Areas of Study
Clinical Science
Research Topics
- Dimensions of internalizing psychopathology
- Assessment and classification of emotional disorders
- Social cognition and neurocognition across the lifespan
- Digital technology and mental health
Research Summary
My research is oriented around understanding the basic cognitive and affective processes that mediate the impact of stress and trauma on internalizing psychopathology. In studying anxiety and mood disorders, I am interested in how people process emotional faces; specifically, how differences in processing may put them more at risk. My research also examines how changes in neurocognition across the lifespan are linked to risk for developing symptoms. This work aims to discover personalized algorithms that can predict symptom onset, fluctuation, and recurrence. My work is based in digital technology-based approaches for quantifying cognitive performance in large, transdiagnostic samples. I use short and frequent digital assessments to answer many of my research questions.
Representative Publications
- Rutter, L. A., Dodell-Feder, D., Vahia, I. V., Forester, B. P., Ressler, K. J., Wilmer, J. B., & Germine, L. T. (2019). Emotion sensitivity across the lifespan: Mapping clinical risk periods to sensitivity to facial emotion intensity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. doi: 10.1037/xge0000559.
- Rutter, L. A., Scheuer, L., Vahia, I. V., Forester, B. P., Smoller, J. W., & Germine, L. (2019). Emotion sensitivity and self-reported symptoms of GAD across the lifespan: A population-based sample approach. Brain and Behavior. doi: 10.1002/brb3.1282
- Rutter, L. A., Norton, D. J., Brown, B., & Brown, T. A. (2018). A double-blind placebo controlled study of intranasal oxytocin’s effect on emotion recognition and visual attention. Cognitive Therapy and Research. doi: 10.1007/s10608-018-9974-x
- Rutter, L. A. & Brown, T.A. (2017). Psychometric properties of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-7 (GAD-7) in a sample of outpatients with anxiety and mood disorders. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 39 (1), 140-146.
- Conway, C. C., Rutter, L. A., & Brown, T. A. (2016). Chronic environmental stress and the temporal course of depression and panic disorder: A trait-state-occasion modeling approach. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125, 53-63.
- Rutter, L. A. & Brown, T. A. (2015). Reliability and validity of the dimensional features of generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 29, 1-6.
- Naragon-Gainey, K., Rutter, L. A., & Brown, T. A. (2014). The interaction of extraversion and anxiety sensitivity on social anxiety: Evidence of specificity relative to depression. Behavior Therapy, 4, 418-429.
- Rosellini, A. J., Rutter, L. A., Bourgeois, M., Emmert-Aronson, B., Brown, T. A. (2013). The relevance of age of onset to the psychopathology of social phobia. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment. 3(3), 356-365.
- Rutter, L. A., Weatherill, R. P., Krill, S. K., Orazem, R. J., Taft, C. T. (2013). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, depressive symptoms, exercise, and health in college students. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. 5(1), 56-61.
The College of Arts