Sanda Monica Dolcos

Sanda Monica Dolcos is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She serves as co-director of the Dolcos Lab (D Lab), a research group affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science & Technology. Her work integrates fMRI, ERP, and behavioral methods to investigate affective, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience.

• Research Assistant Professor, Psychology Department
• Research Assistant Professor, Neuroscience Program
• Affiliate, Center for Social & Behavioral Science

Research Interests focus on:

• Neural correlates of emotion-cognition interactions in health and clinical populations (e.g., depression, PTSD).
• Individual differences in emotion regulation and their neural basis across adulthood.
• Sex and personality-related variations in cognitive and affective aging.
• Neural mechanisms of emotional well-being and resilience.

Publications (2025-2018) span topics including:

• Opposing effects of arousal on memory
• Cognitive flexibility measurement
• Sex differences in mental health crises
• Emotion regulation during aging
• Neural substrates of emotional source memory

Her work frequently explores fMRI, eye-tracking, and electrophysiological approaches.

Lab Collaborations include partnerships with Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Yale University's Department of Psychology, and clinical researchers studying mood disorders. The lab has produced over 150 publications and developed open-access video protocols for neuroimaging experiments.