Mechanisms of Addiction

Computational modeling approaches in cognitive neuroscience are a powerful and underutilized tool in understanding the mechanisms underlying addiction. My area of focus is on predicting an individual’s risk for developing a substance use disorder in adolescence, with the long-term goal of early identification and early intervention, before problems arise. Current projects include dissociating neurocognitive mechanisms of impulsive decision-making using multi-modal computational modeling. I am exploring how distinct mechanisms, such as reward valuation and response caution, informed by both monetary decision-making tasks and brain activity, relate to clinically relevant outcomes, such as problematic substance use in adolescence.