A big congratulations to SCN lab for attending USASP, and especially to Dr. Elizabeth Losin for sharing our lab’s efforts in understanding the “Neural Mechanisms of Pain Empathy Decline Across Medical Training.”
The SCN Lab had a blast in San Diego for SANS. Many of our lab members presented their work. We had presentations by:
Dr. Elizabeth Losin: “Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms of empathy decline in medical students and effects on pain treatment decisions.”
PhD Candidate Theoni Varoudaki: “Why Cities Hurt More: Affective and Neural Pathways Linking Environment and Pain”
PhD Candidate Maryam Amini: “Personal Distress as a Modulator of Clinical Decision-Making”
PhD Candidate Younghwa Cha:“Autonomic Arousal as a Social Modulator of Pain: Skin Conductance Responses to Pain in Low-and High-Trust Medical Contexts.”
We also got to connect with previous lab members (Morgan) and saw some seals!
Congratulations to Maryam, after the intensive weeks of focus, on passing her comps (Comprehensive Exams)—which entail writing and presenting on the dissertation she will be working on to her committee. We are proud of you, Maryam.
Happy Birthday! And many blessings your way, plus cheesecake!
Maryam and the team she worked with introduced Spacetop, a cutting-edge open fMRI dataset with 101 participants, over 600 hours of brain data, and a mix of naturalistic experiences (like movies and stories) and experimental tasks. This resource will help researchers worldwide explore cognition, emotion, and social processing in the brain.
📖 Read the paper here: Spacetop – Nature Scientific Data
ANFA promotes the use of neuro and cognitive science to better design the build environment. Theoni presented preliminary data on her dissertation study that is trying to understand how pain perception changes in natural and urban environments.
Younghwa from our lab attended the 13th International Alexander Technique Congress, held at University College Dublin, Ireland, from August 3–9, 2025.
The Alexander Technique (AT) is a branch of somatics that uses awareness of bodily sensations to release unnecessary tension and support more natural, coordinated, and efficient movement. This year’s congress included a Science Day with keynotes and presentations by Prof. Lorimer Moseley, Mike YiYuan Tang, and Rajal G. Cohen, exploring topics such as AT and pain, as well as AT and neuroscience.
Much about the relationship between the body and the brain is still unknown. It is also not yet clear how our awareness and use of the body influence health. Through this congress, Younghwa gained even greater motivation to pursue research on pain, the brain, and the body–brain connection.
We’re so excited to welcome our new graduate student, Younghwa Cha to the SCN Lab this fall!
Younghwa comes to us with a background in cognitive and cultural sociology, earning her M.A. in Sociology from Ewha Womans University. Before joining Penn State, she worked as a post-master researcher at the Center for Neuroscience Imaging Research, Institute of Basic Science, where she explored brain dynamics using simultaneous EEG-fMRI and EEG.
Her research focuses on the connections between social and behavioral factors and brain activity, with the goal of uncovering how our social lives shape cognitive and emotional patterns.
Beyond her academic work, Younghwa is also a certified Alexander Technique teacher. She’s passionate about using somatic education and body movement to support health and well-being in everyday life—including in healthcare settings.
We’re thrilled to have Younghwa join the team and can’t wait to learn from her unique perspective and wide range of interests. Welcome, Younghwa!
Ella and Suhwan from our lab attended the Penn State Open Scholarship Bootcamp and came back energized by the conversations. Both highlighted how sessions on research transparency and reproducibility—including hands-on use of tools like Quarto—offered practical ways to make science more open.
Ella especially appreciated the talk on Data Rescue, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding and sharing public data. Suhwan noted how discussions about the role of AI in research sparked curiosity about both its potential and its challenges.
For both, the bootcamp was a reminder that open scholarship isn’t just an ideal—it’s a set of practices that make research stronger and more impactful.
Meet Melanie!
She brings a unique blend of international experience and curiosity about the human mind. After earning her B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Iberoamericana in the Dominican Republic, she went on to complete an M.S. in Applied Cognitive Science at Michigan Technological University.
Melanie has worked with people across the lifespan—from children with and without disabilities to older adults—always driven by a passion for understanding how we think, learn, and remember. In the lab, she uses tools like EEG and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to explore brain activity and uncover how cognitive processes change over time.
We’re excited to have her on the team!
A recent Inquirer article featured our lab director, Dr. Elizabeth Losin, exploring why doctors sometimes perceive patients’ pain differently based on race, gender, or other social factors. Her research shows that pain is not just biological — it’s shaped by social context, expectations, and even the doctor’s own brain.
Using neuroimaging and behavioral studies, Dr. Losin’s work finds that doctors often unconsciously downplay pain in certain groups, not out of malice, but because of how empathy and decision-making are regulated in the brain. These insights help us better understand—and begin to close—the gap in pain treatment disparities.
Article here👉 Penn State is studying racial and gender bias in pain care with neuroscience
