Elizabeth A. R. Losin, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Losin, Ph.D. is the Bennet Pierce Associate Professor in Caring and Compassion in Adulthood and Director of the Social and Cultural Neuroscience Lab at the Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from UCLA in 2012 and came to the University of Miami at the start of 2015. Her passion lies in combining her training in anthropology and neuroscience to explore the bidirectional relationship between culture and the brain. She has investigated how humans acquire cultural beliefs and practices through imitation, how these beliefs and practices shape psychology and brain function by comparing individuals with different socio-cultural backgrounds, and how both processes impact human health and health care. Along with the SCN Lab members, she is currently focusing on how cultural experiences (e.g., discrimination) and social situations (e.g., the doctor-patient relationship) influence pain perception and the brain mechanisms underlying it. Dr. Losin is also fervid about sharing scientific knowledge and enthusiasm with the general public.
Research Coordinator & Lab Manager
Nikta Khalilkhani, B.S.
Nikta graduated with a B.S in Cognitive Science from the University of Oklahoma in June 2021 and started working as our Lab Manager in July 2021. At OU she worked with Dr. Edward Cokely in the Decision Analytics lab studying informed decision making and risk literacy. Nikta is Interested in understanding facial expression perception and how we decode social meaning from a face, and how faces influence our decision making and social behaviour. Currently she is working on our fMRI Pain Management study.
Graduate Students
Theoni Zoi Varoudaki, M.S.
Theoni became our lab’s first international graduate student in Fall 2020 at the University of Miami and followed Dr. Losin at Penn State to finish her PhD in Neuroscience. Theoni has experience working with animal models as well as human neuroimaging and has obtained a Master of Science in Neuroscience from the University College London. Her research interests span from the sociocultural modulators of pain perception, to neuroaesthetics, the study of how aesthetics around us affect our brain activity and health outcomes. Currently, she is working on her dissertation on the psychological and brain mechanisms underlying pain perception in different natural and urban environments.
Maryam Amini, B.A.
Maryam joined the SCN lab in Fall 2022. Her research interests include neural basis of empathy as well as self-control and metacognition in regulating emotions and pain. Prior to joining SCN, she worked with Dr. Tor Wager at Dartmouth College. She obtained her bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude with distinction) in Neuroscience from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Jake Gronemeyer, B.S.
Jake joined the SCN lab in Fall 2023. He graduated with Honors from Loyola University New Orleans in 2021, earning a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience. At Loyola, Jake worked in the clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience labs. He went on to work for 2 years at the Kessler Foundation’s Social Cognition and Neuroscience laboratory assisting with clinical neuroscience research on Autism Spectrum Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injuries. He has remained interested in interdisciplinary scientific work and aims to conduct research at the intersection of social, affective, and cognitive neurosciences.
Josue Cardoso, B.A., B.S
Josue joined our lab in the fall of 2023. He obtained his B.S. and B.A. in Psychology and Philosophy from Florida State University. From 2014 to 2023 Josue worked as a data manager and laboratory technician for Roger Fillingim at the Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence at the University of Florida. Josue is interested in several things including: neural biomarkers of pain, the use of immersive virtual reality and controlled dissociation to help tackle chronic pain conditions and movement evoked pain, and probing cultural & contextual influences on a person's pain report and how people understand, conceptualize and describe the intensity, unpleasantness and other characteristics of their pain in the lab and the clinic.
Lab Alumni
Graduate Students
Steven R. Anderson, Ph.D.
steven.anderson@miami.edu | Website | Stanford Profile
Dr. Steven Anderson became Dr. Losin’s first graduate student in 2015. He graduated in May 2020 with his Ph.D. in Psychology in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Division from the University of Miami. In summer 2020, he started his postdoctoral position as an Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine Research Fellow for Dr. Sean Mackey at Standford Systems Neuroscience and Pain Lab. Since 2023 Steven have joined KBR/NASA Johnson Space Center Behavioral Health and Performance Laboratory as a Research Psychologist.
Morgan Gianola,, Ph.D.
Dr. Mogan Gianola graduated in May 2022 with his Ph.D. in Psychology in the Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Division from the University of Miami. He will be moving on from the SCNLab to work as a post-doctoral researcher on a T-32 Cardiovascular research training grant under Drs. Neil Schneiderman and Maria Llabre. He will be working on publishing the findings from his dissertation study and incorporating cultural neuroscience techniques learned in the SCNLab in ancillary projects related to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos.
Yumei “Olivia” Chen, B.S.
Olivia spent her first year of phD training at University of Miami in SCN lab.
Visiting Scholar
Suhwan Gim, B.A.
suhwan.gim.psych@gmail.com | GitHub | COCOAN Profile
Suhwan was part of our lab from October 2021 to December 2022 as a exchange scholar, funded by a Biomedical Global Leadership Training grant from the South Korean government. Suhwan is a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), advised by Dr. Choong-Wan Woo (or Wani Woo), one of our collaborators, in the Computational Cognitive Affective Neuroscience Laboratory (COCOAN). Suhwan is interested to examine behavioral and neural mechanisms of how environments including social contexts, developmental background, or cultures influence pain and emotion and understand how psychological and biological health contribute to each other.
Research Associates
Emma Grace Choplin, B.S., SCN’s Research Coordinator/Lab Manager, 2019-2021.
Jenna Perry Ruocchio, B.S., SCN’s Research Coordinator/Lab Manager, 2017-2019.
Beatriz Yepes, B.A., Post-baccalaureate Research Associate, 2018-2019.
Natalia A. Medina, M.S., Research Coordinator of the SCN Lab, 2015-2017.
Post-baccalaureate Students
Shanova Lin, 2021-2022
Sofia Mercer, 2017-2018.
Elaine Costa, Digital Media consultant, 2015.
Undergraduates
Jasmine Sherfield
Jasmyne Hinson
Mary Christodoulou, B.S.
Sebastian Vargas-George, 2021-2022
Ainsley Kohler, 2021-2022
Denisse Rocco, 2021-2022
Lecsy Gonzalez, 2022
Madeleine Snider, B.S., 2016-2020, 2017 Summer Research Intern, 2018 Lois Pope Scholar, and 2020 Honors Thesis Student.
Nika Bucan, 2021
Felipe Parodi, 2019.
Efrain Rodriguez Sierra, Leadership Alliance Research Fellow, 2018.
Rachael Eickmeyer, 2017.
Fiona Collins, 2016.
Joshua Myers, 2016.
Augusto Cividini, 2015.
