This month, we are delighted to introduce Dr. Tae-Ho Lee (taehol@vt.edu) as our member in spotlight. Dr. Lee is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the College of Science at Virginia Tech University. His research focuses on exploring how affective systems in the brain change as children develop and how interactions and neural activation within the family impacts the neural development of adolescents.
- What drew you to do work on Asians, Asian American children and youth, or another topic that is important to you now? Who was an important mentor to you in this work, or an influential particular study in the field or in a related field?
I feel fortunate and am truly honored that I worked with great mentors who helped me to develop a broad perspective on emotional development across the lifespan. While in graduate school, I had an opportunity to expand my scope of interest from general human cognition to the role of individual differences in emotional processing. With my mentor, Dr. Mara Mather, I investigated the human emotion and cognition interactive process by considering various individual factors, including cultural background (Asian vs. Western) and aging (older vs. younger), which play an essential role in shaping humans’ emotion perception and emotional development. At the time, I was also the father of a one-year-old, and it was quite exciting and intellectually stimulating to see my son’s growth. Since he started attending school, I noticed that his behaviors, perceptions, and reactions to his surroundings became a very adaptive blend of my family’s Asian heritage (Korean) and U.S. culture. I became intrigued by the different ways in which children adapt to the world and learn new things and the individual factors such as family dynamics that help shape the developmental process. These experiences lead me to the developmental neuroscience field where I met Dr. Eva Telzer. As my postdoctoral mentor, she introduced me to developmental theories and methods for studying child development within various social, emotional, and cultural contexts.
- A short paragraph describing a particular recent finding, current study, or recent publication and what makes you excited about it.
My graduate students and I recently launched our first lab research project, named the Family Brain Study, in which we examine families’ neural and psychological profiles in processing emotional situations. These profiles include empathetic responses, prosocial/aggressive tendencies, moral decision making, and stress regulation. The primary goal of the project is to provide an in-depth understanding of neural underpinnings in the family concordance that contribute to children’s developmental adjustment. As part of this project, we are collaborating with developmental scientists from Korea and Taiwan to consider cultural variations in family dynamics as they affect emotional behaviors. We have done some preliminary analyses with fascinating brain findings. We look forward to sharing our findings with you soon.
- If you have any thoughts about your experiences with the Asian Caucus.
I appreciate the Asian Caucus leadership that introduces society to the importance of ethnic and cultural considerations in the study of children’s development. I look forward to participating in future outreach activities with the Asian Caucus members.
- Any upcoming talks or presentations we should know about?
Our research team has submitted a presentation proposal to the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. We will introduce a new machine-learning method of using brain connectivity information to detect developmental features across ages and psychopathologies. This study reflects our effort to improve the efficiency and sensitivity of methodological approaches to utilizing brain features in the study of developing children’s brains.
- A weblink you prefer to share?