Keanan Joyner

Keanan Joyner serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he directs the Clinical Research on Externalizing and Addiction Mechanisms (C.R.E.A.M.) Lab. His research program investigates the etiology of alcohol and substance use disorders through neuroscientific and behavioral approaches, with particular emphasis on cognitive-affective processes that contribute to the emergence of addiction.

Dr. Joyner's research spans three interconnected domains: (1) understanding dispositional trait liabilities for addiction, particularly the interplay between disinhibition and reward sensitivity; (2) bridging between- and within-subject mechanisms of risk using ambulatory assessment techniques; and (3) evaluating and improving the generalizability of addiction models to minoritized and socioeconomically-disadvantaged populations. His work employs diverse methodologies including EEG/ERPs, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), behavioral genetic analyses, and advanced statistical modeling approaches to examine disturbances in cognitive-affective processes across time.

Analysis of Dr. Joyner's recent publications reveals a sophisticated methodological approach focused on parsing complex relationships between neural markers and behavioral outcomes in addiction. His work demonstrates increasing attention to diversity and equity in clinical psychophysiology research, with publications addressing racial biases in neuroscience methods and the applicability of psychopathology models to underrepresented populations. A consistent theme across his research is the application of hierarchical taxonomies of psychopathology (HiTOP) to better understand the dimensional structure of externalizing behaviors.

• Principal Investigator: Clinical Research on Externalizing and Addiction Mechanisms (C.R.E.A.M.) Lab
• Secondary Advisor: Maria Martin Lopez (PhD candidate in Cognition)

Dr. Joyner's laboratory includes graduate students and research staff working on various aspects of externalizing and addiction mechanisms. Current lab members include Maria Martin Lopez (Cognitive Science), Nick Nguyen (Clinical Science), Rishika Shah (Clinical Science PhD student), Geremy Lowe (History of Health Sciences), Danielle Jones (Research Engineer), and Geetika Kapoor (Postbaccalaureate Researcher). The lab's recent work includes projects on improving EEG data collection techniques for Black participants and exploring the semantic network of alcohol and cannabis-related language.