Mason McClay

Graduate Student

I received my BS in Behavioral Neuroscience and BA in Classical Studies from Centre College (2017) where I worked with Aaron Godlaski on emotion regulation, mindfulness, and journaling. During my undergrad summers, I worked with Renu Sah (University of Cincinnati) on rodent models of PTSD and Liz Phelps (NYU) on virtual reality models of fear conditioning. I was also the lab manager for the Dunsmoor Lab (UT Austin) where I developed virtual reality fear conditioning paradigms and worked on projects ranging from neural context tracking of fear memories to socio-political influences on misinformation attitudes. Currently, I am investigating how emotional arousal spills over in time to influence the temporal binding of information, resulting in aberrant control of traumatic memories. Outside of the lab, I co-lead the community research and arts collective, Collective Thinking, with Hunter Priniski. In my free time I spin my wheels on the beach and study concrete poetry and Soto Zen.