I am an assistant professor in the UW Department of Psychiatry with a joint appointment in the UW Department of Psychology.  My research and teaching focuses on affective neuroscience and on the biological underpinnings of affective disorders. I also do outpatient psychotherapy with depressed and anxious individuals. My primary aim is to provide understanding of mechanisms associated with affective psychopathology with the goal of reducing emotional suffering.

My research investigates the relation between emotional information processing and stress-related physiology.  I am particularly interested in how stress-related hormones, such as cortisol, alter activation of neural circuitry associated with emotion and memory. 
In individuals with affective psychopathology, stress hormones are at times dysregulated.  However, little is known about the relation between alteration in stress hormones and the psychological symptoms of affective disorders.  Our research addresses how stress hormones contribute to core psychological features of affective disorders.

The effects of the stress hormone cortisol on emotion and memory appear to depend on contextual factors and on the psychological state of the individual; we are therefore studying the neural underpinnings of the varying effects of stress hormones. Because the effects of stress hormones vary depending on the psychological state of the individual, we are studying how stress hormones may contribute to cognitive features of affective psychopathology even in individuals who do not show abnormal cortisol levels. 

Representative Publications

Biology of Psychopathology Seminar: 2003 | 2004 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009

University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Psychiatry 6001 Research Park Blvd. Madison, WI 53719 (map)

Office: 1539 WISPIC Phone: (608) 263-6126 Fax: (608) 263-9340 hcabercr@wisc.edu

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