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Casas Lab

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Led by principal investigator Brooks Casas, Ph.D.,  the Casas Lab addresses two broad areas of inquiry: neural underpinnings of valuation and learning in social settings, and how social and economic preferences influence valuation and learning. The lab seeks insight into the neural computations underlying normative social behavior using methods of decision neuroscience, behavioral economics, and social psychology. These approaches, when jointly brought to bear on complex social phenomena, provide tractable and clear answers about how humans make decisions about, among, and for one another.

Participate in One of Our Research Studies

Decision Making and Brain Development Study

 A study to understand how individual differences in decision making affect the development of the brain.

Teen Neurofeedback Study

A study that shows teenagers, ages 12-16, the activity in their brains as they make decisions in an MRI scanner. This technique, called neurofeedback, will help us to learn more about how the brain works.

Teen Decision Study

A study to understand how individual differences in decision-making affect the development of the brain during adolescence.

blue smoke

Brain Imaging Study of Smokers and Vapers

A study to understand how cigarette or e-cigarette users process different kinds of information.

A study to understand how feelings related to depression or anxiety may affect how the brain makes decisions.

A study to understand how people with and without a range of difficulties process different kinds of information.

Teenager Brain Imaging Study

A brain research study of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 14.5. 

Meet the Lab

Chiu and Casas lab teams

Collaborators

Shengchuang Feng, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

Lab News