PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ben Deen, PhD is a social cognitive neuroscientist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Tulane University. His research investigates how specialized brain systems enable us to understand other people and their actions and how such systems develop during infancy and childhood, using neuroimaging (fMRI), intracranial electrical recordings (iEEG), and behavior.

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RESEARCH AFFILIATE AND PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE

Taylor earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Tulane University in 2025. Prior to her graduate training, she received dual B.S. degrees in Biological Sciences and Psychology from Louisiana State University. Broadly, Taylor’s research explores how and why we attend to and remember familiar people within our social networks. To do so, her work employs behavioral paradigms, neuroimaging (fNIRS and fMRI), and social network mapping to further examine the roles of reward and familiarity in shaping familiar identity representations.

LAB MANAGER

Adya earned her BA in Neuroscience from Bates College in 2024. Adya’s interests lie in the application of brain imaging methods to the prediction and prevention of neuropsychiatric disorders, as well as in identifying neural biomarkers that may inform forensic risk assessment.

GRADUATE STUDENT

Isabel Nichoson is a Neuroscience PhD graduate student in the Social Memory Lab. She received her BA in Neuroscience from Wellesley College (2021). Her research investigates how familiarity and self-identification systems develop in infancy and early childhood, especially within the context of higher-level visual processing networks, using neuroimaging (fNIRS and fMRI).

GRADUATE STUDENT

Abbey Gantz is a graduate student in the Tulane Psychology PhD program. She received her BS in Experimental Psychology from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2024. Her current research interests include brain areas supporting personal perspective and person-specific Theory of Mind, and the functional specificity of social brain regions such as the temporal pole and medial prefrontal cortex.

GRADUATE STUDENT

Clara Steeby is a Psychological Science PhD student. She earned her BS in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2020. Currently, she is interested in using data-driven fMRI methods to study how the brain processes information about familiar people, especially within the anterior temporal lobe. 

MASTER’S STUDENT

Marta Nahorniuk is a Neuroscience Master's student at Tulane University. She earned her BS from Ukrainian Catholic University in 2024. In the lab, she uses fMRI to investigate whether representations from large language models can predict brain activity in Theory of Mind regions during naturalistic story listening. She is broadly interested in the intersection of natural and artificial intelligence.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Ian is a research assistant. He earned his BS in Psychology and BA in Philosophy from Tulane University in 2026. His work in the lab so far has centered on the functional mapping of areas of the anterior temporal lobe associated with social reasoning and memory. He is interested in how findings from social cognitive neuroscience can inform diagnoses and treatments in psychiatry.

MEDICAL STUDENT

Janis Park is a medical student at Tulane University. She received her B.S. in Neurobiology and Art History from Georgetown University in 2021. Her research interests lie in the medical applications of neuroscience research, specifically the use of radiology techniques to better understand various regions of the brain and their potential roles in cognitive development and neurological disorders.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Elena Paces-Wiles is a junior majoring in Neuroscience and Cognitive Studies and minoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Long-term she plans to pursue a Ph.D in neuroscience or pharmacology. In the lab, she assists with both behavioral and neuroimaging projects investigating the roles of familiarity and reward in social learning.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Noa Richman is a junior at Tulane University studying Psychology and Cognitive Studies. She is currently assisting on a project investigating how different factors associated with social networks influence social attention and memory. Noa is interested in pursuing research to understand how social cognition and memory might support constructive social representations in the mind.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Ece is a senior majoring in Psychology. In the lab, she is involved in community engagement and family recruitment for our infant studies. She wants to pursue clinical psychology with a research focus on cognitive development.

RESEARCH ASSISTANT

Isabel Eisinger is a junior at Tulane University studying Neuroscience and Cognitive Studies. In the lab, she works under the infant brain development project investigating the early development of neural responses involved in social understanding, where she supports participant recruitment and community outreach. She hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a J.D. with a focus on neuroethics, bridging neuroscience with law and society.