Brandon Abbs
babbs@wellesley.edu
Psychology
B.A., University of Maryland; Ph.D., University of Iowa
Visiting Lecturer in Psychology
Researches prenatal insults on endocrine and neural systems development in schizophrena, verbal memory, and auditory perceptual dysfunction.
I conduct structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (s/fMRI) of cognition in schizophrenia in conjunction with hormonal and physiological state information (e.g., heart rate). I am also interested in hormonal influences on behavior in healthy adults.
I teach Cognition and Biological Psychology with an interest in teaching other cognitive (e.g., Memory) and clinical research seminars. A clinical research course that I have developed outlines the impact of prenatal medical events on development, which creates vulnerability to adult mental illness through effects on stress-response brain circuitry. This vulnerability is particularly acute in adolescents and young adults, who are the focus of a section on the clinical experience of individuals with mental illness.
I'm interested in career and research advising. I am also an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (where my research is conducted) and have taught undergraduates in the Departments of Psychology at the University of Iowa and Harvard University.
