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Bruna Klein

Assistant Professor of Psychology
Email brunamar@usc.edu

Biography

Dr. Martins-Klein is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, and Director of the Neural Vitality Laboratory at the University of Southern California.

Her research explores factors that build resilience, emotion regulation and cognition across the lifespan. She integrates neuroimaging (fMRI functional connectivity, MVPA), ECG (heart rate variability), eyetracking (pupilometry), self-report, and measures from daily life, to track how emotion-cognition interactions promote flexibility and adaptive functioning.

The goal of this work is to identify actionable targets that build emotional resilience in healthy individuals, to develop interventions in clinical populations that help buffer the emotional impact of mood disorders, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Martins-Klein is also a licensed clinical psychologist who supervises Ph.D-level trainees providing emotional support to adults across the lifespan. Her orientation integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), to increase emotional awareness and engagement in goals grounded in personal values.

***Dr. Martins-Klein will be accepting graduate students and a postdoc fellow for 2023-24.

Education

  • Ph.D. Psychology, University of Southern California, 8/2017
  • M.A. Psychology, University of Southern California, 5/2013
  • B.S. Neuroscience/Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 12/2009

  • Tenure Track Appointments

    • Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Massachusetts- Amherst, 2018 – 2022
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