Congratulations to our undergraduate research students, Cristina Del Valle Meza, Fejiro Akpoyovware, and Charlie Lu, on their poster presentations at the Vanderbilt Neurology Research Symposium!
Welcome!
The BRAINS (Brain Research And INternalizing Symptoms) Lab directed by Dr. Antonia Kaczkurkin at Vanderbilt University uses neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and advanced quantitative methods to study anxiety, depression, and related internalizing symptoms. Our work examines how these symptoms are organized, how they map onto brain systems, and why people with similar symptoms may differ in their underlying neurobiology. Our broader goal is to build knowledge that supports more precise approaches to mental health assessment, classification, and mechanistic understanding.
Broad Areas of Interest
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Dimensionality
Measuring the dimensional rather than categorical nature of internalizing symptoms.
Comorbidity
Studying brain-behavior relationships in samples with naturally occurring comorbidities.
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Neurobiology
Examining the common and dissociable neurobiological substrates of internalizing symptoms.
Heterogeneity
Understanding neurobiological heterogeneity within internalizing psychopathology.
News
Congratuations to Camille Archer on the acceptance of her paper, "Interactive Effect of Irritability and Negative Life Events on Internalizing Symptoms" in the Anxiety, Stress, & Coping an International Journal!
Dr. Antonia Kaczkurkin's new commentary, "Understanding emerging psychopathology through symptom networks – a commentary on Häfeli et al. (2026)," in JCPP Advances provides an overview on what symptom networks reveal about emerging adolescent psychopathology.