Home Department: Symbolic Systems
Mentor: Claudia Padula (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences)

"When Coping Helps (and When It Hurts): Context-Specific Relapse Vulnerability and fMRI Markers of Craving and Control"

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects nearly 28 million Americans each year, with higher prevalence among veterans. Despite established treatments, about two-thirds of patients relapse within six months. Prior work in the lab suggests recovery factors may be context-sensitive: coping skills that are protective in one high-risk context may be ineffective, or counterproductive, in another. This summer, Hannah will test this framework using two BRAVE Lab fMRI datasets: a cue-induced craving task (craving/salience) and a Go/No-Go task (inhibitory control). By linking coping profiles to cognition and salience networks, Hannah will assess whether fMRI can sensitively detect neural signatures differ across coping styles. These results could help identify novel intervention targets by identifying when specific coping strategies are associated with cognitive versus salience strategies.