Regina Lapate
Assistant Professor
Research Area
Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience Social Psychology
Biography
Dr. Lapate received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2018, she co-edited the second edition of The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions. Dr. Lapate received the Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award (2021) and was named a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences (2023), and a UC Hellman Fellow (2024). Her lab’s research is currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Army Research Office, the Hellman Fellows Program, and the Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP) Foundation.
Research
A hallmark of the human condition is the experience of dynamically shifting emotional spaces. These spaces are both endogenous and exogenous: We carry with us affective dispositions that continually interact with external emotional signals. Together, these emotional states and signals profoundly color our everyday lives, sculpting sensory information processing, and informing the selection of behavioral goals.
My laboratory investigates the neural mechanisms underlying emotion-cognition interactions with a focus on cognitive control, temporal memory, and adaptive emotion. Our research examines questions such as:
· How do neural representations in distinct prefrontal regions modulate goal-directed behavior?
· Do temporal coding and memory processes influence the dynamics of emotion?
· How do emotional responses impact the neural coding of time and temporal memory?
· What neural mechanisms promote adaptive responses to emotional events?
· What are the neural bases and functions of conscious awareness?
To answer these questions, we use a multimodal approach that emphasizes causal inference, and includes transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), recordings of electroencephalography, peripheral physiology, and functional neuroimaging (fMRI)—often combined with behavioral assays and analyses of individual differences. The long term goal of our research program is to uncover basic affective and cognitive mechanisms that promote adaptive functioning and reduce vulnerability to psychopathology.
Selected Publications
Stasiak, J. E., Wang, J., Dundon, N. M., Rizor, E., Villanueva, C. M., Barandon, P. L., Grafton, S. T., Lapate, R. C. (in press). Integrated representations of threat and controllability in the lateral frontal pole. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
Wang, J., Tambini, A., Pritschet, L., Taylor, C. M., Jacobs, E. G., Lapate, R. C. (2025). The intrinsic time tracker: Temporal context is embedded in entorhinal and hippocampal functional connectivity patterns. Nature Communications, 16, 8817.
Schuman, I., Wang, J., Ballard, I. C., Lapate, R. C. (2025). Willing to wait: Anorexia nervosa symptomatology is associated with higher future orientation and reduced intertemporal discounting. Scientific Reports,15, 4508.
Lapate, R. C., Heckner, M. K., Phan, A., Tambini, A., D’Esposito, M. (2024). Information-based TMS to lateral prefrontal cortex disrupts action goals during emotional processing. Nature Communications, 15, 4294.
Wang, J. & Lapate, R. C. (2024). Emotional state dynamics impacts temporal memory. Cognition & Emotion, 39, 136-155.
Li, M. & Lapate, R. C. (2024). The emotion filmmaker: temporal memory, time-emotion integration, and affective style. Emotion, 24, 1236-1248.
Wang, J., Tambini, A., & Lapate, R. C. (2022). The tie that binds: Temporal coding and adaptive emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26, 1103-1118.
Lapate, R. C., Ballard, I. C., Heckner, M. K., D’Esposito, M. (2022). Emotional context sculpts action goal representations in the lateral frontal pole. Journal of Neuroscience, 42, 1529-1541.
Kral, T. R. A., Lapate, R. C., Imhoff-Smith, T., Patsenko, E., Grupe, D., Goldman, R., Rosenkranz, M. A., Davidson, R. J. (2022). Long-term meditation training is associated with enhanced attention and stronger posterior cingulate–rostrolateral prefrontal cortex resting connectivity. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34, 1576-1589.
Lapate, R. C., Samaha, J., Rokers, B., Postle, B. R., Davidson, R. J. (2020). Perceptual metacognition of human faces is causally supported by function of the lateral prefrontal cortex. Communications Biology, 3, 360.
Lapate, R. C. & Heller, A. S. (2020). Context matters for affective chronometry. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 688-689.
Grupe, D. W., Schaefer, S. M., Lapate, R. C., Schoen, A. J., Gresham, L. K., Mumford, J. A., Davidson. R. J. (2018). Temporal dynamics of amygdala responses reveal differential contributions of emotional valence and arousal. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13, 310-20.
van Reekum, C., Schaefer, S. M., Lapate, R. C., Norris, C., Tun, P., Lachman, M., Ryff, C., Davidson,R. J. (2018). Lateral-medial shift in prefrontal cortex engagement underlies intact emotional functioning in aging. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 13, 156-63
Lapate, R. C. (2018). Regulatory benefits of conscious awareness: insights from the emotion misattribution paradigm and a role for lateral prefrontal cortex. In: Fox, A.S., Lapate, R.C., Shackman, A.J. & Davidson, R.J. (Eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions (2nd edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
Lapate, R. C., Samaha, J., Rokers, B., Hamzah, H., Postle, B. R., Davidson, R. J. (2017). Inhibition of lateral prefrontal cortex produces emotionally biased first impressions: A TMS/EEG study. Psychological Science, 28, 942-53.
Lapate, R. C., Rokers, B., Tromp, D. P. M., Orfali, N. S., Oler, J. A., Doran, S., Adluru, N., Alexander, A. L., Davidson, R. J. (2016). Awareness of emotional stimuli determines the behavioral consequences of amygdala activation and amygdala-prefrontal connectivity. Scientific Reports, 6, 25826.
Lapate, R. C., Rokers, B., Li, T., Davidson, R. J. (2014). Nonconscious emotional activation colors first impressions: A regulatory role for conscious awareness. Psychological Science, 25, 349-357.
