Graduate Research Assistant
Curriculum Vitae
r.polk@ufl.edu
Rebecca is a dual specialization doctoral student in Development Psychology and Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Florida. She received her BS in Psychology and Neuroscience at Indiana University. Her research interests include cognitive, socioemotional, and neurobiological changes in aging using various methods such as functional and structural MRI and MRS, with a focus on pharmacological and cognitive interventions to promote healthy aging. Her current work in the Ebner lab includes analysis of oxytocin administration on neural correlates of social cognition and mentalizing abilities, investigation of cognitive and affective training ability in older adults using a real-time fMRI neurofeedback paradigm, and identifying neurobiological and socioemotional profiles of older adults particularly susceptible to victimization and fraud. She was awarded a T32 training position from the National Institute on Aging Research Training in Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Cognition in Aging, MCI, and Alzheimer’s Disease. She also received the Jacquelin Goldman Research award in 2020 to analyze the effects of endogenous oxytocin on neural functioning in older adults. Rebecca actively follows recommendations for open science practices and utilizes reproducible neuroimaging techniques and shares code (see her github linked below).