Neurobiological correlates of cognitive functioning Brain-behavior relationships in severe mental illness Neuropsychological processes of emotion regulation Individual differences in cognition-emotion interactions

Contact Information Phone: 207-786-6426 Email: nkoven@bates.edu Office: Pettengill 365

• B.A. Psychology, Swarthmore College (1998)
• M.A. Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2001)
• Ph.D. Clinical Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004)
• Clinical Internship Eastern Virginia Medical School (2003-2004)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship Dartmouth Medical School (2004-2006)

Neuropsychological processes in emotion regulation and cognition-emotion interactions

There is substantial overlap in brain regions involved in both cognition and emotion. Prof. Koven is interested in the effects of positive and negative emotion on mechanisms involved in executive functioning, attention, and memory in individuals who are predisposed to certain moods, using neuropsychological models of brain activity to predict certain cognition-emotion interactions. Additionally, she is interested in the role of the prefrontal cortex in emotion regulation success, using a variety of techniques to examine emotion regulation outcomes (e.g., self-report measures, facial affective coding, information-processing behaviors via computer interface).

Neurobiological correlates of cognitive and affective functioning

Through collaborations with researchers at Dartmouth Medical School and other institutions, she continues a research line that focuses on the structure and function of brain structures involved in various cognitive (e.g., working memory, selective attention, self-evaluation) and affective (e.g., attention to and clarity of emotion) processes in severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. While she is not be able to conduct new MRI work at Bates, for students interested in neuroimaging, it may be possible to tailor a senior thesis to pose questions regarding volume (volumetry) and shape (morphometry) of relevant brain structures across samples of particular interest using existing MRI datasets.

• NS/PY 200 Introduction to Neuroscience
  
• PY 235 Abnormal Psychology
  
• NS/PY 330 Cognitive Neuroscience
  
• PY 361 Affective Neuroscience
  
• PY s42 Practicum in Clinical Neuropsychology
  
• PY 215 Brain Matters
  

Koven, N. S. (in press). Specificity of emotional awareness effects on moral decision-making. Emotion.

Cadden, M. H., Koven, N. S., & Ross, M. K. (in press). Neuroprotective effects of vitamin D in multiple sclerosis. Neuroscience and Medicine.

Koven, N. S., Roth, R. M., Garlinghouse, M. A., Flashman, L. A., & Saykin, A. J. (2010). Regional gray matter correlates of perceived emotional intelligence. Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience.

Koven, N. S., & Thomas, W. (2010). Mapping facets of alexithymia to executive dysfunction in daily life. Personality and Individual Differences, 49, 24-28.

Herrington, J. D., Koven, N. S., Heller, W., Miller, G.A., & Nitschke, J. B. (2009). Frontal asymmetry in emotion, motivation, personality, and psychopathology: Methodological issues in electrocortical and hemodynamic neuroimaging. In S. J. Wood, N. B. Allen, & C. Pantelis (Eds.), Neuropsychology of mental illness. New York: Cambridge University Press, 49-66.

Kruck, C. L., Flashman, L. A., Roth, R. M., Koven, N. S., McAllister, T. W., & Saykin, A. J. (2009). Lack of relationship between psychological denial and unawareness of illness in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Psychiatry Research, 169, 33-38.

Mohanty, A., Heller, W., Koven, N. S., Fisher, J. E., Herrington, J. D., & Miller, G. A. (2008). Specificity of emotion-related effects on attentional processing in schizotypy. Schizophrenia Research, 103, 129-137.

Roth, R. M., Koven, N. S., Pendergrass, J. C., Flashman, L. A., McAllister, T. W., & Saykin, A. J. (2008). Apathy and the processing of novelty in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 98, 232-238.

Roth, R. M., Koven, N. S., & Pendergrass, J. C. (2007). An introduction to structural and functional neuroimaging. In A. MacNeill-Horton (Ed.), Neuropsychology Handbook. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 217-250.

Koven, N. S., Roth, R. R., Coffey, D. J., Flashman, L. A., & Saykin, A. J. (2007). Cognitive performance and self-reported functioning in daily life among those with Parkinson’s disease: A brief report. Internet Journal of Mental Health, 3, 1-9.