YALE COMPUTATIONAL PSYCHIATRY UNIT
Principal Investigator: Xiaosi Gu, Ph.D.
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Xiaosi Gu, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
My research examines the neural and computational mechanisms underlying human beliefs, decision-making, and social interaction in both health and disease using computational modeling.
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POST-DOCS
Alisa M. Loosen, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Alisa is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab, investigating neurocomputational mechanisms of reward and effort learning through the analysis of intracranial recordings in humans. She holds an MSc in cognitive neuroscience from University College London (UCL) and completed her PhD research in computational psychiatry at UCL and Yale University. During her doctoral studies, she explored learning and decision-making alterations in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
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Blair Shevlin, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Blair Shevlin is a postdoctoral fellow co-mentored by Xiaosi Gu and Laura Berner. He graduated from Goucher College with a degree in Psychology and then received his master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Towson University. In 2022, he earned his PhD in Decision Psychology from The Ohio State University. Dr. Shevlin’s research examines the role of value, attention, and motivation in everyday decisions. He specializes in computational modeling, incorporating theoretical perspectives from psychology, neuroscience, and economics to study how people approach their decisions in a variety of contexts.
Ruofan Ma, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ruofan Ma is a postdoctoral fellow co-mentored by Xiaosi Gu and Cendri Hutcherson. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2026. Her research examines how the brain-body system represents the self, other people, and self-other relationships. As a clinical neuroscientist, she also investigates how disruptions in these neurophysiological processes are associated with psychopathology, particularly interpersonal dysfunction.
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Taekwan Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Research Scientist
Taekwan is an Associate Research Scientist in the lab, interested in the neurocomputational mechanisms of maladaptive decision-making in psychiatric disorders. He earned his PhD from Seoul National University, studying the imbalance between learning strategies in OCD. Then, he completed postdoctoral training at KAIST and University College London, where his work focused on computational modeling of reinforcement learning and the detection of longitudinal change in these models. As part of the IMPACT-Y project, he is developing a longitudinal, transdiagnostic modeling framework to track mechanistic changes in computational phenotypes of psychiatric disorders.
Carina Brown, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Carina is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab, investigating learning, decision making, and higher-order cognitive functioning in psychiatric disorders using computational modeling and neuroimaging methodologies. She received her PhD from the San Diego State University/University of California San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. Her doctoral research explored alterations in reinforcement learning in individuals with eating disorders across a variety of domains, including reward/punishment and interoceptive contexts.
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Simon Jangard, Ph.D.
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Simon is a postdoctoral fellow and licensed clinical psychologist interested in the computational mechanisms underlying social functioning in psychiatric and substance use disorders. He earned his PhD from Karolinska Institute studying prosocial learning and decision-making in alcohol use disorder using behavioral experiments and computational modeling.
His current project focus on developing computational measures of social functioning and applying them longitudinally during psychological treatment for substance use disorders to better understand mechanisms of treatment response and individual differences in recovery.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Cristina Bañuelos, B.S.
M.D./Ph.D. candidate
B.S. in Neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon University
I am an MD-PhD student pursuing a PhD in AI and Emerging Technologies in the Biomedical Sciences at the ISMMS. I earned my B.S. in Neuroscience from Carnegie Mellon University. I am co-mentored by Drs. Ignacio Saez, PhD and Xiaosi Gu, PhD. I'm interested in applying reinforcement learning models to gain insights into feedback-based learning, as well as using intracranial electrophysiology to better understand the neurophysiology underlying decision-making and addiction.
Alexandra Fink, B.A.
Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience
Alexandra Fink is a Neuroscience PhD Candidate at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she is co-mentored by Ignacio Saez, PhD and Xiaosi Gu, PhD. Alexandra specializes in integrating multi-region human intracranial electrophysiology and computational psychiatry to investigate aberrant reward processing in psychiatric disorders, specifically Major Depressive Disorder. Her main PhD project aims to elucidate the behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of counterfactual reward processing in humans with MDD. She graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Neuroscience in 2020, where she studied conserved brain network features between two mouse models of MDD using multi-region electrophysiology under Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD. After completing her PhD, Alexandra hopes to bring her expertise in electrophysiology and computational modeling of behavior to the biotechnology sector.
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LAB STAFF
Matt Heflin, B.S.
Lab Manager
B.S. in Human Development, Cornell University
I’ve always had an interest in what happens below our conscious experience and how these subconscious processes exert influence over our waking lives. I enjoy research on the origins, both psychologically and neurologically, of our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. I plan on pursuing a PhD in either Neuropsychology or Clinical Psychology.
Micaela Fernandez, B.A.
Post-Graduate Research Associate
B.A. in Psychology, Princeton University
I'm interested in using computational models to understand how people learn and make decisions, and how these processes look different across mental health conditions. I'm excited by a future in which this kind of thinking allows us to design mental health treatments that are personalized to each individual. I plan on pursing a PhD in Clinical Psychology or Cognitive Psychology.
ALUMNI
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Karina Savillo, B.A.
Graduate Student, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
Eden, Neleman, M.A. ,Clincial Research Coordinator, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Silvia Blackmore, PhD candidate, Yale University
Atmana Joshi, M.S.
