically developing children to that in children diagnosed with Fragile X Syndrome.

Ryan Barry, BS (University of Alabama Birmingham), Graduate Student, Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249

Ryan is a Human Development graduate student. She is interested in social-cognitive and language development in both typical and atypical populations. She plans to use eye tracking and looking time measures to conduct research examining how infants use social information in their environment to direct their learning. She is also receiving training in the Language Learning Lab with Dr. Katie Graf Estes where she is investigating statistical learning in infants.

Emily Sievers, SB (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Graduate Student, Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249

Emily is a graduate student in the Psychology department. Emily is interested in visual processing and attention in individuals with autism. She plans to use eye-tracking measures and fMRI to explore how individuals with autism use social information to modulate visual attention.

Jessica Burris, BS (UC Davis ) , Graduate Student, Rivera Lab: tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249

Jessica is currently in the Neurocognitive Development Lab as a graduate student studying visual processing in children with Fragile X Syndrome, and assisting in gathering and analyzing MRI data related to the same population. Her research interests include early cognitive and neurological development in relation to emotion regulation in clinical populations.

Post Doctoral Scholars

Jun Yi Wang, PhD (University of Texas at Dallas) , Postdoctoral Scholar, Rivera Lab jyi wang

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 248

Jun Yi is a postdoctoral scholar under Susan Rivera and Paul Hagerman. She conducts research to find the links between the gene, brain, and cognitive deficits in Fragile X syndrome. Currently, she performs diffusion tensor tractography to detect structural connectivity abnormalities in Fragile X and studies how these changes relate to gene, brain functioning, and cognitive profile. Her main research goal is to define the genetic and structural basis for human intelligence.

So-Yeon Kim, PhD (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) , Postdoctoral Scholar, Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 255

I received my Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During my Ph.D. program, I investigated neural mechanisms of attention, memory, and cognitive aging using fMRI and ERP techniques. During the postdoctoral training, I am extending my research interests to applications of the MRI techniques to people with neurodevelopmental disorders. Specifically, I am investigating cognitive functions and dysfunctions in children and adults with the fragile X syndrome using fMRI, DTI, and imaging genetics techniques.

Jennifer Pokorny, PhD (Emory University, Atlanta GA) , Postdoctoral Scholar, Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 255

I received my Ph.D. in Psychology with a focus in Neuroscience and Animal Behavior from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Broadly, I am interested in social cognition and behavioral neuroscience within a comparative and evolutionary context. My graduate work focused on social cognition in capuchin monkeys, a new world monkey species native to South America. This research examined face recognition and social categorization, essentially their ability to identify familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics. My postdoctoral training involves using fMRI to examine action understanding, mentalizing, and gesture recognition in typical and clinical populations, namely in children with Autism.

Research Staff

Pamela Gallego, MA (York University) , Assistant Specialist, Rivera Lab pam

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249 keywords: Memory, Attention, Neurocognition

I received an MA in Developmental Cognitive Processes at York University, Canada. I am very interested in early cognitive development in typical and atypical developing infants and young children. Currently, I am the project coordinator for a study that investigates early visual processing and other cognitive functions in infants with Fragile X Syndrome and Down Syndrome. My responsibilities include managing experimental sessions, data collecting and analysis, administering standardized assessment, recruitment of participants and training research assistants. I enjoy being involved in developmental research and having the opportunity to interact directly with children and their families.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

Craig Cook, Rivera Lab

Marquel SeitherMarquel Seither, Rivera Lab

Mercy Huang, Rivera Lab

Lauren Zaffree, Rivera Lab

Patrick Tertulien, Rivera Lab

Lina Baranauskaite, Rivera Lab

Yarin Gomez, Rivera Lab

Natalie Montano, Rivera Lab

Reddy Pathakota, Rivera Lab

Sohyun Ahn, Rivera Lab

Kimberly Gaul, Rivera Lab

Deanna Lim, Subject Pool Coordinator, Rivera Lab

Alumni

Lena Rothstein, BS (UC Davis ) , Jr. Specialist, Rivera Lab: Lena is a junior specialist studying visuospatial processing and cognitive development in children with Fragile X syndrome, Down Syndrome and typically developing children. She is interested in exploring the specific regions and networks of the brain that are affected in young children with neurodevelopmental disorders. In the future, Lena plans to attend medical school to become a pediatric neurologist.

Dolores Garcia Arocena, PhD (University of California, Davis) , Postdoctoral Scholar,Rivera Lab

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 255 dolores cropped

I studied Genetics in Universidad de la Republica Uruguay (UDELAR). After graduating I went to Spain to do a Masters in Biotecnology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where I focused in neurogenetic diseases. I started the first Uruguayan genotype-phenotype program for Fragile X Syndrome and coordinated genetic counseling services at School of Medicine (UDELAR). In 2001 I came to the states where I finished my PhD at University of California Davis focusing on cellular and molecular aspects of the Fragile X Associated Tremor Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS) that affects older subjects carriers of premutations in the FMR1 gene. During my postdoc at Paul Hagerman's Lab (Dept. Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, UC Davis) I studied stress and cytoskeletal proteins in human brain, skin fibroblasts and in cultured human neural cell models of FXTAS. I became interested in proteins that when dysregulated, may accelerate biological aging and predispose to premature cell death. Currently I'm investigating associations between neuroanatomical changes (MRI), neuropsychiatric disorders and biomarkers of aging, in older carriers of FMR1 premutations.

Eric Charles, PhD (University of California, Davis) , Graduate Student, Rivera Lab: http://www.aa.psu.edu/psych/faculty.htm

Eric is an assistant professor of psychology at Penn State, Altoona. He is a rare 'general psychologist', with empirical research focusing on perception-action linkages and various other topics, as well as historical and theoretical research related to William James, Edwin Bissell Holt, and the history of behaviorism. He keeps a blog where he tries to fix psychology and is on the editorial board of Review of General Psychology. He is also involved in the International Society for Ecological Psychology, the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, and Cheiron: The International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Ryu-Ichiro Hashimoto, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Rivera Lab: tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau PL, Suite 250, Room 248

I received my Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Tokyo, Japan. I started my research career studying the brain mechanism of language processing using fMRI. During the postdoctoral training, I extended my research interests to applications of the MRI techniques to clinical populations with language and cognitive deficits, such as schizophrenia and autism. Currently I am working on the fMRI, DTI, and MRI-based morphometric studies of the fragile X syndrome.

Faraz Farzin, MA (UC Davis) , Graduate Student, Rivera and Whitney labs

tel: 530-747-3808 office: 202 Cousteau Pl., Suite 250, Room 249 keywords: development of spatial and temporal visual attention, fragile X syndrome I am a developmental psychology graduate student advised by Susan Rivera and David Whitney. My research interests include development of the visual system to select, attend to, and identify objects over time and space- and how these abilities may be impaired in infants with developmental disorders. I use psychophysical and eye-tracking techniques to assess these processes. Research with infants with fragile X syndrome is done in close collaboration with Dr. Randi Hagerman at the M.I.N.D. Institute.

John Wang, Junior Specialist, Rivera Lab

I graduated from the University of Michigan in 2008 with a bachelors of science in neuroscience. My research interest lies in the field of cognitive neuroscience, and more specifically is focused on the mechanisms of behavioral decision making, reward, emotion, and higher-order cognition. I am interested in examining the fundamental question of human motivation by understanding these mechanisms using neuroimaging techniques. Currently, I coordinate all functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) collection and analysis for a NIH funded RO1 grant examining amygdala and hippocampal function in Fragile X Premutation carriers in the Neurocognitive Development Lab.

Frederick Bassal, Junior Specialist, Rivera Lab

Frederick (Freddy) graduated from the University of California, Davis with a degree in Psychology (Biology emphasis) in the spring of 2009. He is most interested in the use of neuroimaging techniques to study, diagnose, and potentially treat developing individuals, spurring his desire to become a Neurologist. Currently, he manages an MRI study examining the amygdala’s function in children and adolescents with Fragile X Syndrome and performs hippocampal tracing on structural images for another MRI study examining the role of the limbic system in Fragile X Premutation carriers.

Kristi Hendrickson, Junior Specialist, Rivera Lab

Kristi Hendrickson recently graduated from U.C. Davis with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science. She is a Junior Specialist and her responsibilities include coordinating participant visits and administering standardized assessments to the infants. Kristi plans on attending a clinical psychology graduate program and hopes to pursue a career in Sports Psychology.