FOCUS
In her research, Sofi uses interdisciplinary methodologies to assess the intersection of biological and social processes impacting parent caregiving behaviors. Sofi’s research follows two lines of inquiry. In one line of inquiry, she uses neuroimaging and hormonal assays to clarify neurocognitive and endocrine processes supporting caregiving, with a focus on fatherhood. In Sofi’s second line of inquiry, she uses self-report measures, sleep actigraphy, and neuroimaging to assess how socially modifiable health behaviors (e.g., accessing paid family leave following the birth of a child, sleep quality) relate to parent caregiving behavior.
MORE ABOUT SOFI
Sofi is a PhD student in Clinical Science at the University of Southern California. In addition to her research and coursework, Sofi facilitates psychoeducational classes for high-risk parents through her lab’s community-research partnership with Eisner Health, an agency providing health services to under-resourced families in Los Angeles. Sofi completed her BAs in Psychology and Art (practice) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After graduation, she spent two years working as a Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award Fellow in Dr. Ellen Leibenluft’s lab at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). At NIMH, she studied the pathophysiology and treatment of childhood psychopathology.
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — SUMMER 2022
Fathers’ Sleep Quality, White Matter Microstructure, and Neural Activation During the Transition to Parenthood
This dissertation proposal comprises two studies examining how poor sleep is associated with brain structure and function of new fathers. Study 1 examines whether sleep quality and changes in white matter microstructure across the prenatal to postpartum period is associated with the adjustment to fatherhood. Study 2 examines whether postpartum sleep quality is associated with reduced neural activation during a task meant to probe inhibitory control (i.e., go/no-go).
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