The Cognition Emotion Interaction (CEI) Lab
Hadas Okon-Singer

Essential hypertension is the most important risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases, which are a major cause of death in industrialized societies. In several projects, we develop continuous measurement and analysis of blood pressure reactions to emotional stimuli among individuals at high risk of developing hypertension. We also examine whether deficient attentional mechanisms and neural abnormalities in prefrontal-limbic pathways are related to magnified blood pressure rea

Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are psychiatric conditions that can result in severe problems. About 10-15% of pregnant women will develop these disorders after delivery. We developed a battery of sensitive cognitive tasks to examine whether cognitive biases during pregnancy can predict future development of postpartum depression and PTSD. This knowledge may shed light on the mechanisms underlying adaptive vs. maladaptive biased processing

People closely monitor and appropriately regulate their interpersonal space to obtain a comfortable distance while interacting with others. In this line of studies, we examined the perception of the interpersonal distance in populations that are prone to difficulties in regulating the interpersonal distance adaptevelly- in social anxiety disorder, and in autism spectrum disorder. Our results indicated that the way in which the interpersonal distance is perceived, can predict

The research focuses on visual statistical learning of emotional information, that is, how humans learn to perceive statistical regularities of emotional stimuli in their environment. Current studies examine how negative valence influences the learning of temporal patterns, how statistical learning modulates attentional biases toward threatening stimuli, and age differences in the statistical learning of emotional stimuli.

Barel Rafaeli, Lee; Cywiak, Vanessa; Aharak, Daniel; Okon-Singer, Hadas; Enav, Yael Reflective Functioning—the ability to attribute meaning, beliefs, and intentions to one’s own and others’ behaviors—is crucial in parenthood. The transition to motherhood brings significant psychological changes, increasing vulnerability to postpartum blues, anxiety, and depression. In Israel, this transition is further complicated by ongoing war, political violence, and recent terror events,