Kimberly Lewis Meidenbauer

Neuroimaging: fNIRS, EEG, & fMRI

In my previous work, I’ve taken advantage of neuroimaging modalities such as functional MRI and electroencephalography (EEG) to shed light on the neural underpinnings of speech comprehension (Humphries et al., Frontiers Neuro 2014), the effects of rumination on negative affect (Lewis et al., Emotion, 2015), empathic responding (Decety, Lewis, & Cowell, J Neurophys 2015; Decety, Meidenbauer, & Cowell, Dev Science 2018), moral decision making (Meidenbauer et al., Child Dev 2016), and the development of intergroup attitudes (Meidenbauer et al., Dev Science 2018).

More recently, I have begun using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is a portable neuroimaging modality that measures changes in cortical hemodynamics, similar to fMRI. One of the key benefits of fNIRS is its flexibility and portability as it can be used outside a standard laboratory setting. I recently condcuted a study to replicate the load-dependent prefrontal activation effect in fNIRS with a large sample and robust statistical analysis. By employing a multivariate analysis (behavioral partial least squares), I also found that the relationship between activity in the prefrontal cortex and task performance was dependent upon the difficulty of the task (Meidenbauer et al., NeuroImage, 2021).

Addtionally, neuroimaging researchers have demonstrated the use of scale-free neural dynamics (as indexed by the Hurst exponent) to measure cognitive effort in fMRI and EEG (Churchill, et al., Sci Rep, 2015; Kardan et al., NeuroImage 2020). I was able to validate the use of this scale-free measure in fNIRS which can be applied to continuously measuring cognitive effort in naturalistic settings (Letourneaux, Meidenbauer et al., ADS 2020; Zhuang, Meidenbauer et al., Cortex, 2022).

Prosocial and antisocial behaviors

I’ve always been very interested in understanding what internal (i.e. emotional state, differences in neural processing, dispositional/personality traits) and external (environmental) factors predict prosocial and antisocial/ aggressive behaviors.

In adults, I conducted a study demonstrating that different types of empathy for others’ distress can be separated on a neurophysiological level and that psychopathic traits are predicted by diminished neural responses during empathic concern (Decety, Lewis & Cowell, J Neurophys 2015). In work with young children, I found that how kids processed moral scenarios involving a harmful in-group member and helpful out-group member predicted whether they maintained or changed their in-group bias (Meidenbauer, Cowell & Decety, Dev Science 2018). Using EEG in older children and adolescents, I found that age affects how children evaluate an equitable allocation of resources (relative to an equal allocation), and that the elaborative neural processing of equitable decisions related to prosocial behaviors (Meidenbauer, Cowell, & Decety, Child Dev 2017).

In my current work, I am focusing on the physical environmental factors that can lead to aggressive behaviors. Two environmental factors I’m interested in that have demonstrated links to aggressive behaviors are heat stress and nature exposure. I am currently researching how these environmental factors can influence reactive, impulsive aggressive responses (i.e., those that are impulsive and occur after provocation). By implementing a novel task that I co-developed, called the Retaliate or Carry-on: Reactive AGgression Experiment (RC-RAGE), we are able to gather a lab-based measure of reactive aggression which is strongly linked to dispositional impulsivity and aggressive tendencies (Meidenbauer et al., BRM, 2023). The goal of this research is to empirically test these links using experimental heat stress inductions and exposure to natural spaces versus urban ones, and test several proposed mechanisms (e.g., cognitive control, hostile affect) which may drive the effects.

Open Science Practices

I feel very strongly about the importance of open science practices, including the use of pre-registration of hypotheses, sharing of data and materials, and transparent research practices, and have increasingly adopted these approaches in my work in the past few years.

In my recent work examining cognitive load and performance in fNIRS (Meidenbauer et al., NeuroImage 2021) and validating scale-invariance as a measure of cognitive load in fNIRS (Zhuang, Meidenbauer et al., Cortex, 2022), I have uploaded all data, analysis code, results, the PsychoPy n-back experiment code, and a wiki detailing each of these components. OSF project 1 link OSF project 2 link

In the set of online set of studies examining the role of preference in the affective benefits of nature (Meidenbauer et al., J Env. Psych 2020), my co-authors and I created pre-registrations for all studies and have made our data publicly available.

In the experiment validating the novel reactive aggression task (Meidenbauer et al., PsyArxiv, 2021), we have pre-registered all of our hypotheses developed based on the existing theoretical framework and pilot studies. We conducted confirmatory studies to test these pre-registered hypotheses with an adequately powered sample, and uploaded all data, study materials, analysis code and results to OSF for this project as well.

For the project linking mouse movements to personality in online resaerch (Meidenbauer, Niu, et al., J of Personality, 2022), all of the data, analysis scripts, and results can be found on the OSF project page and Tianyu (Selina) Niu's github page

I am passionate about continuing to employ these practices in my research program and have been involved in the University of Chicago chapter of the ReproducibiliTea meeting group (Twitter link), where we discuss current issues surrounding reproducibility and open science as well as how to implement solutions and improve our existing practices.

Environmental Factors

My dissertation work in the Environmental Neuroscience Lab (PI: Dr. Marc Berman) focused on the role that preferences for natural environments play in the cognitive and emotional benefits of nature interactions. In several studies, I examined whether the well-observed nature preference found in adults was also present in children (Meidenbauer et al., J Env Psych 2019) and whether preference accounted for the emotional benefits of spending time in nature (Meidenbauer et al., J. Env Psych 2020).

Currently, I’m interested in testing how exposure to heat stress can increase and natural environments can decrease impulsive aggression via affective and cognitive control mechanisms. Research on the temperature-aggression link has focused on the role of hostile emotions in causing aggressive behaviors. My work aims to test whether impaired executive functioning abilities which may be altered due to heat-related discomfort provide an alternative route to heat-induced aggression. Building off research in the ENL and others which demonstrates the negative association between neighborhood greenspace and crime/ aggression (Schertz et al. 2020; Kuo & Sullivan, 2001), I am working on projects to empirically test this link, and discover the potential mechanisms underlying the salubrious effect of nature exposure on reducing impulsive, aggressive behaviors.

Additionally, as environmental disparities remain a major issue within cities, where the effects of heat and lack of nature access are higher in under-resourced neighborhoods, I've begun recent work mapping out these environmental disparities in Chicago neighborhoods by combining subjective evaluations of the physical environments and objective measures of temperature and air quality. This project is a collaboration with MAPSCorps Chicago and the Environmental Law Policy Center in Chicago.

Task Development

One of the focuses of my recent research has been designing, validating, and sharing novel tasks and methods to be used in my own research and adopted by others who might find utility in them. For example, to conduct the study examining children’s environmental preferences, we created a tablet-based app. This app can be used by other researchers who might want to replicate or extend this work or evaluate child preferences in other contexts, as the app is purposely customizable (Meidenbauer et al., MethodsX, 2019; View experiment code on OSF). On the analysis end, by sharing the data and start-to-finish analysis code for running behavioral partial least squares analysis on fNIRS data (Meidenbauer et al., NeuroImage 2021; View experiment code on OSF), our goal is to make the use of these robust statistical analysis tools more accessible to other researchers who might find them useful.

In addition, given the advantages to conducting online experiments with large samples and a more diverse population than a typical collegiate setting, developing experiments which can be easily conducted in online populations (using jsPsych and Qualtrics) is an area I’m increasingly excited about. In several collaborative projects, I’ve helped to create a novel image-rating method which can generate faster and more reliable aesthetic assessments of large image sets to be used in future research (Meidenbauer et al., in prep), and an online version of the Stop Signal task which incorporates a performance-based bonus to increase full participation (in prep).

Similarly, the reactive aggression task I co-developed (RC-RAGE; Meidenbauer et al., BRM, 2023) was designed to fill a methodological gap in the existing work on reactive aggression, and was implemented using jsPsych so it can be run in both online and in-lab experiments.

Submarine

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