CHRYSIKOU LAB

Principal Investigator
Evangelia G. Chrysikou, Ph.D.
I am an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Drexel University  Before joining the Psychology faculty at KU, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. I use cognitive neuroscience methods (like fMRI and tDCS) to study how people learn and remember information about everyday objects. I am particularly fascinated by the astonishing flexibility with which the human mind allows for the generation of novel or unusual uses for objects when the situation imposes such demands (e.g., using a tennis racket as a fly swatter, instead of for playing tennis), as well as the implications of such flexibility for theories of semantic knowledge organization and cognitive control. I am further exploring the educational applications of cognitive training paradigms for the development of higher-order thinking in young adults, as well as the translational implications of cognitive flexibility for the characterization of deficient cognitive/executive profiles in depression and other psychiatric disorders marked by prefrontal cortex hypofunction. In my few moments of spare time, I love reading, traveling (particularly to the Greek islands), Asian food, running, kick-boxing, Basset Hounds, cooking, the music of Jack White, independent movies, and watching endless hours of baseball.