Brandee Feola, PHD
Research Information
Dr. Feola’s research program investigates how individuals respond to threat throughout development and across psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and psychotic disorders.
The key questions that drive her research are how responses to threat:
1. Change throughout development
2. Predict risk for psychopathology
3. Differ in individuals with psychotic disorders
Dr Feola’s research uses multiple methods to assess how the brain and body respond to threat including brain imaging (structure, activation, connectivity), psychophysiological measures (cortisol, heart rate, skin conductance), and behavior (clinician-rated and self-report measures).
She is currently conducting a study to examine brain responses to threat in individuals with schizophrenia and how individual differences in threat responses relate to anxiety. Her ultimate research goals are to advance early identification of risk for psychopathology, improve psychological treatments that target maladaptive threat responses, and aid in the identification of novel treatment targets for psychiatric disorders.
Representative Publications
Feola, B., Flook, E. A, Seo, D. J., Fox, V., Oler, J., Heckers, S., Woodward, N. D., Blackford, J. U. (2024). Altered brain and physiological stress responses in early psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 271, 112-119.
Feola, B., Beermann, A., Felix, K. M., Coleman, M., Bouix, S., Holt, D. J., Lewandowski, K. E., Öngür, D. Breier, A., Shenton, M. E., Heckers, S., Brady, R. O., Blackford, J. U., Ward, H. B. (2024). Data-driven, connectome-wide analysis identifies brain correlates of fear and anxiety in psychosis and controls. Molecular Psychiatry, March 19.
Feola, B., Moussa-Tooks, A., Sheffield, J. M., Heckers, S., Woodward, N.D., Blackford, J.U. (2024) Threat responses in schizophrenia: A Negative Valence Systems framework. Current Psychiatry Reports, 26(1), 9-25
Feola, B., Flook, E. A., Gardner, H., Phan, K. L., Gwirtsman, H., Olatunji, B., & Blackford, J. U. (2023). Altered bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and amygdala responses to threat in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 36 (2), 359-372.
Feola, B., Clauss, J., Melancon, S. R., Noall, M. P., Flook, E. A., Benningfield, M. M., Blackford, J.U. (2021). BNST and amygdala responses to unpredictable threat in children. Developmental Psychobiology, 63(8), e22206.
Feola, B., McHugo, M., Armstrong, K., Noall, M. P., Flook, E. A., Woodward, N. D., Heckers, S., & Blackford, J. U. (2021). BNST and amygdala connectivity are altered during threat anticipation in schizophrenia. Behavioural Brain Research, 412, 113428.
Feola, B., Dougherty, L. R., Riggins, T., & Bolger, D. J. (2020). Prefrontal cortical thickness mediates the association between cortisol reactivity and executive function in childhood. Neuropsychologia, 148, 107636.
Feola, B., Armstrong, K., Flook, E., Woodward, N. D., Heckers, S., & Blackford, J. U. (2020). Evidence for inhibited temperament as a transdiagnostic factor across mood and psychotic disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders, 274, 995-1003.
Feola, B., Armstrong, K., Woodward, N. D., Heckers, S., & Blackford, J. U. (2019). Childhood temperament is associated with distress, anxiety and reduced quality of life in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Psychiatry Research, 275, 196-203.