Skip to main content Skip to local navigation

CIAN Seminar: Exploring neurocognitive mechanisms supporting the development of emotion recognition skills

by Dr. Michele Morningstar

Queen’s University

 

Abstract

The ability to interpret emotional states from nonverbal cues, such as facial expressions or tone of voice, is a critical aspect of interpersonal interaction. This is an acquired skill: indeed, emotion recognition skills grow with age during childhood and beyond. How do we learn these skills? What neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms support the growth of this ability in youth?

During this seminar, Dr. Morningstar will present evidence that youth’s capacity to interpret nonverbal emotional cues, as well as the neural systems engaged during this social-cognitive task, are undergoing active maturation during the teenage years. In doing so, she will highlight surprising differences in the developmental trajectories of emotion recognition for faces vs. voices. Leveraging evidence from both clinical and typically developing populations, she will discuss potential neurobiological and social-cognitive mechanisms that may contribute to youth’s changing interpretation of socio-emotional information in adolescence.

 

Biography

Dr. Morningstar received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McGill University in 2017. She joined the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University as an Assistant Professor in July 2020, after completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. At Queen’s, Dr. Morningstar leads the Development of Social & Emotional Communication (DSEC) Lab. Her research focuses on the biological, cognitive, and social mechanisms supporting the maturation of emotion communication skills in adolescence.

Date:            Friday, November 1st, 2024

Time:            2:00 – 3:30 pm

Location:     York Lanes, room 280N