E.M.B. Brout Sensory Processing and Emotion Regulation Program

We are bringing together scientists from a variety of areas to better understand why some people tend to get emotionally aroused and have a hard time calming down. Our research includes a variety of clinical populations, including, for example, people who have problems with anxiety (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder), mood (e.g., depression, bipolar disorder), addiction, and personality (e.g., borderline personality disorder) disorders. Our treatment studies use portable technologies (e.g., cell phones) to give people tools to help calm down and experience less suffering in their daily lives.

The work we do is mostly interdisciplinary and translational. There are two primary lines of research:

1. Laboratory studies designed to characterize specific mechanisms underlying the dysregulation of arousal and emotion
2. The use of new technologies (e.g., smart cell phones, virtual reality) as next generation tools to help treat problems with dysregulated arousal and emotion.