MEET THE TEAM
Principal Investigator
Postdoctoral Fellows
Ting earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an M.A. in Philosophy and Certificate in Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. His research investigates the structure of awareness. Integrating analytic metaphysics with cognitive neuroscience and insights from diverse philosophical traditions such as Buddhism, his work asks how various kinds of awareness – perceptual awareness, meditative awareness, and aesthetic awareness – are similar to one another. His research also has a normative aspect, exploring the cognitive, epistemic and ethical value of awareness.
Graduate Students
Gabriela Fernández-Miranda is a Ph.D. candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University, working with Dr. Felipe De Brigard. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Javeriana and her M.A. from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive mechanisms behind forgiveness and the processes by which memories of wrongdoings change. She uses behavioral and psychophysiological methods, in-depth interviews, and ethnography to investigate how the emotions associated with these memories can be modified when we recall them. Gabriela works with diverse populations and conducts her research both inside and outside the lab.
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Anna Smith
After receiving her B.A. in Cognitive Science from Carleton College in 2017, Anna spent two years working with Dr. Michael Yassa on studies of episodic memory mechanisms and performance trajectories associated with healthy and disordered aging. At Duke, Anna’s research centers around what artistic creation and reception can tell us about basic cognitive processes, including attention and memory. For her dissertation work, she is interested in the imaginative and recollective aspects of art viewing; specifically, the contributions of autobiographical memory to aesthetic experience.
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Shenyang joined the lab in 2018 as an undergraduate research assistant. He received a B.S. in Neuroscience and Mathematics from Duke University in 2020. He is now a fourth-year PhD student in the Cognitive Neuroscience Admitting Program, and he is interested in investigating how the functional networks of the brain support declarative memory and moral reasoning.
Ricardo studied psychology in the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He later earned a M.Sc. in Neuroscience from the Universidad de Chile, working with Eugenio Rodriguez on the neural correlates of bistable perception. Currently he is a Cognitive Neuroscience PhD student interested in episodic memory, executive functions and counterfactual thinking.
Nina Van Rooy
Nina is a Philosophy PhD student at Duke. She earned an M.A. in Philosophy at King’s College, London. She has broad interests in philosophy of psychology and cognitive neuroscience, but she is particularly interested in the relationship between the various levels at which the mind is studied and related issues of reductionism and multiple realizability. She is currently working with Trey Boone and Felipe De Brigard on a project that aims to give a comprehensive account of the ontology and epistemology of neural networks in neuroscience.
Lab Manager
Anjou Sharma
Anjou earned her B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Philosophy and Computer Science from the University of Miami in 2022, where she worked as a research assistant at the Child and Adolescent Mood and Anxiety Treatment Program under Jill Ehrenreich-May. Now, she manages the IMC Lab and coordinates the Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy. She is interested in memory and forgiveness, counterfactual thinking, and exploring the intersection between philosophy and neuroscience.
Research Assistants
Anna Ghelfi is a senior majoring in Neuroscience. She is primarily interested in cognitive neuroscience, especially in the relationship between conscious and unconscious behavior. She is currently exploring the relationship between memory and imagination through mental control.
Annika Socia is a senior majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry and a Certificate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. Most interested in the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy, she explores the profound connections between these disciplines and their implications for language, religion, and moral decision-making. Her current work involves research on memory and forgiveness.
Caroline Howard is a senior majoring in Neuroscience. Within this field, she is especially excited about the complexities of memory and decision-making, with a focus on understanding how ethical principles and personal morals shape our choices. In lab, she is investigating the interplay between memory and forgiveness.
Greyson Rainwater is a junior majoring in Psychology and History. She is interested in the neurological response and effects of various clinical practices in the field of psychology and their unique manifestations within individuals, the impact of health disparities among those from classified "rural" counties across the lifespan and the psychological process itself of emotionally reappraising memories of past wrongdoings and the contradicting interplay between remembering and forgetting.
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Daniel Robelo is a junior studying Neuroscience and Philosophy. He is interested in cognitive neuroscience and the epistemology of perception, particularly how perceptions of reality can differ from person to person, and what underlying biological and epistemological factors contribute to such differences.
Sola Corrado is a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience with minors in Computer Science and Philosophy. She is particularly interested in the intersection between neuroscience and law, exploring the extent to which neuroscientific evidence and research can hold power in legal situations. Her research interests include state of mind, consciousness, and memory.
Julia Simon is a sophmore majoring in Neuroscience and Philosophy. She is interested in cognitive neuroscience, including the problem of consciousness and its implications for public policy. She is currently working with the Memory and Forgiveness project to gain a greater understanding of the relationship between forgiveness and forgetting.
Collaborators
past and present
Donna Rose Addis, Rotman Research Institute
Tim Brady, University of California, San Diego
Paul Bello, US Naval Research Laboratory
Roberto Cabeza, Duke University
Simon Davis, Duke University
Kelly S. Giovanello, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Sangeet Khemlani, US Naval Research Laboratory
Joshua Knobe, Yale University
Tamar Kushnir, Duke University
Kevin LaBar, Duke University
Kourken Michaelian, Université Grenoble Alpes
John Pearson, Duke University
Sarah Robins, University of Kansas
Zach Rosenthal, Duke University
Daniel L. Schacter, Harvard University
Shanna Slank, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
R. Nathan Spreng, McGill University
Frederik Tollerup Junker, University of Copenhagen
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Duke University
Peggy L. St. Jacques, University of Alberta
Nina Strohminger, University of Pennsylvania
Karl K. Szpunar, University of Illinois, Chicago
Marty Woldorff, Duke University
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Fuchsberg-Levine Family Associate Professor of Philosophy
Associate Professor, Psychology and Neuroscience
Core Faculty, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences & Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Felipe earned a bachelor's degree from the National University of Colombia, where he studied philosophy and neuropsychology. He earned a masters degree from Tufts University, where he studied philosophy and cognitive science under the direction of Daniel Dennett. Then, he earned a doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he studied philosophy and cognitive neuroscience under the direction of Jesse Prinz and Kelly Giovanello, respectively. Before coming to Duke, he spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow in Daniel Schacter's Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Lab at Harvard University. With Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, he launched the Summer Seminars in Neuroscience and Philosophy that have been hosted every year at Duke since 2016. He is also principal investigator to the Memory and Forgiveness project.
