Jenna Traynor

Jenna completed her undergraduate studies at York University (B.A., Psychology). Currently, she is a Ph.D. Candidate in the department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. She is interested in the behavioural and neurobiological mechanisms that subserve symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Her research uses various methods to examine the etiology and function of repetitive behaviours in ASD, including eye tracking, resting-state and task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Currently, she is investigating the relationship between GABAergic function, response inhibition and repetitive behaviour in young adults with ASD.

Jenna is also completing McMaster University's Research and Clinical Training program. Her long-term career goal is to combine neuroimaging research methods with evidence-based clinical practice. Broadly, she is interested in imaging the neural changes accompanying treatment of mood, anxiety and personality disorders.

Samantha Daniel

Samantha completed her undergraduate studies at University of Waterloo (B.A. Honours Psychology), and a master’s degree at the University of Windsor (M.A. Child Clinical Psychology). Currently, Samantha is working toward a PhD in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour in our lab, with a focus on development of processes such as emotion regulation and executive function. Specifically, she is working on a study investigating how mothers’ childhood experience of trauma impacts such processes in 3-year old children, and examining mediating factors, such as maternal empathy. Samantha is also involved in the Clinical Extension program, and is working on gaining further clinical experience with children and youth in the Hamilton community.

Heather Gallant

Heather completed her B.Sc at Dalhousie University, majoring in psychology and neuroscience. She completed her thesis in the Neruoecomonics Lab focusing the relationship between changes in visual processing associated with the acquisition of perceptual expertise and the role of medial-frontal cortex in these changes. After graduation, she worked as the Lab Manager of the Language and Learning Lab at the University of Toronto. It was then she realized she wanted to combine her two passions: child development and neuroscience. Currently, at McMaster University, Heather is working on an ongoing project that investigates the role of the pre and post-natal environment on the development of anxiety and depression. Particularly her work focuses on the effect of late gestation cortisol levels and early postnatal maternal sensitivity on the size and function of the amygdala as well as the structure of the associated cortico-limbic pathways.

Ellis Freedman

Ellis completed his undergraduate studies at McMaster University (B.A. Psychology Neuroscience and Behaviour). During his undergrad he has been a part of the Dr. deCatanzaro’s animal research lab, where he examined O-estradiol levels in axillary sweat of males. Ellis is currently a graduate student in the McMaster Psychology Neuroscience, and Behaviour program. His Masters work involves the creation of computerized assessments to target social skills within Autism. He has also assisted in the creation of the IMPACT (International Mobile Psychiatric Assessment for Children and Teens) with Amber Rieder. Ellis’ research interests include the interaction between stress and childhood bullying and its contribution to child development, the development of psychometric assessments, and neuroendocrinology.

Aya Dudin is a Masters student working on the collaborative “fMRI Baby Faces” study between McMaster University and the University of Toronto. She completed her HBSc in Behavior Genetics and Neurobiology at UofT where she developed an interest in the underlying neurobiology of maternal behavior, both typical and atypical. Aya is particularly interested in women’s brain activation patterns to infant stimuli and the differential neural correlates underlying postpartum depression and major depression. She is working under the supervision of Dr. Alison Fleming (UofT) and Dr. Hall.

Andrew is a PhD candidate in the department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, having received an MSc from the same department and an honours BSc in Physics from Brock University. In this capacity he has worked under the supervision of Dr. Michael Noseworthy in studies with a focus on functional MRI imaging of skeletal muscle, with the intention of devoloping a method to characterize peripheral vascular diseases that affect oxygenation and perfusion. In June he will present his most recent work entitled "Skeletal Muscle Motion Maps from Post-Contraction Gradient Echo Spin Saturation Effect" at the 23rd annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

In the Hall lab, Andrew supports research efforts in neuro-imaging acquisition and analysis, with a special interest in automated image processing and streamlined quality control of diffusion tensor imaging and functional MRI studies. He also works as an imaging co-ordinator for the nationwide CAN-BIND project, aimed at improving treatment for depression. In this capacity he has helped to improve the quality and efficiency of the imaging protocol. His interests in the study also involve standardization of MRI images from various sites and manufacturers to allow them to be analyzed as a single dataset. He hopes to apply his skills in a post-doctoral position in the near future.

Mayra Almanza

Mayra is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour at McMaster University. She completed her PhD in “Neuroscience and Behavioral Analysis” at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico. Her PhD work focused on investigating working memory in each of the three trimesters of pregnancy and its association with characteristic changes in the prefrontal-parietal electroencephalographic (EEG).
Mayra is particularly interested in studying the relationship between brain structures and brain activation patterns during executive functions and parental behaviour.
Currently, she is involved in developing a metric to assess physical infant characteristics of “cuteness”. This “cuteness” metric will allow the examination of the reward value of own-baby versus other-baby and receptivity to infant facial cues in mothers, non-mothers, and those with and without depression. Secondary fMRI analyses will examine the relationship between the reward value (cuteness) and engagement of reward circuitry; Nucleus Accumbens and Orbitofrontal Cortex.

Amber Rieder

Amber completed her undergraduate studies at Wilfrid Laurier University (B.A. Sociology) and at McMaster university (B.Sc. Psychology Neuroscience and Behaviour). Amber is a PhD candidate student in the McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery and Study Program (MiNDS). Amber completed her undergraduate thesis in the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory, examining the functional MRI of individuals suffering from IBS and comorbid anxiety. 
Her PhD work is in the field of global mental health and mobile/electronic assessment and treatment. Amber has developed the International Mobile Psychiatric Assessment for Children and Teens (IMPACT) a mobile, tablet delivered, assessment for children in hard-to-reach regions of the world. This was done in collaboration with fellow graduate student Ellis Freedman, and undergraduate student, Rita Abdel-Backi, under the supervision of Dr. Geoffrey Hall. In many places in the world, access to expertise in assessment and treatment of psychological disorders is limited or non-existent. The IMPACT was developed as an interview to be delivered by non-experts in these populations. 
Additionally, Amber is interested in the examination of biological signatures in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, such as genome-wide associations, starting at the level of the synapse (synaptic functioning, excitation-inhibition balance) to local circuits and brain connectivity. From these biological signatures, Amber is working on a project that will use a novel approach of clustering genotypic profiles (biologically driven common pathways in ASD) through machine learning and factor analysis. These biological signatures will be used to develop a computerized assessment to target heterogenous Autism phenotypes.
Amber’s research interests include the interaction between pre- and post-natal mental health and its contribution to child development, the development of psychometric assessments, global mental health,  accessibility to assessment and treatment, neuroimaging (fMRI, DTI, Cortical thickness, Functional connectivity), Autism, Genomics/Epigenetics.

Gésine completed a BSc Hons. degree (Psychology) at the University of Toronto and an MSc (Neuroscience) at the University of Western Ontario. Her MSc thesis involved using the Partial Face Encoding Task in a neuroimaging study to examine the influence of isolating facial features on behavioural and neural indices of empathy. Currently, Gésine is enrolled in the McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery & Study Program (MiNDS), and is a trainee in the Canadian Biomarker Integration Network in Depression - www. canbind.ca. Her PhD studies involve using a variety of neuroimaging techniques to examine emotion regulation, structural integrity and functional connectivity in persons with mood disorders before and after receiving treatment. Gésine is also interested in the neuroethics of cognitive enhancement, and in the development of neuroimaging techniques to assist in the differential diagnosis of atypical Parkinsonian syndromes. Gésine enjoys being a group fitness instructor, cycling outdoors, baking, and spoiling her nieces.

Diana Tajik-Parvinchi

Diana Tajik-Parvinchi is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour at McMaster University. She completed her PhD in the “Brain Behaviour and the Cognitive Sciences” area in Psychology at York University in November of 2011. Her PhD. work was focused on understanding the psychopathology of Tourette Syndrome (TS) and its comorbid conditions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Following her graduate work, she was awarded an NSERC supported visiting fellowship at Defence Research Development Canada-Toronto (DRDC-Toronto) where she examined the effects of various factors on cognitive ability of healthy adults. She completed six months of this fellowship prior to relocating to SickKids Hospital. In July 2012 she began her research fellowship at Psychiatry research at SickKids hospital where she took the lead on a private/public-initiated project between a commercial partner, the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) and SickKids Hospital. The major aim of her research at SickKids was to apply cognitive training methods to develop a software-based intervention program for children with ADHD. Currently, she is involved in research examining the relationship between brain structures and function with the aim of understanding training induced changes within the brain. She is also working on designing and developing a computerized cognitive training intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Rita Abdel Baki
Rita did her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour at McMaster University. Her interests include developmental psychology and neurodevelopmental disorders. Currently her research involves studying brain development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Sophia Roth

Sophia completed her undergraduate degrees in Criminology and Psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa. There, she developed an interest in abnormal psychology and studying clinical populations, primarily youth with mood and anxiety disorders. In her current research at McMaster, she is looking at youth and young adults with cerebral palsy and is interested in determining the mental health trajectories of young people with the disorder. She is using neuroimaging techniques to analyze brain development in this population and determine brain-behaviour correlates of the overall well-being of young people with CP.

Sondos Ayyash

Sondos completed her undergraduate studies at Ryerson University (B.Eng, Biomedical Engineering). She then went on to complete her Masters degree at McMaster University (M.A.Sc., McMaster School of Biomedical Engineering) in the Centre for Advanced Micro-Electro-Fluidics lab. Her Masters work was focused on the detection of bacterial viability and drug susceptibility through metabolic monitoring.

Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Biomedical Engineering at McMaster University. She is interested in combining two imaging modalities: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), using the following analysis tools: FSL, AFNI, SUMA and SPM, for the purpose of investigating functionally derived grey matter networks and their related structural white matter networks in severely depressed patients.

Irene O’Connor
Irene completed her undergraduate studies at McMaster University (B.Sc. Psychology), as well as completing a B.Ed. and M.Ed at the University of Western Ontario. She worked at Woodview Children's Centre in an independent living skills for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders and later at Hamilton Health Science's Pervasive Developmental Disorders team as a resource consultant linking families of school-aged children to available community resources. She subsequently worked at the Offord Center for Child studies co-ordinating a genetics study of family trees containing 3 or more cases of ASD as well as working as psychometrist for the Pathways in ASD study, a longitudinal study on predictors of optimal outcome.

Irene is currently a graduate student in the McMaster Psychology Neuroscience and Behaviour program. Her work involves assisting with the creation of computerized assessments to target social skills with Ellis Freedman and Amber Rieder. She is also studying the development of vocational skills in transition-aged youth with ASD as part of a collaborative project between McMaster University, the Offord Center for Child Studies, the Hamilon-Wentworth District School Board and Woodview Children's Center. Her broad interest is factors contributing to resilience across the lifespan for individuals with ASD.

Gabriella Mattina is a Ph.D. student in the McMaster Integrative Neuroscience Discovery and Study (MiNDS) program. She completed her Honours B.Sc. in Biology and Psychology at McMaster University. Gabriella’s research interests include investigating genetic markers and neural circuitry underlying psychiatric disorders, with a focus on women’s mental health. Her current project examines genetic risk factor for the development and exacerbation of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in women during the perinatal period, in combination with postpartum functional and structural connectivity in women with obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is working under the supervision of Dr. Meir Steiner and Dr. Geoffrey Hall. Outside of academia, Gabriella is a Zumba machine that also enjoys baking and eating Nutella.

Amanda completed her Masters degree in Medical Sciences in our lab.
She studied the neural correlates of asthma. Her project involved participant interviews as well as functional MRI. Participants were initially screened to determine their level of suggestibility in order to ensure that participants involved in the fMRI study were either highly suggestible or suggestion-resistant. The fMRI study was aimed at understanding the functions of key brain areas involved in asthma and emotional processing, such as the anterior cingulate cortex. To study asthma-related emotional processing Amanda's fMRI paradigms involved an asthma specific emotional conflict task, as well as an emotional stroop task, in patients with asthma.

Jennifer was a Post Doc in our lab who worked under the supervision of Alison Flemming at the University of Toronto.
Jennifer worked our fMRI Baby Faces study with Drs Flemming (UofT), Steiner and Hall.

Ivan Skelin was a Research Fellow working under the supervision of Dr. Claudio N. Soares. He was studying the effects of monoamine depletion paradigms (acute tyrptophan and phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion) on mood and vasomotor symptoms in midlife women. In addition to using standardized tests for mood (HAM-D, MASDR) and objective vasomotor symptoms assessment (sternal skin conductance monitoring), Ivan was using fMRI to identify the neural correlates of effects of monoamine manipulations on brain circuitry involved in mood regulation.

Erica Tatham

Erica completed her Bachelors of Science in Biology and Psychology at McMaster University. She completed her undergraduate thesis in the lab and is now currently pursuing her Masters of Science in the MiNDs graduate program. Her interests lie in using neuroimaging techniques to further understand the neural anatomy and functional effects of mental illness. Her current project uses diffusion tensor imaging to investigate white matter integrity changes in patients with Major Depressive Disorder. Additionally, Erica will be investigating the influence of gene and environment on neural connectivity changes in major depression, and weather these changes are associated with response to anti-depressant treatment.

Lindsay Hanford

Lindsay did her undergraduate in biomedical sciences at the University of Guelph where she developed an interest in Neuroscience and decided to pursue it here at McMaster through the MiNDS graduate program. Her interests lie in the neurodevelopment of pediatric onset of mental illness, more specifically how it develops, how the impairments translate to neurocircuitry and what impact it has on mental health later on in life. Her PhD project involved looking at the differences in emotional conflict and resolution capabilities using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging across the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder. These offspring range from being unaffected, to having a diagnosis of ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (partially affected group), to Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (affected group). 

Caitlin Carew completed her Masters Degree in our lab.
She studied the neuropathology of major depressive disorder. Her project involved an fMRI paradigm designed to examine the neural correlates of rumination and thought suppression. The fMRI paradigm was aimed at understanding the role of the prefrontal cortex in regulation of conscious thought in young women with depression.

Krissy Doyle completed her PhD in our lab.
She studied cross-sensory emotion processing in teens with autism spectrum disorders. The processing of social information involves a network of distributed brain regions, many of which appear to be aberrant in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Because information from the different senses is typically complimentary, cross-sensory integration of social-emotional cues provides information about social judgment that is unobtainable from any one sense in isolation. The objective of Krissy’s study was to investigate the neural circuitry underlying the processing of socially important, affective multimodal cues in high functioning teenage boys with ASD.
The study used individually thresholded emotional face stimuli (% of maximal) in a cross-sensory task that involved the matching of an emotion face and voice combination to an emotion label, to see how successful integration can facilitate the processing of emotion in difficult to detect situations.

Rhandi Senaratne completed her Masters Degree in our lab.
She studied the neurophysiology of bipolar depression. Her project involved an fMRI paradigm designed to examine the neural correlates of recollection memory and reward processing. In addition, Rhandi used Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to examine biochemical markers of neural function in patients with Bipolar Disorder.

Caitlin completed her bachelor of science in Genetics at McMaster University. She is currently studying medicine at the University of Toronto.
Caitlin worked for us as a research assistant in a clinical trial looking at the effect of the probiotic strain, Bifidobacterium longum, on anxiety and depression in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Many studies suggest that psychiatric co-morbidities in IBS patients develop as a consequence of gut inflammation and are therefore amenable to therapy with specific probiotic strains such as B. longum. For this clinical trial, our lab is collaborating with a gastroenterology lab at the McMaster Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute in order to examine changes in IBS symptoms, biomarkers and gut microbiota in addition to functional changes in the central nervous system as a result of administration of this probiotic strain of bacteria.

Allyson Graham

Allyson completed her bachelor of science in Psychology at McGill University. Currently, she is pursuing a Master's Degree with the McMaster Institute for Neuroscience and Discovery (MINDS Program). She is interested in studying the neurological mechanisms that give rise to subtle affective processing. Her master's thesis will investigate genetic influences on neuroanatomic profiles in the developing autistic brain.

Wanda’s masters thesis involved cortical thickness analyses of MRI anatomical images in patients with major depressive disorder. She also investigated the relationship between structural changes in the brain and their resultant functional consequences. In general, her research interests involve the use of neuroimaging to study the developmental course of affective disorders.

Alexander Hall
Alex completed his B.Sc at the University of Guelph, majoring in biological sciences as well as completing a minor in neuroscience. It was at this point that he developed an interest in neuroscience research and particularly the biological basis of psychiatric disorders. He decided to pursue this interest through the MiNDS graduate neuroscience program here at McMaster where he completed his M.Sc. His project examined the role of the pre and post-natal environment on the development of anxiety and depression. Particularly his work focused on the effect of late gestation cortisol levels and early postnatal maternal sensitivity on the size and function of the amygdala as well as the structure of the associated cortico-limbic pathways.

Kathy Ghajar

Kathy completed her Bachelor of Science degree at McMaster University, in the Biology and Psychology program. She became involved in the lab while doing a project course, and went on to complete her undergraduate thesis in the lab the following year. Her undergraduate thesis was an exploratory project on brain plasticity in healthy adults, where she observed the improvement of working memory abilities through the use of a computerized training program, Cogmed. She completed her Master’s thesis in the Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour graduate program. In partnership with Sick Kids hospital in Toronto and the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), she’s conducted an imaging study to examine brain development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She also carried out a Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) study, looking at the concentration of metabolites in the brain of children with ASD, OCD, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).