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An experimental design framework for the personalization of indoor microclimates through feedback loops between responsive thermal systems and occupant biometrics.

Progestogens' effects and mechanisms for object recognition memory across the lifespan.

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The Neuroscience of Dementia brings together different fields of dementia research into a single book, covering a wide range of subjects, including Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, mixed dementia, vascular dementia, physical activity, risk factors, mortality, biomarkers, SPECT, CT, MRI, questionnaires, nutrition, sleep, delirium, hearing loss, agitation, aggression, delusions, anxiety, depression, hallucinations, psychosis, senile plaques, tau and amyloid-beta, neuroinflammation, molecul

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The Routledge International Handbook of Social Neuroendocrinology is an authoritative reference work providing a balanced overview of current scholarship spanning the full breadth of the rapidly developing field of social neuroendocrinology. Considering the relationships between hormones, the brain, and social behavior, this collection brings together groundbreaking research in the field for the first time.

Featuring 39 chapters written by leading researchers, the handbook offers impressive bre

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Rensselaer is America’s oldest technological research university, offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology and web science, architecture, management, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

The university offers degrees from five schools: Engineering; Science; Architecture; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and the Lally School of Management; as well as an interdisciplinary degree in Information Technology and Web Science.

Rensselaer offers more than 145 programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Students are encouraged to work in interdisciplinary programs that allow them to combine scholarly work from several departments or schools. The university provides rigorous, engaging, interactive learning environments and campus-wide opportunities for leadership, collaboration, and creativity.

Driven by talented, dedicated, and forward-thinking faculty, Rensselaer has dramatically expanded the research enterprise by leveraging our existing strengths and focusing on five signature research areas: biotechnology and the life sciences; energy and the environment; computational science and engineering; nanotechnology and advanced materials; and media, arts, science, and technology.

The Institute is especially well-known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Alicia Walf's research interests are fueled by the broad question: Why are there individual differences in stress? This question led her to studying hormones' actions for plasticity in the brain and body across the lifespan.  Notably, she found that mechanisms of estradiol in the limbic system for behavioral responses to stress occur through a novel estrogen receptor to promote plasticity, without increasing growth in cancer-prone tissues of the body.  She has since refined her pursuit to include further consideration of body, brain, and mind relationships as they relate to memory, perception, social cognition, and emotions.  She has found that as much as hormones influence the brain for behavioral outcomes, behavior itself alters the brain, which is key for lasting brain health.  An ongoing focus is to understand the contextual variables important for these effects of hormones for behavioral and cognitive processes. 

Dr. Walf has taken a cross-species and cross-discipline approach. Similarities across species for stress and hormone effects are important to note as they suggest common mechanisms across mammals, including humans, in the brain and body responses to challenges.  Her studies of stress effects and mechanisms are not only confined to the laboratory, but often occur “in the wild.” Some examples of studying individual’s behavioral and cognitive responses to stress in their natural habitats include architectural built environments, artistic installations, interactions with technology, conference rooms, and the classroom.

Her findings about stress for emotional and other cognitive processes drive the varied and creative approaches Dr. Walf brings to the classroom.   She incorporates approaches, such as contemplative pedagogy, intergroup dialogue, active and remote learning, with the goal to promote well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Brain Health

Emotion

Memory

Neuroplasticity

Well-Being

Hormones' Behavioral Effects

Stress

Neuroscience

Anxiety  

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when-our-feelings-become-physical-understanding-our-bodily-responses-to-emotion

Senior Lecturer, Cognitive Science

Alicia Walf is a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute whose research interests are fueled by the broad question: Why are there individual differences in stress? This question led to studying hormones' actions for growth and plasticity in the brain and body. She has since refined her pursuit to include consideration of body, brain, and mind relationships as they relate to memory, perception, social cognition, and emotions. Dr. Walf has taken a cross-species and cross-discipline approach in her work. Dr. Walf’s studies of the effects and mechanisms of stress and well-being often occur in the “wild,” such as in architectural built environments, artistic installations, interactions with technology, contemplative practices, conference rooms, and classrooms.   Here, Walf examines what we know and what we have yet to learn about the physical manifestations of our emotions. Over 100 years ago, the earliest ponderings of how feelings are reflected in our body were described. Also, several decades ago, the first personality associated with an intense stress response was Type A personality. This personality type is characterized by quickness to anger and competitive drive as well as the negative consequences of chronic stress on the cardiovascular system. Recent work in mice shows that increasing heart rate produces an anxiety-like state (Hsueh et al., 2023, Nature). Now, a focus is trying to link changes in the body with feelings to brain mechanisms.

 Even after all of these years of study, we do not fully understand if there is a signature bodily response associated with specific feelings. For example, both anger and love (and other feelings that have been studied like jealousy) are associated with changes in the body that look indistinguishable from stress. The heart beat quickens, the eyes widen and the pupils become larger, blood rushes to the muscles and surface of the body. As surface body temperature and blood flow rises with these changes, a blush may become apparent on our cheeks. Indeed, a study showed that people have similar responses in describing which areas of the body are activated or deactivated in different emotional states; that is, where they feel these emotions in their body (Nummenmaa et al., 2013, PNAS). In this study, people said that love most greatly activated the head and trunk, whereas anger’s activation of the body was more focused on the head, arms, and chest.

  
We can agree that love and anger – and all the strong feelings we have – mentally feel quite different from each other and we also have different behaviors. Those differences are likely due to a cognitive component, or how we assess the current situation in relation to what we know and our past experiences. Neuroscientists would argue that there are likely different brain circuits active in an angry and love state (and others), but those precise mechanisms are yet to be figured out. To date, we understand that feelings of love activate a reward pathway. Neurochemical differences may also play a role. For example, release of dopamine in this reward pathway and oxytocin in areas involved in social bonding are tied to love. The challenge of understanding the links between these expressions of emotions in the body to the mechanisms in our brain remains.

Walf is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today. 

When Our Feelings Become Physical: Understanding Our Bodily Responses To Emotion

feeling-stressed-youre-more-likely-to-procrastinate-a-neuroscientist-explains-why-

 Procrastination can be thought of as losing the never-ending battle of approach vs. avoidance, with avoidance as the victor.

 
According to Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, when we are stressed, we are more likely to want to avoid not just the task at hand but the negative emotions we feel around that task as well. That’s because at a basic neuroscientific level, we have a bias toward the present and prefer the immediate reward of feeling good when the brain releases the neurochemical dopamine. Humans have a hard time considering consequences of inaction in the present.

 
Dr. Walf says that we tend to learn associations particularly strongly when there is a rapid release of dopamine. This is one way procrastination can become a habit, which is hard to break.

 
Some people actually procrastinate in order to get that burst of energy that motivates us to a quick completion of the task. This type of dynamic could involve basic emotional and reward structures of the brain.

Unfortunately, although avoiding the task may make you feel good in the short-term, this is misguided because it begets longer-term negative consequences. This is the crux of procrastination. Our bias toward the here and now tends to produce avoidance of thinking about the long-term until it is too late. Hence, a vicious cycle of avoiding the negative now then becomes negative later. This pattern is compounded because as much as procrastination can cause stress, stress can increase procrastination.

How can stress increase procrastination? The physiological and psychological function of stress is to refocus our attention on challenges and dangers so that we can deal with them. This happens very quickly, which has been advantageous to our species to avoid danger and approach safety without much thought. In this case, our limbic brain, including our amygdala, which is a sensor for danger and our hippocampus, which promotes storage of those memories, is driving this neural response. Other regions involved in emotion regulation, attention, and decision-making, such as the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, make contact with this limbic brain, but these regions are slower to act and more deliberate. Recent studies have shown less activity in these higher brain regions compared to the limbic brain during procrastination.

  
To reduce procrastination, it may be helpful to deliberately refocus attention on what is important and by using mindful techniques. The science in mindfulness supports a benefit related to these connections between limbic and higher cortical brain structures. On the flipside, stress causes us to refocus attention on what causes the stress and our reactions to it, rather than the task that may be at hand. When we are not in immediate danger from the stress, we still feel stressed out and fall into a pattern of overthinking and focusing on the wrong task. The wrong task in this scenario is procrastination driven by stress. In the end, Walf says, anything that people can do to refocus and reduce stress may be a useful approach to conquer procrastination.  



Feeling Stressed? You’re More Likely To Procrastinate. A Neuroscientist Explains Why. 



a-neuroscientists-guide-to-managing-postcovid19-anxiety-when-returning-to-work

With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxing mask-wearing restrictions and many companies like Google and Goldman Sachs asking employees to return to the office after working remotely since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, some people are nervous to re-enter society.

According to Alicia Walf, a neuroscientist and senior lecturer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,  the most effective way to overcome fears about re-engaging with the world may simply be to get back out into it. “Positive human connections are the most powerful tool for reducing stress,” she said in a recent Reader’s Digest article.

To control anxiety and improve the health of our brains, Walf also suggests some basic steps like getting sufficient sleep, eating a good diet, and removing distractions to improve focus.

Ultimately, a return to normalcy after such a long period of constant stress will be an important step toward restoring brain health.

 
“There can be lasting effects of intense stress on the brain,” Walf said. “Social isolation is an incredibly stressful event associated with increased stress hormone levels and many other long-term negative health consequences. Clinicians are rightfully concerned about the long-term effects of this pandemic on mental health, which may involve these changes in the stress response and brain circuits.”

And while feeling anxious may be unpleasant, stressful experiences can be learning experiences. According to Walf, adaptability is an important part of resiliency to stress, and a useful trait to work on us we adjust to our changing world.

“Although not wearing masks and returning to work are now major changes in many of our routines, producing feelings of anxiety,” Walf said, “the benefits of social interaction will likely help us return to our routines yet again and reduce the potential for long-lasting negative consequences of stress.” 

Walf studies the brain mechanisms of stress and reproductive hormones as they relate to behavior and cognition, brain plasticity, and brain health over the lifespan. Specific areas of her expertise are memory, emotions, and social interactions and how these functions not only arise from the brain but change the brain itself.



A Neuroscientist’s Guide to Managing Post-COVID-19 Anxiety When Returning to Work

Walf leads group at Smart Geometry, the international architecture meeting

Smartgeometry 2016: Atmospheric Delight

Dr. Alicia Walf, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, speaks about what happens in the brain when we're bored, why we're hard-wired to want to avoid it, and strategies on how to embrace boredom when we feel it and reap the mental rewards from a slower pace.

Learn more about Alicia Walf's expertise and media appearances here:
https://expertfile.com/experts/alicia.walf

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Dr. Alicia Walf on the Science of Boredom and Your Brain

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