Research
Can we change our emotions? Our lab is interested in discovering the neural mechanisms underlying emotional control and flexibility. Because the environment we live in is constantly changing, we need to continuously update our emotional responses. In extreme situations, when emotional memories become traumatic, we might even wish to ‘erase’ emotional memories altogether. Our research team uses neuroimaging, pharmacology and psychophysiology to understand the neural mechanisms that make such emotional flexibility. We examine emotional processing in the normal brain and in patients with anxiety disorders, and hope to promote new forms of treatment.
Publications
2022-2023
Schiller, D., Lerma, J. (2023). Exploring the Frontiers of Neuroscience: Highlights from the 11th IBRO World Congress. Neuroscience
Levy, I., Schiller, D. (2023). Uncertainty in learning and decision-making: Introduction to the special issue. Cognitve, Affective, and Behavorial Neuroscience.
Bach et al. (2023). Consensus design of a calibration experiment for human fear conditioning. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 148, 105146.
Schiller, D. (2022). Reconsolidation: A Paragdigm Shift. Brain Research Bulletin.
Schafer, M., Schiller, D. (2022). A dominant role for serotonin in the formation of human social hierarchies. Neuropsychopharmacology.
Korem, N., Duek, O., Ben-Zion, Z., Kaczkurkin, A. N., Lissek, S., Orederu, T., Schiller, D., Harpaz-Rotem, I., Levy, I. (2022). Emotional numbing in PTSD is associated with lower amygdala reactivity to pain. Neuropsychopharmacology.
Polley, D. B. and Schiller, D. (2022). The promise of low-tech interventions in a high-tech era: behavioral reverse engineering as an approach to remodeling pathological brain circuits. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 137, 104652.
Banker, S. M., Na S., Beltran J., Koenigsberg, H. W., Foss-Feig J .H., Gu, X., and Schiller, D. (2022). Disrupted computational of social control in individuals with is obsessive-compulsive and misophonia symptoms. iScience 25, 104617.
*Kulkarni, K., *Schafer, M., Berner, L. A,. Fiore, V. G., Heflin, M., Hutchison, K., Calhoun, V., Filbey, F., Pandey, G., Schiller, D., and Gu, X. (2022). An interpretable and predictive connectivity-based neural signature for chronic cannabis use. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.
*Equal contribution
- Editorial commentary by Anna B. Konova and Anna Zilverstand.
Swedo, et al. (2022). A Consensus definition of misophonia: using a Delphi process to reach expert agreement. Frontiers in Neuroscience 16, 841816.
2020 - 2021
Levy, I., and Schiller, D. (2021). Neural computations of threat. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25, 151-171.
Croxson, P.L., Neeley, L., Schiller, D. (2021). You have to read this. Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 1466–1468.
Homan, P., Lau, L.H., Levy, I., Raio, C.M., Bach, D., Carmel, D., and Schiller, D. (2021). Evidence for a minimal role of stimulus awareness in reversal of threat learning. Learning & Memory, 28(3), 95-103.
Banker, S.M, Gu, X., Schiller, D., Foss-Feig, J. (2021). Hippocampal contributions to social and cognitive deficits in autism spectrum disorder. Trends in Neurosciences, 44(10), 793-807;
Speer, M.E., Ibrahim, S., Schiller, D., Delgado, M.R. (2021). Finding positive meaning in past negative events adaptively updates memory. Nature Communications, 12, 6601.
Wang, Y., Zhu, Z., Hu, J., Schiller, D., and Li, J .(2021). Active suppression prevents the return of threat memory in humans. Communications Biology, 4(1), 1-8.
Norbury, A., Brinkman, H., Kowalchyk, M., Pietrzak, R.H., Schiller, D., and Feder, A. (2021). Latent cause inference during extinction learning in trauma-exposed individuals with and without PTSD. Psychological Medicine, 1-12, doi:10.1017/S0033291721000647.
Croote, D.E., Lai, B., Hu, J., Baxter, M.G., Montagrin, A., Schiller, D. (2020). Delay discounting decisions are linked to temporal distance representations of world events across cultures. Scientific Reports, 10, 12913. [Data – OSF].
Vermes, J.S., Ayres, R., Goés, A.S., Del Real, N., Araújo, A.C., Schiller, D., Neto, F.L., and Corchs, F. (2020). Targeting the Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories With a Brief 2-session Imaginal Exposure Intervention in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders.
Browning et al. (2020). Realizing the Clinical Potential of Computational Psychiatry: Report from the Banbury Center Meeting.
Orederu, T., and Schiller, D. (2020). The Dynamic Memory Engram Lifecycle: Reactivation, Destabilization, Reconsolidation. The Cognitive Neurosciences, 6th Edition. Poeppel D, Mangun GR and Gazzaniga, MS. eds. MIT Press.
Feder, A., Rutter, S.B., Schiller, D., and Charney, D.S. (2020). The emergence of ketamine as a novel treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. Advances in Pharmacology: Rapid Acting Antidepressants – A tribute to Ron Duman’s legacy.
Visser, R.M., Anderson, M.C., Aron, A., Banich, M., Brady, K.T., Huys, Q.J.M., Monfils, M.H., Schiller, D., Schlagenhauf, F., Schooler, J. and Robbins, T.W. (2020). Neuropsychological mechanisms of intrusive thinking. In Kalivas PW and Paulus MP, eds, Intrusive Thinking: From Molecules to Free Will. Strüngmann Forum Reports, vol. 30, J. R. Lupp, series editor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [Book].
Schiller, D., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2020). Reply to Beckers, McIntosh and Chambers on the verification of ‘preventing the return of fear using retrieval-extinction in humans’.
2019 - 2018
Homan, P., Levy, I., Feltham, E., Gordon, C., Hu, J., Li, J., Pietrzak, R., Southwick, S., Krystal, J., Harpaz-Rotem, I., and Schiller, D. (2019). Neural computations of threat in the aftermath of combat trauma. Nature Neuroscience 22, 470-476. [Data-OSF]
*Featured in Nature Neuroscience News & Views, by Peggy Seriès.
Hu, J., Wang, Z., Feng, X., Long, C., and Schiller, D. (2019). Post-reminder oxytocin facilitates next day extinction in humans. Psychopharmacology 236, 293-301. [Data-OSF].
Corchs, F., and Schiller, D. (2019). Threat-related disorders as persistent motivational states of defense. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 26, 62-68.
Björkstrand, J., Schiller, D., Li, J., Davidsson, P., Rosén, J., Mårtensson, J., Kirk, U. (2019). The effect of mindfulness training on extinction retention: A randomized wait-list controlled trial. Scientific Reports 9, 19896.
Reddan, M., Wager, T., and Schiller, D. (2018). Attenuating neural threat expression with imagination. Neuron, 100,994-1005. [Data – OSF].
Schafer, M., and Schiller, D. (2018). Navigating social space. Neuron, 100, 476-489
*Featured in Neuron’s 30th year anniversary issue.
Schafer, M., and Schiller, D. (2018). The hippocampus and social impairment in psychiatric disorders. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology 83, 105-118.
Hu, J., Wang, W., Homan, P., Wang, P., Zheng, X., and Schiller, D. (2018). Reminder duration determines threat memory modification in humans. Scientific Reports, 8:8848. [Data – OSF].
Orederu, T., and Schiller, D. (2018). Fast and slow extinction pathways in defensive survival circuits. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 24, 96-103.
Montagrin, A., Saiote, C., and Schiller, D. (2018). The social hippocampus. Hippocampus 28, 672-679.
*Featured on journal cover.
Denny, B.T., Fan, J., Fels, S., Galitzer, H., Schiller, D., Siever, L.J., and Koenigsberg, H.W. (2018). Sensitization of the neural salience network to repeated emotional stimuli following initial habituation in borderline personality disorder patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175, 657-664.
*Editorial commentary by Mary Phillips.
Hildebrandt, T., Schultz, K., Schiller, D., Heywood, A., Goodman, W., and Sysko, R. (2018). Evidence of prefrontal hyperactivation of food-cue reversal learning in adolescents with anorexia nervosa. Behaviour Research and Therapy 111, 36-43.
2017 - 2014
Lee, J. L., Nader, K., & Schiller, D. (2017). An Update on Memory Reconsolidation Updating. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 21, 531-545.
*Featured on journal cover
Homan, P., Lin, Q., Murrough, J. W., Soleimani, L., Bach, D. R., Clem, R. L., & Schiller, D. (2017). Prazosin during threat discrimination boosts memory of the safe stimulus. Learning & Memory, 24(11), 597-601. [Data – GitHub]
Homan, P., Ely, B. A., Yuan, M., Brosch, T., Ng, J., Trope, Y., & Schiller, D. (2017). Aversive smell associations shape social judgment. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 144, 86-95. [Data – GitHub]
Homan, P., Reddan, M. C., Brosch, T., Koenigsberg, H. W., & Schiller, D. (2017). Aberrant link between empathy and social attribution style in borderline personality disorder. Journal of psychiatric research, 94, 163-171. [Data – GitHub]
Clem, R. L., & Schiller, D. (2016). New Learning and Unlearning: Strangers or Accomplices in Threat Memory Attenuation? Trends in neurosciences, 39(5), 340-351.
Delgado, M. R., Beer, J. S., Fellows, L. K., Huettel, S. A., Platt, M. L., Quirk, G. J., & Schiller, D. (2016). Viewpoints: dialogues on the functional role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Nature neuroscience, 19(12), 1545-1552.
Kroes, M.C.W., Schiller, D., LeDoux, JE., and Phelps, A.E. (2016). Translational approaches targeting reconsolidation. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences 28, 197-230.
Homan, P., and Schiller, D. (2016). Neuroscience: This is not a spider. Current Biology 26, R882-R902.
Schiller, D. (2016). Hacking the brain to overcome fear. Nature Human Behavior 1:0010.
Schiller, D. (2016). Running to Forget. Int J Neuropsychopharmacology 19, 1-2.
Tavares, R., William, C., Grossman, Y., Mendelsohn, A., Shapiro, M., Trope, Y., and Schiller, D. (2015). A map for social navigation in the human brain. Neuron 87, 231-243.
*Commentary by Howard Eichenbaum, The hippocampus as a cognitive map…of social space. Neuron 87, 9-11
Schiller, D., Eichenbaum, H., Buffalo, E. A., Davachi, L., Foster, D. J., Leutgeb, S., & Ranganath, C. (2015). Memory and space: towards an understanding of the cognitive map. The Journal of Neuroscience, 35(41), 13904-13911.
*Featured on journal cover
Zhang, Z., Mendelsohn, A., Manson, K. F., Schiller, D., & Levy, I. (2015). Dissociating value representation and inhibition of inappropriate affective response during reversal learning in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. eneuro, 2(6), ENEURO-0072.
Hildebrandt T, Grotzinger A, Reddan M, Greif R, Levy I, Goodman W, and Schiller D (2015) Testing the disgust conditioning theory of food-avoidance in adolescents with recent onset anorexia nervosa. Behaviour Research and Therapy 71, 131-138
Bentz, D., & Schiller, D. (2015). Threat processing: models and mechanisms. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science, 6(5), 427-439.
Schiller, D. (2015). Behavioral Genetics: Of Mice, Men, and Internal Bliss. Current Biology 25, R455-R457.
Mendelsohn, A., Pine, A., & Schiller, D. (2014). Between thoughts and actions: motivationally salient cues invigorate mental action in the human brain. Neuron, 81(1), 207-217.
*Faculty 1000 recommendation
Collins, K. A., Mendelsohn, A., Cain, C. K., & Schiller, D. (2014). Taking action in the face of threat: neural synchronization predicts adaptive coping. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(44), 14733-14738. [Data-OSF]
Zhang, Z., Manson, K. F., Schiller, D., & Levy, I. (2014). Impaired associative learning with food rewards in obese women. Current Biology, 24(15), 1731-1736.
*Commentary in Current Biology by Davidson TL and Martin AA, Obesity: Cognitive impairment and the failure to ‘eat right’ the failure to “eat right”.
*Included in Nature Reviews Neuroscience Research Highlights, August 2014
*Faculty 1000 recommendation
Apergis-Schoute, A. M., Schiller, D., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2014). Extinction resistant changes in the human auditory association cortex following threat learning. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 113, 109-114.
Mungee, A., Kazzer, P., Feeser, M., Nitsche, M. A., Schiller, D., & Bajbouj, M. (2014). Transcranial direct current stimulation of the prefrontal cortex: a means to modulate fear memories. Neuroreport, 25(7), 480-484.
Schiller, D. (2014). A Lighter Shade of Trauma. Biological Psychiatry 76, 838-839.
2013 - 2007
Schiller, D., Kanen, J. W., LeDoux, J. E., Monfils, M. H., & Phelps, E. A. (2013). Extinction during reconsolidation of threat memory diminishes prefrontal cortex involvement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(50), 20040-20045.
Brosch, T., Schiller, D., Mojdehbakhsh, R., Uleman, J. S., & Phelps, E. A. (2013). Neural mechanisms underlying the integration of situational information into attribution outcomes. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 8(6), 640-646.
Collins, K. A., & Schiller, D. (2013). What can fear and reward learning teach us about depression?. In Behavioral Neurobiology of Depression and Its Treatment (pp. 223-242). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Phelps, A.E. and Schiller, D. (2013) Reconsolidation in humans. Memory Reconsolidation. Alberini CM, ed. Academic Press.
Murrough, J.W., Schiller, D., and Charney, D.S. (2012). Neurocircuitry of anxiety disorders: Focus on panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Drug Discovery for Psychiatric Disorders. RSC Drug Discovery Series No. 28; Rankovic C, Bingham M, Nestler EJ, Hargreaves R, eds. The Royal Society Of Chemistry.
Schiller, D., Raio, C. M., & Phelps, E. A. (2012). Extinction training during the reconsolidation window prevents recovery of fear. Journal of visualized experiments: JoVE, (66).
Schiller, D., & Phelps, E. A. (2011). Does reconsolidation occur in humans?. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, 5.
Li, J., Schiller, D., Schoenbaum, G., Phelps, E. A., & Daw, N. D. (2011). Differential roles of human striatum and amygdala in associative learning. Nature neuroscience, 14(10), 1250-1252.
Schiller, D. (2011). Affective Neuroscience: Tracing the Trace of Fear. Current Biology 21, R695-R696
Schiller, D., & Delgado, M. R. (2010). Overlapping neural systems mediating extinction, reversal and regulation of fear. Trends in cognitive sciences, 14(6), 268-276.
Schiller, D., Monfils, M. H., Raio, C. M., Johnson, D. C., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2010). Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Nature, 463(7277), 49.
*Commentary in Nature News & Views: Quirk GJ and Milad MR, Neuroscience: Editing out fear
*Selected by Nature NeuroPod as one of the most important studies of the year
*Faculty 1000 ‘exceptional’ recommendation
Quirk, G. J., Paré, D., Richardson, R., Herry, C., Monfils, M. H., Schiller, D., & Vicentic, A. (2010). Erasing fear memories with extinction training. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(45), 14993-14997.
Freeman, J. B., Schiller, D., Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2010). The neural origins of superficial and individuated judgments about ingroup and outgroup members. Human brain mapping, 31(1), 150-159.
Schiller, D. and Johansen, J. (2009). Prelimbic prefrontal neurons drive fear expression: A clue for extinction-reconsolidation interactions. The Journal of Neuroscience 29, 13432-13434.
Schiller, D., Freeman, J. B., Mitchell, J. P., Uleman, J. S., & Phelps, E. A. (2009). A neural mechanism of first impressions. Nature neuroscience, 12(4), 508-514.
LeDoux, J.E., Schiller, D., and Cain, C.K. (2009). Emotional Reaction And Action: From Threat Processing To Goal Directed Behavior. The Cognitive Neurosciences, 4th Edition. Gazzaniga, MS. ed. MIT Press
Schiller, D., Levy, I., Niv, Y., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2008). From fear to safety and back: reversal of fear in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(45), 11517-11525.
Schiller, D., Cain, C. K., Curley, N. G., Schwartz, J. S., Stern, S. A., LeDoux, J. E., & Phelps, E. A. (2008). Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Learning & Memory, 15(6), 394-402.
Schiller, D. and Phelps, E.A. (2008). The Neuroscience Of Emotional Learning. Oxford Companion to Affective Sciences. Sander, D & Scherer, KR. Eds. Oxford University Press.
LeDoux, J.E. and Schiller, D. (2008). What Animal Fear Models Have Taught Us About Human Amygdala Function? The Human Amygdala. Whalen, PJ & Phelps, EA. eds. New York: Guilford.
Delgado, M.R., Li, J., Schiller, D,. and Phelps, E.A. (2008) The role of striatum in aversive learning and aversive prediction errors. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 1511, 3787-3800.
2006 & Older
Schiller, D., Zuckerman, L., & Weiner, I. (2006). Abnormally persistent latent inhibition induced by lesions to the nucleus accumbens core, basolateral amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex is reversed by clozapine but not by haloperidol. Journal of psychiatric research, 40(2), 167-177.
Schiller, D., & Weiner, I. (2005). Basolateral amygdala lesions in the rat produce an abnormally persistent latent inhibition with weak preexposure but not with context shift. Behavioural brain research, 163(1), 115-121.
Gal, G., Schiller, D., & Weiner, I. (2005). Latent inhibition is disrupted by nucleus accumbens shell lesion but is abnormally persistent following entire nucleus accumbens lesion: the neural site controlling the expression and disruption of the stimulus preexposure effect. Behavioural brain research, 162(2), 246-255.
Joel, D., Doljansky, J., & Schiller, D. (2005). ‘Compulsive’lever pressing in rats is enhanced following lesions to the orbital cortex, but not to the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala or to the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience, 21(8), 2252-2262.
Lobel, T. E., Nov-Krispin, N., Schiller, D., Lobel, O., & Feldman, A. (2004). Gender discriminatory behavior during adolescence and young adulthood: A developmental analysis. Journal of youth and adolescence, 33(6), 535-546.
Schiller, D., & Weiner, I. (2004). Lesions to the basolateral amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex but not to the medial prefrontal cortex produce an abnormally persistent latent inhibition in rats. Neuroscience, 128(1), 15-25.
Weiner, I., Schiller, D., Gaisler-Salomon, I., Green, A., & Joel, D. (2003). A comparison of drug effects in latent inhibition and the forced swim test differentiates between the typical antipsychotic haloperidol, the atypical antipsychotics clozapine and olanzapine, and the antidepressants imipramine and paroxetine. Behavioural pharmacology, 14(3), 215-222.
Weiner, I., Schiller, D., & Gaisler-Salomon, I. (2003). Disruption and potentiation of latent inhibition by risperidone: the latent inhibition model of atypical antipsychotic action. Neuropsychopharmacology, 28(3), 499.
Shadach, E., Gaisler, I., Schiller, D., & Weiner, I. (2000). The latent inhibition model dissociates between clozapine, haloperidol, and ritanserin. Neuropsychopharmacology, 23(2), 151-161.
Weiner, I., Gaisler, I., Schiller, D., Green, A., Zuckerman, L., & Joel, D. (2000). Screening of antipsychotic drugs in animal models. Drug Development Research, 50(3‐4), 235-249.
Meet the Team
Saren Seeley, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Saren H. Seeley, PhD, is a NIMH T32 postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona, following an undergraduate degree from CUNY Hunter College. She completed her predoctoral clinical internship at the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center.
Her postdoctoral research employs fMRI to understand individual differences in adaptation to loss and trauma, focusing on (1) learning and reward processes in prolonged grief disorder (Affective Neuroscience Lab; Dr. Daniela Schiller) and (2) PTSD resilience in a cohort of 9/11 WTC responders (Trauma and Resilience Program; Dr. Adriana Feder).
Parul Jain, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Her postdoctoral research looks at the learning and social impairments observed in many psychiatric diseases. Her work encompasses a broad range of topics in the field of affective cognition including the hippocampal maps associated with social interactions, reinforcement learning in misophonia, and social cognition in autism spectrum disorder.
Hannah Hao, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Hannah Hao received her PhD in Human Behavior and Design from Cornell University, where she studied emotion transition and emotion regulation using EEG.
Sarah Banker
PhD Student
Sarah Banker graduated from Wesleyan University in 2017 with a BA in Neuroscience and Behavior. After college, she worked as a Research Assistant at the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University. During this time, Sarah used neuroimaging to study the neural correlates of cognitive and affective behaviors in children with learning disabilities.
She is currently pursuing her PhD in Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she is co-mentored by Dr. Jennifer Foss-Feig, Dr. Daniela Schiller, and Dr. Xiaosi Gu. Sarah’s graduate thesis focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of aberrant social behavior and decision-making in psychiatric disease. Specifically, her research aims to combine computational modeling, human neuroimaging, and clinical assessment to examine impairments in social interaction in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Misophonia.
Alessandra Yu
PhD Student
Alessandra N. C. Yu graduated from Pomona College in 2019 with a BA in Psychology and Philosophy. During her undergraduate, she worked on emotion and interoception with Drs. Ajay Satpute and Shlomi Sher at Pomona College, Drs. Julien Deonna and Fabrice Teroni at the University of Geneva, Dr. John Coley at Northeastern University, Dr. Maria Gendron at Yale University, and Dr. Giovanni Pezzulo at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technology. She then completed her Masters of Research in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL, where she integrated theories of emotion using active inference under the supervision of Drs. Karl Friston, Ryan Smith, Edda Bilek, and Sarah Garfinkel. At Mount Sinai, she is a PhD student in Neuroscience using theoretical integration and computational psychiatry to study affect and agency with Dr. Daniela Schiller and reversal learning with Dr. Vincenzo Fiore.
Kamryn du Plessis
PhD Student
Kamryn du Plessis graduated from NC State University in 2022 with a B.S. in Integrative Physiology and Neurobiology, and a minor in Psychology. During her undergraduate career, under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Lucas, she studied sex differences in neural networks recruited by cued threat conditioning as well as sex-specific effects of phytoestrogens on socioemotional behavior across development in mice.
At Mount Sinai, she is a Neuroscience PhD student in the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, where she is currently working with her mentor Dr. Daniela Schiller as well as Drs. Xiaosi Gu and Harold Koenigsberg to identify impairments in dynamic social behavior and related neural computations in Borderline Personality Disorder.
Shaun Kohli
MD Student
Shaun Kohli graduated from Brown University in 2022 with an Sc.B. in Applied Mathematics – Biology. While at Brown he conducted research on Olfactory and Place encoding with the Fleischmann Lab – mainly focusing on computational analyses of calcium imaging recordings from mice.
Shaun is now an MD student at the Icahn School of Medicine and is researching how cognitive processes in social navigation can be uncovered from fMRI data.
Angel Prats
MS Student (Hunter College)
Angel Prats graduated from Hunter College with a major in psychology where he is also currently a master’s student. With a strong interest in both the psychological as well as the biological phenomena of the mind, Angel is aiming to understand the mechanisms implicated in misophonia, a condition that remains for the most part enigmatic, in an attempt to contribute to the potential discovery of novel therapeutic approaches and expand our understanding of such complex conditions.
Alissa Chen
Lab Manager
Alissa Chen graduated from Bowdoin College in 2022 with a B.A. in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry. While at Bowdoin, she conducted a thesis on epigenetic drivers of anxiety following early life adversity in rats. Transitioning to humans now, Alissa is working on the administrative, recruitment, and EEG and MRI data-collection aspects of misophonia, a condition characterized by decreased tolerance for specific sounds, hoping to address potential treatment. After her time in the Schiller and Foss-Feig lab, Alissa intends to apply for medical school to pursue psychiatry.
Ananya Iyer
Undergraduate Intern
Ana is an undergraduate at Barnard College intending to attain a B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior. Passionate about people and all things related to the brain, she is excited to be assisting with a clinical trial for misophonia. In the future, Ana hopes to further pursue research related to psychiatric disorders and eventually attend medical school.
Monika Narain
Undergraduate Intern
Monika (she/her) is a junior Physics, Neuroscience, and Visual Media Studies student at Duke University. Monika is interested in using theoretical and quantitative approaches to studying cognitive processes, and hopes to pursue a career in neuroscience research. Outside of research, Monika is a nationally-performing comedian, writer, and aspiring science educator.
Lily MacNamara
High School Intern (Ossining High School)
Participate
Misophonia Study - EEG/MRI
The purpose of this study is to better understand Misophonia, a condition in which auditory triggers lead to strong physical and emotional responses. This is a paid study which will take place at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and will involve two separate visits. During the first, you will be asked to answer a series of survey questions that are designed to assess aspects of your personality, behavior, and mood. We will then introduce you to the games and have you run through them. You will then play two of these games while we record your brain waves with electroencephalogram (EEG), which involves wearing a spongy cap. This first session should last approximately three hours. In the second session, we start by reminding you of the instructions for our final task that you will play within the fMRI scanner and let you practice it again if you’d like. Once you have a comfortable understanding of it, we will help you to get prepared for the fMRI scanner and conduct the MRI. To check eligibility criteria and sign up, click on the link here.
For more questions, email Alissa.Chen@mssm.edu
Misophonia Study - Clinical Trial
The purpose of this study is to better understand misophonia, a condition in which auditory triggers lead to strong physical and emotional responses. This study will take place at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and will involve two in-person separate visits and three remote sessions and potentially taking propranolol, a common drug used to treat high blood pressure and can be used for relieving stage fright. To check eligibility criteria and sign up, click on the link here.
For more questions, email Alissa.Chen@mssm.edu
Media
Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea is an exhibition by Fondazione Prada that features Daniela Schiller to showcase the history of neuroscience.
Podcast show Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson, digital revolution expert, chats with Daniela Schiller and more in “Memory: The Science of How We Remember” on repairing damaged memories.
Newstalk. Rewriting Memories.
PsychCentral. Brain Biomarkers May Help Predict Risk of Severe PTSD.
The Ripple Project – “Reconsolidation” documentary
A daughter discovers synchronicity between her scientific career and her father’s method of coping with his traumatic past. Reconsolidation begins with a clinical look into a neurological experiment as neuroscientist Dr. Daniela Schiller, labors to discover the key to rewriting fearful memories — reconsolidation
How to erase bad memories by R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American (Nov 25, 2013).
TEDYouth: “The act of remembering is a new experience in itself. Each time we retrieve a memory and re-store it, it’s a little bit different—what we remember is not the original event, it’s our latest version of it.”
Daniela Schiller joins a group of passionate speakers who inspire creativity, share mind-shifting stories, and engage the TED Youth audience in ways that every student deserves (Nov. 19).
Guardian.co.uk: “Ancient brain circuits light up so we can judge people on first impressions.”
Viviane Silvera’s artwork depicting memory with comments from Daniela Schiller. Short film: See Memory and Memory Without Walls project at Berlin Art Week with the Mauer Exhibition “[reimagining] the Berlin wall”.
Road to Resilience Podcast. Unmaking Painful Memories.
The Naked Scientists. [Article] Can imagination set you free from fear? [Podcast] Using imagination to unlearn fear.
The Washington Post. Your imagination could help conquer your fears.
The Moth Radio Hour. Forgetting Fear. By studying memory, Daniela connects with her father, who refuses to speak about his memories of the holocaust.
The New Yorker (May 19, 2014) “Partial Recall” by Michael Specter
The Royal Society: “Does emotion serve a particular function? How important is emotion in artistic expression? How do we study emotion in science and the arts?”
Daniela Schiller joins Ray Dolan, Professor of Neuropsychiatry at UCL, on a panel of experts representing the literary world and the visual arts to discuss these and other fascinating questions.
Studio 360 Live: Stories on memory.
Neuroscientist Daniela Schiller’s father rebuffed her attempts to talk about his experiences of the Holocaust. It wasn’t until years later that she came to understand him better.
Nature: NeuroPod is the neuroscience podcast from Nature, produced in association with the Dana Foundation. NeuroPod included us in the most important studies of the year 2009.
The Wall Street Journal’s As We Work Podcast with Daniela Schiller. Podcast: Could Return to Office Mean a Second Chance at a First Impression? and Print: You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression at the Office—Until Now
The Wall Street Journal. Moving Through Space When You’re Stuck at Home.
A Haunting Exploration into the Nature of Memory interviews Daniela Schiller and filmmaker Liron Unreich on Reconsolidation, Winner of Scientific Merit Award at 9th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival.
Hippocampus makes ‘social’ maps” by Laura Sanders, Science News (April 30, 2016). Brain structure known tracking physical locations also monitors other relationships.
MIT Technology Review: Repairing Bad Memories by Stephen S Hall.
Guardian.co.uk: “Research suggests a simple way to neutralise memories that evoke fear, but perhaps it is by learning to cope with life’s random tragedies that we develop as humans?”
DNAinfo.com: Our research was awarded the Blavatnik award of the New York Academy of Sciences.
New York Times: “A new study suggests that doctors can take advantage of the brain’s natural updating process—the way it might soften its impression of, say, pit bulls after seeing a playful one—to treat phobias, post-traumatic stress and other anxiety disorders.”
Journey through the Mind: Exploring the Life of a Neuroscientist. Episode 1.
Falling Walls Foundation. How Neuroscience Unlocks our Mental Maps of the Past by Daniela Schiller.
Memory Hackers, NOVA (February 10, 2016). Memory is the glue that binds our mental lives. Without it, we’d be prisoners of the present, unable to use the lessons of the past to change our future. From our first kiss to where we put our keys, memory represents who we are and how we learn and navigate the world. But how does it work?
EmTech: Neuroengineering – The Future is Now: Daniela Schiller, Associate Professor, Mount Sinai Hospital on groundbreaking research on memory , and whether we might enable us to block highly traumatic memories.
TSN – The Science Network: Daniela Schiller talks to Roger Bingham about how she got into science and reviews research, including her own, on modifying fear memories. ted_youth.
Nature: Video on our non-invasive way to affect memory reconsolidation in humans.
The Amygdaloids are a New York City band made up of scientists who shed their scientific garb at night and take to the stage with songs about love and life peppered with insights drawn from research about mind and brain and mental disorders.
Essays
A dominant role for serotonin in the formation of human social hierarchies, by Matt Schaefer and Daniela Schiller, Neuropsychopharmacology.
The Cooper Square Review of Science, Technology, and Medicine (2018). Grits and Grantsmanship. What if Jane Austen wrote a story on the social intricacies of laboratory life?
Behavioral Genetics: Of Mice, Men, and Internal Bliss by Daniela Schiller in Current Biology
The Courage to Fear. Even if subdued, fear is always there, lurking. Waiting for the right moment to erupt and take over your will. What are the brain mechanisms underlying our fear memories, and can we change them? By Daniela Schiller in Huffington Post Science.
Telling Humanity’s Brain Story: Insights From Brain Capital, by Eyre et al., Psychiatric Times.
Homan P and Schiller D (2016) Neuroscience: This is not a spider. Current Biology 26, R882-R902
A Lighter Shade of Trauma by Daniela Schiller in Biological Psychiatry.
Affective Neuroscience: Tracing the Trace of Fear. The trace of fear has been elusive and difficult to discern in the human brain. Researchers have come up with a clever new way to track it down. By Daniela Schiller in Current Biology.
In Search of the Brain’s Social Road Maps, by Matthew Schafer and Daniela Schiller, Scientific American.
Schiller, D. (2016). Hacking the brain to overcome fear. Nature Human Behavior 1:0010.
A Labtime Story By Daniela Schiller for Nature.com
How Free Is Your Will? A clock face, advanced neurosurgery—and startling philosophical questions about the decision to act. By Daniela Schiller and David Carmel in Scientific American.
Falling Walls: Social Relationships as a Spatial Problem, by Daniela Schiller, Scientific American.
Schiller, D. (2016). Running to Forget. Int J Neuropsychopharmacology 19, 1-2.
Snakes in the MRI Machine: A Study of Courage. What courage looks like in the brain—in real time. By Daniela Schiller in Scientific American
Yielding to Neural Temptation. By Daniela Schiller in Huffington Post Science.
Lab Awards
2023 Saren Seeley – NARSAD Young Investigator Grant
2023 Shaun Kohli – Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship
2023 Shaun Kohli – The Medical Student Training in Aging Research (MSTAR) Program
2023 Alessandra N. C. Yu – Renaissance Scholar Award from the Student Council Award Gala
2022 Nicole Bungo – Honorable Mention for the Senior division at the Long Island Science Congress, Inc.
2021 Sarah Banker – Best Research Achievement in Neuroscience (BRAIN) Award
2021 Denise Croote – Recipient of the Award for Science Advocacy
2021 Daniela Schiller – Promoted to Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry
2021 Matthew Schafer – Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F31)
2021 Sarah Banker – Seaver Graduate Fellowship, Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation
2020 Denise Croote – Mount Sinai’s Excellence in Community Service Award
2020 Temidayo Orederu – Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F30)
2020 Ofer Perl – Best Abstract Award in the Annual Neuroscience Retreat
2020 Matthew Schafer – Best Poster Blitz winner in the Annual Neuroscience Retreat
2020 Daniela Schiller – Promoted to Tenured Associate Professor
2019 Matthew Schafer – Dartmouth MIND Scholarship
2019 Matthew Schafer – Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience Scholarship
2019 Matthew Schafer – Honorable Mention in the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
2019 Daniela Schiller – Elected member of the International Neuropsychological Symposium (INS)
2019 Daniela Schiller – Elected member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
2018 Temidayo Orederu – Dartmouth MIND Scholarship
2018 Denise Croote – Best Research Achievement in Neuroscience (BRAIN) Award
2018 Denise Croote – NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
2018 MacKenzie Boatman – 2nd Place at the Regeneron Westchester Science & Engineering Fair
2018 MacKenzie Boatman – 1st Place at the Westchester Rockland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium
2018 Temidayo Orederu – NIMH R01 administrative supplement
2018 Daniela Schiller – Friedman Brain Institute Research Scholar Award
2017 Felipe Corchs – São Paulo Research Foundation Fellowship
2017 Denise Croote – 2nd place in the Brain Imaging Center’s 4th Annual Symposium Poster Competition
2017 Denise Croote – 1st place at the Graduate School Data Blitz Competition
2017 Philipp Homan – 3rd place in Mt Sinai’s FBI Neuroscience Retreat Poster Competition
2016 Alison Montagrin – Swiss National Science Foundation early post-doctoral mobility program award
2015 Philipp Homan – Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship for prospective researchers
2014 Daniela Schiller – Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in the Neurosciences
2014 Daniela Schiller – The Harold and Golden Lamport Research Award
2014 Daniela Schiller – Kavli Scientist-Writer Fellow
2014 Caroline Overacker – Fisher Scientific Award for an outstanding behavioral project
2013 Daniela Schiller – Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, National Academy of Sciences
2013 Daniela Schiller – Le Foundation Award
2013 Dorothee Bentz – Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship for prospective researchers
2013 Abigail Orlando – Intel ISEF 2013 1st place winner
2012 Marianne Reddan – Best Talk Award in Mt Sinai’s FBI Neuroscience Retreat
2012 Lee Lau – Best Poster Award in Mt Sinai’s TMII Retreat
2012 May Yuan – Best poster award SANS 2012
2010 Daniela Schiller – Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists, The New York Academy of Sciences
Journal Covers
Lab News
New blog post by Saren Seeley: How to read a brain (or not).
New blog post by Chrysanthi Blithikioti: Patching My Patch-Clamping.
New blog post by Matthew Schafer: “How do we keep track of our social world?”
New blog post by Christina Maher: “Are the answers to effective mental health care in cells of sonnets?”
The book is here! Check out Chapter 24 by Tem and Daniela.
Lab Life
On a Chicago river cruise provided at the Misophonia Research Fund Meeting – 9/20/23
Alissa at SOBP – 4/28/23
KK’s Defense – 4/25/23
Saren in Stories of Brain and Beyond with Mount Sinai and Story Collider – 3/22/23
Brain Fair – 3/14/23
Schiller Lab Lunch – 1/6/23
Parul presenting at Misophonia Research Fund Meeting – 9/20/23
KK’s Defense – 4/25/23
Saren in Stories of Brain and Beyond with Mount Sinai and Story Collider – 3/22/23
JP’s Master’s Graduation Gift (RIP JP’s goldfish) – 1/11/23
Parul at a panel discussion at the Misophonia Research Fund Meeting – 9/20/23
KK’s Defense with Dr. Xiaosi Gu – 4/25/23
Brain Fair – 3/14/23
JP’s Master’s Graduation Send-Off – 1/11/23
Alumni
Past Postdoctoral Fellows
Ofer Perl, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Oferikoo@gmail.com
Felipe Corchs, MD, PhD
Visiting Research Scholar
Current: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo
Alison Montagrin, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Geneva
Philipp Homan, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: Assistant Professor, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Catarina Saiote, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: Researcher, Pediatric Neuromodulation Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Rita Tavares, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: ITP fellow, NYU
Avi Mendelsohn, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: Assistant Professor, Haifa University
Dorothee Bentz, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Current: Senior Scientist, Basel University
Past PhD Candidates
Matt Shafer
PhD Student
Current: Postdoctoral Fellow with Drs. Guillermo Horga and Kyo Iigaya at the University of Columbia
Kaustubh Kulkarni
MD/PhD Student
Current: MD Student, ISMMS
Temidayo Orederu
MD/PhD Student
Current: MD Student, ISMMS
Denise Croote
PhD Student
Current: Instructor, ISMMS
Kate Collins
PhD Student
Current: Assistant Clinical Professor, ISMMS
Chrysanthi Blithik
Visiting PhD Student
Jingchu Hu
Visiting PhD student
Current: Postdoctoral Fellow, SCNU, China
Past MS/MA Candidates
Jeanpierre Tenesaca
MS Student
Current: Honors Chemistry Teacher in Brooklyn
Ariel De Leon
MS Student
Current: Medical student, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
Nadia Rahman
MS Student
Current: MS Student, The New School
Eric Nelson
MA Student (NYU)
Current: PhD candidate, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Past Lab Managers and Research Assistants
Emmanuel Caño-Garraway
Lab Manager
Current: Research Coordinator in the Goldstein Lab at ISMMS
Qi Lin
Lab Manager
Current: Postdoctoral Fellow at Hawkan Lau’s lab at Riken
Marianne Reddan
Lab Manager
Current: Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University
Lee Lau
Research Assistant
Current: MD Candidate, University of Miami
Eric Feltham
Research Assistant
Current: PhD Candidate, Yale University
Christian Williams
Research Assistant
Current: Project Coordinator, Queens College
Chris Thompson
Research Assistant
Past Undergraduate Interns
Rachel Lock
Undergraduate Summer Intern
Current: BA Candidate, Macalester College
Reid Shea
Undergraduate Summer Intern
Current: BA Candidate, Brown University
Kelly Fogelson
SURP Student
Julia Hirsch
Undergraduate Summer Intern
Atira Zeitchik
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Past High School Interns
Nicole Bungo
High School Research Intern
Kate Wohl
High school research intern
Maayan Rosenfield
High school research intern
Current: Undergraduate student, Brown University
MacKenzie Boatman
High school research intern
Caroline Overacker
High school research intern
Scott Berger
High school research intern
Abigail Orlando
High school research intern
Current: Data Insight Engineer
May Yuan
High school research intern
Current: PhD candidate, Rutgers University