Heather Urry
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D., University of Arizona, 2001
heather.urry@tufts.edu
Emotion, Brain, & Behavior Lab

Heather is originally from Tucson, AZ, which is nestled in the southwestern desert. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, and then made the trek to the great white North in midwestern Madison, WI. There she completed a postdoctoral fellowship specializing in affective neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Heather accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Tufts and moved to the Boston area in the Fall of 2005. She loves living close to the ocean.

Heather established The Emotion, Brain, & Behavior Laboratory in the Fall of 2005. The lab uses a variety of tools to learn how the brain and body work together to let us experience, express, and regulate emotion. Studies involve people of all ages, from young infants to older individuals in their mid 60s. Tools include functional magnetic resonance imaging, autonomic psychophysiology (skin conductance, EKG, facial electromyography), eye tracking, salivary cortisol, and behavioral measures.

Visit her lab website learn more about research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and to view current openings.

van Reekum, C.M., Urry, H.L., Johnstone, T., Thurow, M.E., Frye, C.J., Jackson, C.A., Schaefer, H.S., Alexander, A.L., & Davidson, R.J. (in press). Individual differences in amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity are associated with evaluation speed and psychological well-being. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Urry, H.L., van Reekum, C.M., Johnstone, T., Kalin, N.H., Thurow, M.E., Schaefer, H.S., Jackson, C.A., Frye, C.J., Greischar, L.L., Alexander, A.L., & Davidson, R.J. (2006).Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 4415-4425.  [supplemental material]

Ryff, C.D., Love, G.D., Urry, H.L., Muller, D.H., Rosenkranz, M.A., Friedman, E., Davidson, R.J., & Singer, B. (2006). Psychological well-being and ill-being: Do they have distinct or mirrored biological correlates? Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 75, 85-95.

Friedman, E.M., Hayney, M.S., Love, G.D., Urry, H.L., Rosenkranz, M.A., Davidson, R.J., Singer, B.H., and Ryff, C.D. (2005). Social relationships, sleep quality, and interleukin-6 in aging women. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102,18757-18762.

Urry, H.L., Nitschke, J.B., Dolski, I., Jackson, D.C., Dalton, K.M., Mueller, C.J., Rosenkranz, M.A., Ryff, C.D., Singer, B.H., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Making a life worth living: Neural correlates of well-being. Psychological Science, 15, 367-372. 

Allen, J.J.B., Urry, H.L., Hitt, S.K., Coan, J.A. (2004). The stability of resting frontal electroencephalographic asymmetry in depression. Psychophysiology, 41, 269-280.

Jackson, D.C., Mueller, C., Dolski, I., Dalton, K., Nitschke, J.B., Urry, H.L., Rosenkranz, M.A., Ryff, C., Singer, B., & Davidson, R.J. (2003). Now you feel it, now you don't: Frontal EEG asymmetry and individual differences in emotion regulation. Psychological Science 14, 612-617.

Shapiro, D.E., Boggs, S.R., Rodrigue, J.R., Urry, H.L., Algina, J.J., Hellman, R., and Ewen, F. (1997). Stage II breast cancer: Differences between four coping patterns in side effects during adjuvant chemotherapy. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43, 143-157.