september 27, 2019
Attention undergrads at UNC: Info session for the J. Steven Reznick Diversity and Psychological Research Grant is on October 3. This is a great opportunity if you want more research experience or if you’re just getting into research — come join us then!
august 28, 2019
Our group undergraduate RAs and their team leaders for Fall 2019! We are so excited to get to work on all of our upcoming projects this semester!
august 21, 2019
New 2019-2020 lab photo! Our lab has expanded in many ways and we are so excited about the upcoming projects, publications, and work we will be doing this academic year!
august 12, 2019
Always great to see our collaborators from Wofford College! We practiced collecting blood-spot samples in preparation for a joint study in the fall.
august 12, 2019
As we continue to prepare for the fall semester, we welcome Manny Galvan and Sam Brosso as graduate students to the lab and SNH’s new lab manager, Nick Fendinger — welcome all! We also congratulate Becky Salomon, a former SNH grad student, on accepting a post-doc position at the University of California San Francisco. She will be receiving training through the biobehavioral research program in symptom science in the school of nursing — congratulations Becky!
May 1, 2019
What a perfect way to celebrate the end of the year and summer! This is such a hard-working and fun group to work with :) Thanks for being a part of our lab! And congratulations to our seniors, Alex, Anna, Varun, Jenah, and Steven- we will miss you so much! Good luck on your next adventure!
April 6, 2019
Science Expo was so amazing this year! What a fun-filled day playing hands-on science games with kids and their families, and inspiring the community about our research!
April 3, 2019
We finally got a group picture of our amazing team of undergraduate research assistants! Thanks again for all of the hard work you do in our lab:) We couldn’t do it without you all!
March 6, 2019
What a fantastic APS conference in Vancouver! It was so fun discovering cutting-edge research on mind-body connections and exploring the beautiful city!
March, 2019
Jenah was featured in the March Psychology and Neuroscience Undergraduate Newsletter! Way to go, and thanks for your kind words :)
October, 2018
Our brilliant undergraduate research assistants, Xueyang Li, Steven Vogel, Varun Kasula, Anna Wears, and Luyang Jia all just received Lindquist Undergraduate Research Awards! Great job, and thanks so much for contributing to our lab!
September 20th, 2018
Another fun and productive lab meeting! We miss you, Keely! Have fun at the colloquium in Pittsburgh :)
AUGUST 6TH, 2018
Our amazing postdoc, Monica, just qualified to be a Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) Associate with the Society for Neuroscience! The NSP is a program designed to enhance career development and professional networking opportunities for underrepresented and diverse graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the field of neuroscience. Way to go, Monica!
April 27th, 2018
Keely presented results from the lab’s beta blockers study at the Society for Affective Science annual meeting in LA! Great to see our work getting out there.
APRIL 2018
The lab’s four amazing honors students, Carrington, Ellie, Emmie, and Saif, all successfully defended their honors theses! Congrats, all! Here is Ellie and Keely celebrating after Ellie’s wonderful defense.
March 2018
The lab made the trek to Louisivlle, KY for the American Psychosomatic Society annual conference! Jenn, Sam and Gaby presented posters; Monica and Emma gave talks. Everyone learned a lot and did a great job! We also had a fun dinner and hang out session at a brewery.
February 2018
One of our awesome honors students, Carrington, has been admitted to UNC as a dual clinical/social student! Congratulations Carrington! We are so excited for you to join our lab as a grad student!
December 14th 2017
Happy Holidays from the Carolina Social Neuroscience & Health Lab!
December 6th 2017
We are cleaning our impedance data from our Beta Blocker's study! Impedance cardiography is a non-invasive technique for measuring cardiac output.
December 5th 2017
We're training with MSD to run our multiplex assays on a new machine we are trying out at the UNC core lab!
December 4th 2017
Another shipment of dry ice for organizing our blood plasma for the multiplex assays!
November 29th 2017
Dr. Muscatell presented to the "HHIVE" Health Humanities Grand Rounds lecture series today on health disparities and the relationship between stress and health.
November 14th 2017
We are shipping off the blood from our study for analysis in gene expression!
November 10th 2017
The lab manager of the Carolina Social Neuroscience and Health lab, Emma Armstrong-Carter, presented research for the first time to the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology today in Washington DC! The research was a collaboration between Dr. Muscatell's lab and Dr. Eva Telzer's lab. Thank you to everyone who made it possible!
NOVEMBER 3rd 2017
Today our lab participated in Brain Academy, an immersive education day program for young students. Emma got to show them the physiological equipment we work with in Howell and explain how we run participants. Maybe we'll see some of these students at UNC one day!
October 31st 2017
Another year gone by! Emma and Keely on Franklin Street celebrating Halloween. This time last year we hadn't even started our big beta-blocker's study, and now we're already moving into data analysis! What a year.
OCTOBER 27th 2017
Any UNC undergraduates interesting in attending graduate school or just becoming more well-rounded professionally should check out this unique course below that Keely and Monica will be putting on for the Spring 2018 semester! The formal course portion is 1 credit hour while the other 2 credit hours can be completed by volunteering in a research lab.
OCTOBER 24th 2017
Yet another moment to be proud of our honors students! Honors Student Ellie Wallace received a Tom and Elizabeth Long Research Award to support her thesis on, "Self-Disclosure and Liking Across Groups". Congratulations, Ellie!
OCTOBER 23rd 2017
Honors Student Saif Meyhar received a Sarah Steele Danhoff Undergraduate Research Award to support his thesis on " Neural Mechanisms Underlying Economic Inequality-Induced Increases in Risky Decision-Making." Congratulations, Saif!
OCTOBER 17th 2017
While most of Chapel Hill heads off for Fall Break, our hardworking team has begun processing blood samples for interleukin-6 in Howell Hall!
OCTOBER 13TH 2017
Today SNH participated in the Research Lab Symposium put on by the Psychology Club and the department! In this event, our post-bac assistant Sam, grad student Gaby, and post-doc Monica spoke with UNC undergraduates about our current work!
October 12th 2017
We did it! We completed data collection for our "PIC" study or Beta Blockers project. Thanks to everyone who put in hard work! That is 1620 tubes of blood collected, 76.8 miles walked to pick up study drugs from the Investigational Drug Services at UNC Neurosciences Hospital, 990 saliva samples collected, and 91 study sessions completed. Great work, team!
OCTOBER 6th 2017
Honors student Emmie Banks was awarded the David Bray Peele Memorial Research Award to use for her thesis this year. The funds are intended to offset the cost of ELISA kits (immunoassay kit) so she can isolate interleukin-6, a biomarker of inflammation, in blood samples. Emmie plans to study how differing these levels of inflammation affect moral judgment severity. Congratulations!
September 21st 2017
Jenn MacCormack was awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) from the National Institute on Aging to study how aging of the peripheral nervous system and brain can impact the interoception of emotions. The purpose of the Kirschstein-NRSA program is to support promising predoctoral students as they develop into productive, independent research scientists. Congrats, Jenn!
September 18th 2017
We received new supplies this week-- to run ELISAs for our blood samples! Neatly packed in our wet-lab in Howell Hall, waiting for use. Can't wait to look at these samples!
August 28th 2017
For our research study, "PIC" (Physiology Interacting with Cognition), we work with nurses from the CTRC (Clinical and Translational Research Center). What a hard working, professional yet fun loving group! Here they are pictured below with their solar eclipse glasses last week.
August 25th 2017
We are cleaning EKG and impedance data!
August 23RD 2017
We had our first lab meeting today for the semester! What a wonderful crew. After sharing the highlights of our summers, many of us gave updates on our various group research studies and projects. We have several new studies starting up this semester, and some new honor theses as well for the undergraduates! What a wonderful end to a busy Wednesday. Shout out to Graham, Allen and Carrington who are also in the lab but not pictured below!
August 22nd 2017
Welcome to Gaby, our new graduate student! Read more about her and her research interests here on the department webpage, and about her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship here.
AUGUST 21st 2017
Outside our lab space in Howell Hall, our department's grad students, lab managers, and post-docs join in watching the eclipse! Just next to us, the Morehead Planetarium had an enormous viewing party with over 3,000 attendees. It was an exciting, science-filled day!
August 7th 2017
Samantha Brosso transitioned this week from undergraduate research assistant to a full time, paid research technician in our lab. Welcome to the work force, Samantha! We're enjoying the lively lab space with lots of hard work :)
August 3rd 2017
Emma is back from vacation and looking forward to another semester. Thanks for the kind note, Krista (see below)! Krista did a fantastic job assuming the responsibilities of lab manager this July.
July 1st 2017
Monica started as a new post-doctorate student in our lab! Read her bio on the "people" tab of our website. So excited for our first post-doc student; welcome Monica!
June 26th 2017
Congratulations to our Dr. Keely Muscatell, who received the Psychology Club’s Award for Excellence in Research Mentoring!
This award is selected via student nomination to recognize outstanding mentorship for undergraduate students in Psychology.
Dr. Muscatell won for her dedication in training undergraduates in rare research experiences through biomedical studies and for advising two senior honors theses in her first year at Carolina. Her mentees describe themselves as “feeling invigorated” about their research simply after meeting with Dr. Muscatell. Inciting a passion for undergraduate research is at the heart of this award and Dr. Muscatell goes above and beyond in her mentorship of undergraduate researchers.
June 19th 2017
Our lab manager, Emma, is officially working full time for The Social Neuroscience and Health Lab for at least one more year! She is excited about the new responsibilities and full time opportunity!
June 1st 2017
Introducing Carolina SNH Lab's new Research Assistants for Summer 2017 - Emilee, Adrian, and Manuela (not pictured)! We are excited to have them on board for the summer.
May 23rd 2017
Dr. Muscatell had the lab over for dinner, as a celebration of all the hard work put into the study during the 2016-2017 school year! We are excited to continue working together.
May 2nd 2017
Hello from our lab! Undergraduate research assistants are starting exam season, but they are still helping out so much keeping our study going. We couldn't do it without them!
APRIL 24th 2017
Carolina SNH Lab enjoyed showing The Morehead After School Exploration Program all about our lab.
APRIL 22nd 2017
Carolina SNH Lab had a great time at the UNC Science Exposition.
We reenacted one of our computer tasks, "Reading The Mind and The Eyes," which showed how we can empathize with others emotions. We also showed them how their body changes through mental stress, by taking their heart rate before and after a mental stressor!
APRIL 4th 2017
We won the national championship!!!!!!! Wish we could have measured done psychophysiology on those basketball players last night. LET'S GO TAR HEELS! Watch our school celebrate here.
March 24TH 2017
Carolina SNH Lab went out for a local frozen treat at Chapel Hill's The Yogurt Pump.
![IMG_3836[3601].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57d17e77b8a79bfa4e31641d/1490811487696-PWK8DGOPH8KL3DEKLO2E/IMG_3836%5B3601%5D.JPG)
![IMG_3836[3601].JPG](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57d17e77b8a79bfa4e31641d/1490811439617-JNS6CYOG8DQU1VSRXW7T/IMG_3836%5B3601%5D.JPG)
March 1st 2017
Dr. Muscatell is presenting at the Carolina Population Center Spring Quarterly meeting tomorrow! It will be at the Health Sciences Library at UNC at 3:30pm.
Presentation: Neural and Inflammatory Responses to Social Stress: Implications for Health Disparities
Dr. Keely Muscatell, assistant professor in psychology & neuroscience, is new to UNC and recently joined the CPC Program. Her research offers a novel way to understand the development of health disparities and the links between stress and health by focusing on the neural and physiological mechanisms linking social experiences and health outcomes. Her work explores how being low in socioeconomic status and experiencing racial discrimination affects neural and inflammatory processes. She also examines how stress affects health more generally among breast cancer survivors.
Note: For this quarterly meeting we are meeting in Health Sciences Library, not the Botanical Gardens
February 24th:
Dr. Muscatell is featured in a fantastic article by the UNC Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases that was published today! Features writer Bradley Alff interviewed her as part of this article "Health Effects of the 2016 Election". When asked about the article today, Dr. Muscatell commented "Weird waking up to see yourself in your inbox! :)" Read the full article here: http://globalhealth.unc.edu/news/feature-stories/2016-election/
February 23rd:
Beautiful view from our lab space in Howell Hall! It is almost Spring in NC!
February 15th:
Our very own Sam Brosso received a grant from The Department of Psychology Undergraduate Research grant program, supported by the Lindquist undergraduate excellence fund, for our lab! Thank you Sam and congratulations!
February 13th:
Spring is coming at Howell Hall! These pink blossoms are blooming just in time for Valentine's Day. What a wonderful view from our Histology lab!
February 10th:
It is visiting day in the Psychology Department! These people took our guests out to lunch. Welcome, visitors!
FEBRUARY 7TH:
Research assistants Emmie and Will give saliva samples before helping out with a study run!
FEBRUARY 1st:
Our lab space in Howell Hall looks so beautiful on this winter day!
January 30Th:
Group picture (Keely took it) from Friday's lab meeting! Go team!
January 29th:
We started blood processing!!!
January 26th:
We ran our very first research participant! Here is a selfie of some of our fantastic research staff.
NOVEMBER 21ST:
Our very own research assistant, Samantha Brosso, was recently awarded the Gil Internship at UNC! She will be doing an internship in Behavioral Neuroscience.
"I wanted to do the internship because I have developed a particular interest in the biological basis of behavior, and one day I would like to use my specific knowledge of the nervous system to transform the lives of people who suffer from brain trauma, neurological and psychological disorders", says Sam.
Congratulations, Sam!
November 3rd:
We are learning how to program tasks into Psychopy! It's difficult but we are working hard. Thanks to Gary and UNC library for their enormous help!
October 13th:
SNH Lab Staff gather with the rest of the Human Neuroimaging Group at UNC and spend a warm fall evening together at Tru Deli & Wine Bar!
OCTOBER 11TH:
Carolina SNHLab has hired on a new fMRI data analysis assistant (Gary, pictured far left) and four new undergraduate research assistants (Alex, Samantha, Krista, and Arnav)! We are so excited to collaborate with these amazing people!
SEPTember 25th:
Our lab’s research is currently featured on the UNC Department of Psychology and Neuroscience website! Find out more here: http://psychology.unc.edu/2016/08/25/dr-keely-muscatell/
September 20th:
The CSNHL had its first training in Psychophysiology this week! Thanks, Jenn, for planning and facilitating our training. Many more trainings to come...
September 19, 2016:
The CSNHL held its first ever lab meeting! Our small but mighty group of scientists discussed the lab’s big project for the year, a study examining how blocking sympathetic nervous system activation with the drug propranolol (a beta-blocker) influences psychological and immunological responses to stress.
Dr. Muscatell Joins TEnure-Track faculty at UNC!
August 2016:
Dr. Muscatell started work as a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this August! Come visit the new lab space in 10A Howell Hall.