Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences

Areas of Study

• Clinical Psychological Science
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Clinical Neuroscience

 

Research topics

• Patterns of resting-state functional connectivity associated with specific symptoms and behaviors across multiple forms of mental health
• Brain mechanisms underlying persecutory ideation and mistrust using social decision-making paradigms in serious mental illness
• Brain structures and brain functioning associated with stress reactivity and distress intolerance in serious mental illness and addiction
• Functional roles of the insular cortex in psychosis, addiction, and other mental health
• Development of paradigms to investigate interoceptive processing in mental health

 

Research Summary

My research investigates neural mechanisms underlying symptoms of severe mental illness and addiction using a range of assessments and neuroimaging procedures. In recent years, the focus of my work has been towards studying the symptoms of psychosis and addiction using resting-state connectivity and novel paradigms to assess stress reactivity and social decision-making. Accumulating findings from my previous studies have highlighted a role of the insular cortex in both symptom dimensions. To further investigate this link, I am developing novel paradigms to study a basic process associated with the insula, termed interoception, which is one’s awareness of the physiological state of the body. This domain of work integrates sensory and affective processes with self-monitoring, and by doing so may provide a novel lens for studying psychosis and addiction. Future work also plans to expand my studies of stress reactivity and social decision-making by examining additional factors such as trauma exposure, as well as clarifying the roles of interoception and emotion regulation in distress intolerance and mistrust behaviors.

 

Representative Publications

Wisner, K. M., Johnson, M. K., Porter, J. N., Krueger, R. F., & MacDonald, A. W. III (in press). Task-related neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation in schizophrenia and community monozygotic twin-pairs. Human Brain Mapping, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.2561320 

Wisner, K. M., Chiappelli J., Savransky A., Fisseha F., Rowland L. M., Kochunov P., Hong L. E. (2020). Cingulum and abnormal psychological stress response in schizophrenia. Brain Imaging Behav, 14, 548-561. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11682-019-00120-9 

Abram S.V., Wisner K.M., Fox J.M., Barch D.M., Wang L., Csernansky J.G., MacDonald A.W. 3rd, Smith M.J. (2017). Fronto-temporal connectivity predicts cognitive empathy deficits and experiential negative symptoms in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp., 38, 1111-1124.

Abram S.V., Wisner K.M., Grazioplene R.G., Krueger R.F., MacDonald A.W., DeYoung C.G. (2015). Functional coherence of insula networks is associated with externalizing behavior. J Abnorm Psychol., 124, 1079-1091

Moodie C.A., Wisner K.M., MacDonald A.W. 3rd. (2014) Characteristics of canonical intrinsic connectivity networks across tasks and monozygotic twin pairs. Hum Brain Mapp., 35, 5532-5549.

Wisner, K.M., Patzelt, E.H., Lim, K.O., & MacDonald, III, A.W. (2013). An intrinsic connectivity network approach to insula-derived dysfunctions among cocaine users. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse, 39, 401-413.

Poppe, A., Wisner, K.M., Atluri, G., Lim, K.O., Kumar, V., MacDonald, III, A. W. (2013). Toward a neurometric foundation for independent component analysis of fMRI data. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci., 13, 641-659.

Wisner, K.M., Atluri, G., Lim, K.O., MacDonald, III, A.W. (2013). Neurometrics of intrinsic connectivity networks: Retest reliability and cross-validation using a meta-level method. NeuroImage, 76, 236-251.

Wisner, K. M., Elvevåg, B, Gold, J. M., Weinberger, D. R., Dickinson, D. (2011). A closer look at siblings of patients with schizophrenia: The association of depression history and sex with cognitive phenotypes. Schizophrenia Research, 126, 164-173.