Education

• Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2003
• M.Phil., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2001
• M.S., Developmental Psychology, Yale University, 2000
• B.A., Psychology, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY, 1995 (Honors)

About

Developmental psychologist Amanda Guyer is a professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Unit of the Department of Human Ecology. She has expertise in the biological, cognitive and social-emotional aspects of human development during adolescence — notably, the behavioral and neural processes that may underlie the way that adolescents think and feel and increase risk for mental health problems. She is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and serves as an associate editor at the journals Developmental Psychology and Emotion. She is affiliated with the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research and the Center for Neuroscience.

Research Focus

Dr. Guyer investigates neural and behavioral underpinnings of adolescent psychopathology (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use) via social, emotional and cognitive processes. She studies how adolescents process facial emotions, social threats, and peer evaluation, and how adolescents regulate their behavior in response to incentives or when making decisions in risk-taking contexts. She examines age-, temperament-, pubertal- and gender-related differences in these processes as well as variability in adolescent development as a function of stressful life events, poverty, and peer and family factors. Dr. Guyer is conducting longitudinal studies of neurobiological, psychophysiological and environmental influences on the correlates of depression, anxiety, substance use, ADHD, ASD, and schizophrenia in adolescence.

Lab

Teen Experiences, Emotions, and Neurodevelopment Lab (Guyer)

Publications

Click here for Amanda Guyer's Full List of Publications 

Hang, S., Jost, G., Guyer, A. E., Robins, R. W., Hastings, P. D. & Hostinar, C. E. (in press). Understanding the development of social disconnection in youth. Child Development Perspectives.

Yoon, L., Keenan, K., Hipwell, A. E., Forbes, E. E., & Guyer, A. E. (2023). Hooked on a thought: Associations between rumination and neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 64. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101320.

Guyer, A. E. (2023). Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the developing adolescent mind and brain. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, 3, 592-593. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2023.09.002.

Prado, E. L., Adu-Afarwuah, S., Arnold, C. D., Adjetey, E., Amponsah, B., Bentil, H., Dewey, K. G., Guyer, A. E., Manu, A., Mensah, M., Oaks, B. M., Ocansey, M., Tan, X., & Hastings, P. D. (2023). Pre- and postnatal small quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements and children’s social-emotional difficulties at age 9-11 years in Ghana: Follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 118, 433-442. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.05.025.

Gonzalves, L. C, Ferrer, E. Robins, R. W., Guyer, A. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2023). Psychosocial predictors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in Mexican-origin youth: An 8-year prospective cohort study. Clinical Psychological Science, 11, 425-443. doi: 10.1177/21677026221102924.

Hostinar, C., Swartz, J. R., Alen, N. V., Guyer, A. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2023). The role of stress phenotypes in understanding childhood adversity as a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychopathology. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 132, 277-286. doi: 10.1037/abn0000619.

Barendse, M. E. A.*, Lara, G. A., Guyer, A. E., Swartz, J. R., Taylor, S. L., Shirtcliff, E.A., Lamb, S.T., Miller, C., Ng, J., Yu, G., & Tully, L. M. (2023). Sex and pubertal influences on the neurodevelopmental underpinnings of schizophrenia: a case for longitudinal research on adolescents. Schizophrenia Research, 252, 231-241. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.12.011.

Beard, S. J.*, Yoon, L.*, Venticinque, J. S.*, Shepherd, N. E.*, & Guyer, A. E. (2022). The brain in social context: A systematic review of substance use and social processing from adolescence to young adulthood. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 57. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101147.

Hastings, P. D., Guyer, A. E., & Parra, L. (2022). Conceptualizing the influence of social and structural determinants of neurobiology and mental health. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 7, 1215-1224. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.06.004.

Ugarte, E., Johnson, L. E., Robins, R. W., Guyer, A. E., & Hastings, P. D. (2022). The impact of social disadvantage on autonomic physiology of Latinx adolescents: The role of environmental risks. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 181-182, 91-124. doi: 10.1002/cad.20462.

Mukherjee, P., Vilgis V.*, Rhoads, S.*, Chahal, R.*, Fassbender, C., Leibenluft, E., Dixon, J.F., Pakyurek, M., van den Bos, W., Hinshaw, S.P., Guyer, A.E., & Schweitzer, J.B. (2022). Associations of irritability with functional connectivity of amygdala and nucleus accumbens in adolescents and young adults with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 26, 1040-1050. doi: 10.1177/10870547211057074.

Beard, S. J.*, Hastings, P. D., Ferrer, E., Robins, R. W., & Guyer, A. E. (2022). Neural response to social exclusion moderates the link between adolescent anxiety symptoms and substance use. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and NeuroImaging, 7, 180-191. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.06.006.

Shields, G. S.*, Hostinar, C. E., Vilgis, V.*, Forbes, E. E., Hipwell, A. E., Keenan, K., & Guyer, A. E. (2021). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in childhood predicts emotional memory effects and related neural circuitry in adolescent girls. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 33, 872-886. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01687.

Venticinque, J. S.*, Chahal, R.*, Beard, S. J.*, Schriber, R. A.*, Hastings, P. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2021). Neural responses to implicit forms of peer influence in young adults. Social Neuroscience,16, 327-340, doi: 10.1080/17470919.2021.1911843.

Chahal, R.*, Weissman, D. G.*, Hallquist, M. N., Robins, R.W., Hastings, P. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2021). Neural connectivity biotypes: Associations with internalizing problems throughout adolescence. Psychological Medicine, 51, 2835-2845. doi: 10.1017/S003329172000149X.

Chahal, R.*, Gotlib, I. H., & Guyer, A. E. (2020). Research review: Brain network connectivity and the heterogeneity of depression in adolescence – a precision mental health perspective. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61, 1282-1298. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13250.

Guyer, A. E. (2020). Adolescent psychopathology: The role of brain-based diatheses, sensitivities, and susceptibilities. Child Development Perspectives, 14, 104-109. doi: 10.1111/cdep.12365.

Chahal, R.*, Weissman, D. G.*, Marek, S., Rhoads, S. A.*, Hipwell, A. E., Forbes, E. E., Keenan, K. & Guyer, A. E. (2020). Girls’ brain structural connectivity in late adolescence relates to history of depression symptoms. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61, 1224-1233. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13184.

Swartz, J. R., Weissman, D. G.*, Ferrer, E., Beard, S. J.*, Fassbender, C., Robins, R. W., Hastings, P. D., & Guyer A. E. (2020). Reward-related brain activity prospectively predicts increases in alcohol use in adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 59, 391-400. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.05.022

Vilgis, V.*, Rhoads, S. A.*, Weissman, D. G.*, Gelardi, K. L.*, Forbes, E. E., Hipwell, A. E., Keenan, K., Hastings, P. D., & Guyer, A. E. (2020). Direct replication of task-dependent neural activation patterns during sadness introspection in two independent adolescent samples. Human Brain Mapping, 41, 739-754. doi: 10.1002/hbm.24836

Weissman, D. G.*, Guyer, A. E., Ferrer, E., Robins, R. W., & Hastings, P. D. (2018). Adolescents’ brain-autonomic coupling during emotion processing. NeuroImage, 183, 818-827. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.08.069

Chahal, R.*, Vilgis, V.*, Grimm, K. J., Hipwell, A. E., Forbes, E. E., Keenan, K., & Guyer, A. E. (2018). Girls’ pubertal development is associated with white matter microstructure in late adolescence. NeuroImage, 181, 659-669. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.07.050

Guyer, A. E., Pérez-Edgar, K., & Crone, E. A. (2018). Opportunities for neurodevelopmental plasticity from infancy through early adulthood. Child Development, 89, 1-11. doi: 10.1111/cdev.13073

Guyer, A. E., Nelson, E. E., & Silk, J. S. (2016). The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 70, 74-85. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.037

Nelson, E. E., Jarcho, J. M., & Guyer, A. E. (2016). Social re-orientation and brain development: an expanded and updated view. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 17, 118-27 doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.008

Schriber, R. A.* & Guyer, A. E. (2016). Adolescent neurobiological susceptibility to social context. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1-18. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.12.009

Teaching

Amanda Guyer teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Middle Childhood and Adolescent Development, Developmental Neuroscience and Adolescent Psychopathology, and The Developing Brain.

Awards

Faculty Development Award, UC Davis, 2022-2023

Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, 2019

Graduate Studies Distinguished Graduate and Postdoctoral Mentoring Award, UC Davis, 2018

Faculty Leadership Academy, Office of the Provost, UC Davis, 2018

UC Davis Chancellor's Fellow, 2014–2019

Faculty of the Year Award, Human Development, Department of Human Ecology, UC Davis, 2013

Social Sciences Dean's Innovation Award, Division of Social Sciences, College of Letters and Science, UC Davis, 2011

William T. Grant Scholars Award, William T. Grant Foundation, 2011-2016

Postdoctoral Training Fellowship, Section on Development and Affective Neuroscience, Mood and Anxiety Program, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, 2003–07