{"id":715,"date":"2023-03-27T23:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/?page_id=715"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:15:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:15:54","slug":"brain-and-cognitive-science-faculty","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/brain-and-cognitive-science-faculty\/","title":{"rendered":"Brain and Cognitive Science Faculty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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* Faculty member who may supervise Ph.D. students in Psychology. Contact faculty members via email if you have interest.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Core Faculty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Antoine Bechara\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1991, University of Toronto)
\nProfessor and Psychology Chair
\nDecision neuroscience, addiction, smoking, prefrontal cortex, insula, Iowa Gambling Task, brain lesions, brain imaging<\/p>\n

Elisa C. Baek<\/a>*
\n(Ph.D., 2019, University of Pennsylvania)
\nAssistant Professor of Psychology
\nIndividual differences in social (dis)connection, social network analysis, loneliness, information sharing, social cognition, social neuroscience, persuasion, social influence<\/p>\n

Laura A. Baker\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1983, University of Colorado)
\nProfessor
\nDirector, Southern California Twin Project
\nBehavioral genetics, childhood psychopathology, aggression, antisocial behavior, individual differences<\/p>\n

Antonio Damasio\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(M.D., Ph.D., 1974, University of Lisbon)
\nDavid Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology and Neurology
\nThe neural basis of cognition and behavior at large-scale systems level, using MR lesion method, PET\/fMRI, and histological mapping of neuropathological tissue. Research areas include face and object recognition, emotion processing, emotion and decision-making, and the limbic and brainstem sites of pathology in Alzheimer’s disease<\/p>\n

Hanna Damasio<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(M.D., 1969, University of Lisbon)
\nDana Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience and Professor of Psychology and Neurology
\nDirector, Dornsife Cognitive Neuroscience Imaging Center
\nLanguage and other higher cognitive and emotional processes investigated with brain imaging methods such as computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance scanning (MR), and PET.<\/p>\n

Morteza Dehghani *<\/span><\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 2009, Northwestern\u00a0University)
\nAssistant\u00a0Professor of Psychology and Computer Science
\nSocial media analysis with direct applications to moral decision-making, group dynamics and culture. Role of sacred values in intergroup conflict and negotiation. Computational cognitive modeling. Counterfactual reasoning.<\/p>\n

Ernest Greene<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1968, University of Oregon)
\nProfessor
\nDepartment of Psychology, College of Letters, Arts & Sciences<\/p>\n

Leor Hackel<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*
\n(Ph.D., 2016, New York University)
\nAssistant Professor of Psychology
\nSocial learning and decision making, with implications for impression formation, reinforcement learning, social interaction, and prosocial behavior; social neuroscience; computational models of social cognition.<\/p>\n

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ed.D., 2005, Harvard)
\nProfessor of Education, Psychology & Neuroscience,
\nDirector, USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (candle.usc.edu)
\nNeural and psychological bases of social emotion and social interaction<\/p>\n

David Lavond<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1979, The Ohio State University)
\nProfessor and Area Head
\nLearning and memory, the neurobiological basis of learning and memory, brain localization of psychological functions, recovery of function after brain injury<\/p>\n

Toben H. Mintz<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1996, University of Rochester)
\nAssociate Professor
\nLanguage acquisition in infants and toddlers, computational modeling<\/p>\n

John Monterosso<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1998, University of Pennsylvania)
\nAssociate Professor
\nDecision neuroscience, self-control, addiction<\/p>\n

Payam Piray<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 2016, Radboud University)
\nAssistant Professor
\nHow do humans make decisions in an uncertain world and how do they learn from their mistakes? We investigate these problems in health and disease using computational (reinforcement learning, Bayesian machine learning) and experimental (fMRI, virtual reality) tools.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Stephen J. Read<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*
\n(Ph.D., 1981, University of Texas)
\nProfessor
\nNeurobiological bases of motivation, personality, risky decision-making, substance use and depression.\u00a0 Computational models of personality and social reasoning. Legal and everyday decision making. Cognitive processes in social behavior, social explanations, goal-based processes in interpersonal relations and decision making, connectionist models of social reasoning. Using interactive media in changing risky health behaviors and in education.<\/p>\n

David A. Walsh<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1974, University of Minnesota)
\nAssociate Professor
\nCognitive and motivational foundations of personal decision-making, beliefs, and the self-regulation of health behaviors from early childhood to old age<\/p>\n

Jason Zevin<\/a> <\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 2003, University of Southern California)
\nAssociate Professor
\nPsycholinguistics, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Modeling<\/p>\n

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Joint USC Faculty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Arbib<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 1963, MIT)
\nUniversity Professor, Fletcher Jones Chair in Computer Science, and Professor of Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering
\nNeural networks, brain theory, neuroinformatics, neural simulation, visuomotor coordination in animals and robots.<\/p>\n

Sarah Bottjer\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 1980, Indiana University, Bloomington)
\nProfessor of Biological Sciences and Psychology
\nActivity-dependent neural & behavioral plasticity in song birds<\/p>\n

Teal Eich<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 2014, Columbia University)
\nAssistant Professor<\/p>\n

Caleb Finch\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 1969, Rockefeller University)
\nARCO\/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging University Professor
\nCell biology, mechanisms controlling postnatal development and aging in man and other mammals, Alzheimer’s disease<\/p>\n

Assal Habibi<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph. D., 2011, University of California, Irvine)
\nAssistant Professor (reserach)
\nRelationship between cognitive, emotional, and social skills are shaped by interaction of biological dispostions and environmantal facors.<\/p>\n


\nLaurent Itti\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/a>(Ph.D., 2000, California Institute of Technology)
\nAssociate Professor of Computer Science
\nComputational modeling, Biological vision, Computer vision, Functional neuroimaging, Human psychophysics, Neural networks, Artificial intelligence, Neuromorphic engineering, Neuromimetic algorithms<\/p>\n

Jonas Kaplan<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 2002, University of California Los Angeles)
\nAssistant Professor (Research)
\nIssues of social relationships, empathy, self, action perception and creativity.<\/p>\n

Shan Luo<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph. D., 2012, University of Southern California)
\nAssistant Professor of Medicine and Psychology
\nMy research program seeks to understand biological and environmental factors contributing to obesity development. I have two major lines of research program: (1) brain inhibition control over appetitive food rewards; (2) early life risk factors (i.e., in utero<\/i> environment and family environment) to obesity development. I am interested in recruiting prospective PhD students.<\/p>\n

Mara Mather\u00a0<\/a><\/span>*\u00a0<\/em>
\n(Ph.D., 2000, Princeton)
\nAssociate Professor of Gerontology and Psychology
\nEmotional memory, Cognitive neuroscience of aging, Stress and decision making<\/p>\n

Bartlett Mel\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 1989, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
\nAssociate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
\nComputational neuroscience, dendritic processing, neuromorphic models of vision<\/p>\n

Larry Swanson\u00a0<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D., 1972, Washington University)
\nMilo Don and Lucille Appleman Professor Department of Biological Sciences
\nHunger and thirst, limbic system, motivation, structural neuroscience<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adjunct Faculty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lynne Bernstein<\/a><\/span>
\n(Ph.D. University of Michigan)
\nProfessor of Speech and Hearing Science, George Washington University
\nProgram Director, National Science Foundation
\nSpeech Perception, Multisensory Processing, Deafness, Language Processing, Cognitive Neuroimaging<\/p>\n

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