OUR TEAM

MEGHAN H. PUGLIA, PH.D.

Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor of Neurology

Meghan earned her B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience from Penn State University in 2009, her M.A. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Virginia in 2015, and her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from UVA in 2019. Her research interests include (1) merging human neuroscience and behavioral epigenetics to understand individual differences in human behavior; (2) designing and executing infant longitudinal studies merging multilevel, multidimensional techniques to understand environment-gene-brain-behavior interactions throughout development; and (3) employing innovative methodological approaches to analyze “big data” generated with neuroimaging, longitudinal, and genetics data sets.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

CAT THRASHER

Developmental Psychology

Cat examines the neural and physiological mechanisms underlying the social regulation of emotion between infants and their caregivers. She earned her B.A. and M.A. at the University of Virginia.

CABELL WILLIAMS

Cognitive Psychology

Cabell studies the environmental influences of epigenetic modifications and how these changes may lead to individual differences in the neurological processing of social cues throughout infancy. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology from George Mason University and her M.S. in Clinical Research from UVA. Prior to her time as a doctoral student, she spent time in a lab studying the effects of parenting mindfully on adolescents’ emotional development, academic success, and risk-taking behaviors and in a clinic where she studied how to create a state of “peak performance” using EEG based neurofeedback.