Contact Information
603 E. Daniel Street
M/C 716
Champaign, IL 61820
Research Areas
Research Interests
Wendy Heller is Professor of Psychology in the Clinical/Community Division, former Director of Clinical Training and Department Head in the Psychology Department, and a part-time Beckman Institute faculty member in the Cognitive Neuroscience Group. As of 2014 she was appointed Provost Fellow with a special focus on campus diversity. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and Psychology with Honors from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago. Her research investigates the neural mechanisms associated with emotion-cognition interactions and their implications for psychopathology. She is particularly interested in examining cognitive and emotional risk factors associated with the development or maintenance of anxiety and depression. She uses behavioral and neuroimaging methods such as neuropsychological task performance, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and event-related potentials (ERPs). She draws on psychological theories to model how fundamental emotion and personality constructs can be mapped onto brain systems to clarify the neural mechanisms of emotion and psychopathology. In turn, the neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings are used to inform psychological theories of emotion and psychopathology. Her work has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Research Description
My primary focus is on the neurobiological correlates of emotional function, including the neurological and neuropsychological processes involved in mood and emotion regulation, the development of personality and psychopathology, and the interaction of emotional processes with cognition. I am particularly interested in investigating cognition-emotion interactions in psychopathology, particularly in anxiety and depression.Neuropsychological research has demonstrated not only that the cerebral hemispheres are specialized for different cognitive functions but also that they differ in their emotional organization. Areas of the brain that are involved in information processing are thus engaged in a variety of emotional processes, concurrently and in a complementary manner, that may influence or interact with cognition at various stages of the learning or memory process. My research specializes in examining how different aspects of brain organization, including lateralization of function, as well as more specific regions of interest, influence emotional, social, and cognitive functioning.
Education
Ph.D. from the University of Chicago
Awards and Honors
Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Award for remarkable leadership and commitment to diversity at Illinois
Courses Taught
Neuropsychological Assessment
The autobiography of disability and mental illness
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
Professor, Biomedical and Translational Sciences
External Links
Recent Publications
Banich, M. T., Smith, L. L., Smolker, H. R., Hankin, B. L., Silton, R. L., Heller, W., & Snyder, H. R. (2020). Common and specific dimensions of internalizing disorders are characterized by unique patterns of brain activity on a task of emotional cognitive control. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 151, 80-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2020.02.002
Buetti, S., Xue, F., Liu, Q., Hur, J., Ng, G. J. P., & Heller, W. (Accepted/In press). Perceived control in the lab and in daily life impact emotion-induced temporal distortions. Timing and Time Perception. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134468-bja10018
Dolcos, F., Katsumi, Y., Shen, C., Bogdan, P. C., Jun, S., Larsen, R., Heller, W., Bost, K. F., & Dolcos, S. (2020). The Impact of Focused Attention on Emotional Experience: A Functional MRI Investigation. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 20(5), 1011-1026. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00816-2
Fisher, J. E., Guha, A., Heller, W., & Miller, G. A. (2020). Extreme-groups designs in studies of dimensional phenomena: Advantages, caveats, and recommendations. Journal of abnormal psychology, 129(1), 14-20. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000480
Gruber, J., Mendle, J., Lindquist, K. A., Schmader, T., Clark, L. A., Bliss-Moreau, E., Akinola, M., Atlas, L., Barch, D. M., Barrett, L. F., Borelli, J. L., Brannon, T. N., Bunge, S. A., Campos, B., Cantlon, J., Carter, R., Carter-Sowell, A. R., Chen, S., Craske, M. G., ... Williams, L. A. (Accepted/In press). The Future of Women in Psychological Science. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620952789
