#  MBB Class of 2023: Thesis Titles 

 



   
Listed are the concentrations, thesis titles, and thesis advisors with affiliations of track students.  
  
  
  
**Kidist Alemu** (Computer Science), *A comparison of natural language models to subtype ischemic stroke from electronic health records* (advisor Puneet Batra, HMS)  
  
**Sophia Campbell** (Human Evolutionary Biology), *The evolution of reward circuitry: A comparative study between humans, chimpanzees, rhesus macaques, and capuchin monkeys* (advisor, Erin Hecht, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)

 **Allison Chang** (Neuroscience), *Age-specific functions of microglial C1q in neuronal translational regulation and synaptic plasticity* (advisor Beth Stevens, HMS)  
  
**Rachel Chau** (Neuroscience), *Investigating long noncoding RNAs as novel therapeutic targets in Alzheimer’s Disease* (advisors Anna Krichevsky, HMS & Lien Nguyen, HMS)  
  
**Evie Coxon** (Neuroscience), *Examining frontolimbic connectivity and childhood trauma as predictors of non-suicidal self injury in a high-risk cohort of children* (Jenna Traynor, HMS)  
  
**Odessa Xinyao Deng** (Neuroscience and Chemistry), *Breaking into song: Neural activation and functional connectivity of music with and without vocals* (advisors Lisa Wong, HMS & Psyche Loui, Northeastern)  
  
**Udochi Emeghara** (Neuroscience*), Examining the moderating impact of positive parenting on the association between early life adversity and neurodevelopment* (advisor Kate McLaughlin, Psychology/FAS)  
  
**Eloise Freitag** (Neuroscience), *Exploring the neurobiological association between temperament and polygenic risk for psychopathology* (advisor Charles Nelson, HMS)  
  
**Katie Gao** (Neuroscience) (March degree), *Reward network connectivity distinguishes antidepressant mechanisms of action in ECT and TMS: A resting-state fMRI study* (advisor Joan Camprodon, HMS)  
  
**Ilai Gavish** (Neuroscience and Philosophy), *Less than reckless: Assessing the role of consciousness in the moral appraisal of risky action* (advisor Gabriel Kreiman, HMS)  
  
**Cade Herrera** (Neuroscience), *Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind: A longitudinal fMRI study on the efficacy of mindfulness training to offset age-related cognitive decline* (advisor Sara Lazar, HMS)  
  
**Shifa Hossain** (Neuroscience), *Investigating the dynamics of cell death and cell proliferation in dorsal root ganglia of axolotls during peripheral nerve regeneration* (advisor Jessica Whited, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, HMS/FAS)  
  
**Miyu Imai** (Neuroscience), Individuality in phototactic preference in tethered adult drosophila melanogaster* (advisor Benjamin de Bivort, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, FAS)  
  
**Autumn Lynne Johnson** (Neuroscience), *Touch as a key regulator of social need* (advisor Catherine Dulac, Molecular and Cellular Biology/FAS)  
  
**Maria Kaltchenko** (Neuroscience), *Maternal exogenous oxytocin administration and the enduring effects of birth manipulations on the fetal brain* (advisor Marcy Kingsbury, HMS)  
  
**Christine Lee** (Neuroscience), *Systemic inequity and structural integrity: A neuroimaging investigation of socioeconomic status and brain development in adolescents* (advisor Anastasia Yendiki, HMS)  
  
**Nadine Lee** (Neuroscience), *Modeling temporal lobe epilepsy through prime editing of RAS-MAPK variants* (advisor Christopher Walsh, HMS)  
  
**Seungil (Rick) Lee** (Neuroscience) (March degree), *Identifying long noncoding RNAs as regulators of genes associated with autism spectrum disorder* (advisor Christopher Walsh, HMS)  
  
**Soo Lee** (Neuroscience) (March degree), *Investigating the relation between infant functional connectivity and child internalizing behavior* (advisor Charles A. Nelson, HMS)  
  
**Shaked Emily Leibovitz (**Neuroscience), *Overcoming fear-neuroadaptive changes following mindfulness training enhance fear extinction learning* (advisor Sara Lazar, HMS)  
  
**Mikaela Belle** Martin (Linguistics), *Y’all finna go to the d-hall? –Tense-aspect markers in Black Harvard African American English* (advisor Kathryn Davidson, Linguistics, FAS)  
  
**Rio McLellan** (Neuroscience), *Targeting proteostasis machinery in the brain vasculature to treat neurodegenerative disease* (advisor Lee Rubin, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, HMS/FAS)  
  
**Keilina Tita Monteiro Do Canto** (Neuroscience), *Studying the relationship between neuropeptides regulating stress and anxiety circuitry in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: An investigation through the pathology of post-traumatic stress disorder* (advisor Sabina Berretta, HMS)  
  
**Sam Murdock** (Neuroscience and Philosophy), *Theories of theory of mind: Investigating the dimensions and supportive neural architecture of the “mentalizing module”* (advisors Randy Buckner, Psychology/FAS & Susanna Siegel, Philosophy/FAS)  
  
**Jennifer Jeanette Near** (Neuroscience), *Associations between caregiver depression, caregiver-child play interactions, and early childhood social information processing: An fNIRS investigation* (advisors Charles Nelson, HMS & Laura Pirazzoli, HMS)  
  
**Cole Petersen** (Neuroscience), *Investigating the protective role of FBXO17 in the integrated stress response of glioblastoma stem cells* (advisor Christian E. Badr, HMS)  
  
**Charles Edward Reilly III** (Neuroscience), *The effects of gap junction-blocking drugs on the survival and behavior of larval zebrafish implanted with glioblastoma* (advisor Florian Engert, Cellular and Molecular Biology, FAS)  
  
**Allison Tu** (Psychology), *Examining intellectual safetyism: Developing a safetyism scale and characterizing its associations in a sample of college students* (advisors Richard McNally, Psychology/FAS & Ben Bellet, Psychology/FAS)  
  
**Jania Josette Tumey** (Human Evolutionary Biology), *An evolutionary perspective on contraceptive use and its role in global fertility decline* (advisor Anke Becker, HBS)  
  
**Elizabeth Wang** (Neuroscience), *Relationships between irritability and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and basolateral amygdala structural volume and structural connectivity* (advisor Elizabeth Olson, HMS)  
  
**Julia Catherine Welsh** (Neuroscience and Psychology), *Brain reactivity to personalized alcohol cues is related to severity of alcohol use disorder but not subjective craving in treatment-seeking adults* (advisors Scott Lukas, HMS & Laura Murray, HMS & Amy Janes, NIDA/NIH)  
  
**Peyton Williams** (Human Evolutionary Biology), *Tend-and-befriend stress response and chronic stress: social risks as effect modifiers of the relationship between social support and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic* (advisors Anne Thorndike, HMS & Daniel Lieberman, Human Evolutionary Biology/FAS)