Stefon van Noordt

Email: sv05lz@brocku.ca

Focus: Behavioural Neuroscience

Undergrad: Brock University

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Sid Segalowitz

Research Interests:
Some of my past involvement in the Brock University Neuropsychology Cognitive Research lab has been concerned with investigating relationships between physiological arousal (affective somatic signals) and decision-making processes in university students, and how these relationships may be influenced by a history of mild head injury.

Additionally, I have been interested in not only how individuals respond/process their own emotional signals, but how they interpret and discriminate emotional signals from others. My current involvement with the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab entails broadening the use of psychophysiological measures (electroencephalographic (EEG), respiration, blood pressure, and heart rate) to try to better understand how the nervous system processes rewards in various decision-making contexts. More specifically, in the context of risky behaviours during adolescence, I am focusing on the extent to which electrocortical responses during decision-making tasks (including risky decision-making) account for individual differences in personality structures that relate to risk-taking in everyday behaviour. Thus, the focus is to understand patterns of neural activation in relation to personality characteristics, as well as elucidate some of the developmental factors influencing these outcomes.