Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences

Areas of Study

• Clinical Psychological Science
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Clinical Neuroscience

Research topics

• Brain mechanisms underlying persecutory ideation and mistrust using social decision-making paradigms in major psychopathology
• Brain structures and functions associated with stress reactivity and distress intolerance in major psychopathology and substance use
• Functional roles of the insular cortex in psychosis, substance use, autism, and trauma-related psychopathology.
• Development of paradigms to investigate interoceptive processing across psychopathology
• Interactions among sensory gating, interoception, and cognitive abilities across major psychopathology.
• Environmental effects of trauma and adversity on the above processes.
• Biological sex differences within psychopathology on the above processes.
• Integration of data from multiple levels: Brain networks during structural, resting-state, and task-based functional MRIs, peripheral physiological (e.g., ECG), task behavior, and self-report.

Research Summary

My research investigates neural mechanisms underlying symptoms of major psychopathology and substance use with a range of assessments and neuroimaging procedures. In recent years, the focus of my work has been on studying the symptoms of psychosis and substance use with 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 clinical dimensions. To further investigate this link, I am developing novel paradigms to study a basic process associated with the insula, termed interoception, which includes 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 substance use, among other clinical presentations like autism and PTSD. 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

* Indicates mentored or co-mentored student/trainee/staff first-author

Herms, E. N.*, Bolbecker, A. R., & Wisner, K. M. (2024). Impaired Sleep Mediates the Relationship Between Interpersonal Trauma and Subtypes of Delusional Ideation. Schizophrenia bulletin, 50(3), 642–652.

Larson, E. R.*, Moussa-Tooks, A. B., Tullar, R. L., Bolbecker, A. R., O'Donnell, B. F., Hetrick, W. P., & Wisner, K. M. (2023). Sex differences in neuroendocrine, sympathetic nervous system, and affect responses to acute stress in cannabis users. Psychopharmacology, 240(8), 1805–1821.

Bloomer, B. F.*, Larson, E. R., Tullar, R. L., Herms, E. N., Bolbecker, A. R., O'Donnell, B. F., Hetrick, W. P., & Wisner, K. M. (2024). Alterations in self-reported sensory gating and interoception in individuals frequently using cannabis. The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 1–11. Advance online publication.

Purcell, J.*, Brown, J., Tullar, R., Bloomer, B., Kim, D., Moussa-Tooks, A., Dolan-Bennet, K., Bangert, B., Wisner, K.M., Lundin, N., O’Donnell, B., Hetrick, W.P. (2023). Insular and striatal correlates of uncertain risky reward pursuit in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull, 49, 726-737.

Sepe-Forrest, L.*, Kim, D., Quinn, P.D., Bolbecker, M., Wisner, K.M., Hetrick, W.P., O’Donnell, B.F. (2022). Evidence of familial confounding of the association between cannabis use and cerebellar-cortical connectivity using a twin study. Neuroimage Clin, 36, 103237.

Herms, E.N.*, Bolbecker, M., Wisner, K.M. (2022). Emotion regulation and delusion-proneness relate to empathetic tendencies in a transdiagnostic sample. Front Psychiatry, 13, 992757.

Purcell, J.*, Herms, E.N., Morales, J., Hetrick, W.P., Wisner, K.M., Brown, J. (2022). A review of risky decision-making in psychosis-spectrum disorders. Clin Psychol Rev, 91, 102112.

Wisner, K.M., Johnson, M.K., Porter, J.N., Krueger, R.F., MacDonald, III, A.W. (2021). Task-related neural mechanisms of persecutory ideation in schizophrenia and monozygotic twins. Hum Brain Mapp, 42, 5244-5263.

Wisner, K.M., Chiappelli J., Savransky, A., Fisseha F., Rowland, L.M., Kochunov, P., Hong, E. (2020). Cingulum and abnormal psychological stress response in schizophrenia. Brain Imaging Behav, 14, 548-561.

Savransky, A., Chiappelli, J., Fisseha, F., Wisner, K.M., Du, X., Mirmomen, M., Jones, A., Adhikari, B., Bruce, H., Rowland, L.M., Hong, E. (2018). Elevated allostatic load early in the course of schizophrenia. Transl Psychiatry, 8, 246.

Chiappelli, J., Rowland, L.M., Notarangelo, F., Wijtenburg, A., Thomas, M., Pocivavsek, A., Jones, A., Wisner, K.M., Kochunov, P., Schwarcz, R., Hong, E. (2018). Salivary kynurenic acid response to psychological stress: Inverse relationship to cortical glutamate in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology, 43, 1706-1711.

Chiappelli, J., Shi, Q., Wijtenburg S.A., Quiton, R., Wisner, K.M., Gaston, F., Kodi, P., Gaudiot, C., Kochunov, P., Rowland L.M., Hong, E. (2018) Glutamatergic response to heat pain stress in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull, 44, 886-895.

Savransky A, Chiappelli J, Rowland LM, Wisner K.M., Shukla DK, Kochunov P, Hong E. (2017). Fornix structural connectivity and allostatic load: Empirical evidence from schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Psychosom Med, 79, 770-776.

Chiappelli, J., Kochunov, P., Savransky, A., Fisseha F., Wisner, K.M., Du, X., Rowland, L.M., Hong, E. (2017). Allostatic load and reduced cortical thickness in schizophrenia. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 77, 105-111.

Abram, S.V, Wisner, K.M., Fox, J.M, Barch, D.M.,Wang, L., Csernansky, J.G., MacDonald, III, A.W, Smith, M.J. (2016). 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, III, 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, III, A.W. (2014). Characteristics of canonical intrinsic connectivity networks across tasks and monozygotic twin pairs. Human 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. Schizophr Res, 126, 164-173.