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The ability to manage distress, sadness, and anxiety in response to social stress is impaired in a range of psychiatric illnesses, including depression and anxiety disorders. Takakuni Suzuki, Ph.D., was recently selected for an Oscar Stern STAR (strategic translational research) award of $10,000 to support his research into identifying a specific brain wave that is a marker of important brain functioning of cognitive control. Dr. Suzuki's STAR award will allow him to collect pilot data to advance this project and his results will shed light on possible interventions to reduce and prevent these negative emotions. This project builds on Dr. Suzuki’s dissertation work which used EEG technology in studying the modulation of error-related activity in response to emotional stimuli. His work juxtaposes well with the U-M Department of Psychiatry’s long history of studying stress and error-related cognitive control, offering new and exciting opportunities for collaboration with colleagues across the department.

Takakuni Suzuki, Ph.D., completed his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Purdue University and his clinical internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He joined the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry as a postdoctoral fellow in September 2019. He is a member of the Michigan Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. His research interests are in understanding mental illnesses in a broad transdiagnostic dimensional model, specifically by leveraging advanced statistical techniques and multiple measurement methods. Of special interest to him is understanding the effects and processes that underlie the interactions between individual differences, such as personality, in the context of other people or stimuli. His clinical focus is treating commonly co-occurring mental illnesses, such as psychosis, depression, substance use, and trauma.