معرفی
Leah H. Somerville is the Grafstein Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Director of the Affective Neuroscience and Development Laboratory. With appointments in the Department of Psychology within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, her work bridges psychological and neuroscientific methodologies to explore adolescent brain development and its impact on emotion, motivation, and decision-making.
- Education: PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences from Dartmouth College (2009), Postdoctoral Training at Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College.
Research Interests center on adolescent neurodevelopment, focusing on how changes in brain structure and function during this period shape psychological processes. Key areas include emotion regulation, self-regulation, social influence on decision-making, and mechanisms of psychopathology risk. Her lab employs fMRI, diffusion MRI, and behavioral paradigms to investigate these phenomena.
Recent publications emphasize longitudinal tracking of affective processes, white matter development, and pubertal influences on brain structure. She also explores social contexts on risk preferences and linguistic markers of psychological distancing.
Scientific Awards include:
- FJ McGuigan Early Career Research Prize for Understanding the Human Mind
- APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions
- Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award
Grants supporting her research include the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and Harvard Catalyst.
As director of the Affective Neuroscience and Development Laboratory, she leads studies examining brain connectivity patterns, social feedback processing, and computational models of motivation-cognition interactions. Her work has significant implications for understanding adolescent health risks and informing policies on developmental neuroscience applications.
