🙋‍♀️Our awesome PI, @giorgia-picci.bsky.social , volunteered as the first participant! 💪
🤩CANDY lab celebrated this new beginning by dressing up as SMORES for Halloween!

🤓She is eager coordinating the lab’s newest project examining women’s brain health and hormones and is concluding her project on how racial discrimination shapes neural dynamics underlying facial processing and trauma symptoms in teens.
🌠Amelia loves to go thrifting and tracking meteor showers.

The project examines how pubertal development in autistic adolescents shapes mental-health trajectories, integrating neuroimaging, hormonal, and behavioral data. This work targets a critical, understudied window, puberty, to reveal mechanisms guiding early interventions.

🧠 She has contributed to projects examining the neurobiological mechanisms linking early-life stress to memory and the psychological effects of childhood maltreatment.
🤓 Sumedha plans to pursue a PhD to further explore her research interests.
🍜 In her free time, you can find her chasing sunsets.

🧠His current project is focused on the mediating role of the anterior pituitary gland on pubertal timing and mental health symptoms.
🤓He plans on attending a graduate program in clinical psychology.
🌳Zach enjoys playing soccer, going on hikes, and solving crossword puzzles.

At CANDY Lab, we are ALWAYS excited about opportunites that help us bring neuroscience and psychology research beyond the lab and into the community!

We are SO looking forward to connecting with everyone! Keep an eye out for our amazing lab updates 🤩