Position Title
Assistant Professor (starting March 2026)
- Human Development & Family Studies
Research Interests
Interests: Emotion, Social Interaction, Health, Aging, Dementia Caregiving, Family-Community Interaction, Psychophysiology, Digital Measures
My research uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining laboratory and real-world measures to investigate how emotions arise in the brain and body, how they resonate between family members, and how these processes change with aging and neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., dementia) and, in turn, influence health. I also develop novel digital measures (e.g., Alexa, wearables, smartphone apps) to unobtrusively and continuously measure social interactions within families and communities.
I am recruiting graduate students during the 2025-26 application cycle.
Select Publications
Chen, K.-H., Merrilees, J., Brown, C. L., Yee, C., Sapozhnikova, A., Wells, J. L., Ferrer, E., Pressman, P. S., Fredrickson, B. L., & Levenson, R. W. (2024). Interpersonal linkage in positive and negative emotional behaviors, emotional well-being, and physical functioning in dementia caregivers. Clinical Psychological Science, 12(6), 1039-1055.
Chen, K-H, Casey, J. J., Connelly, D. E., Merrilees, J., Yang, C-M, Miller, B. L. & Levenson, R. W. (2022). Lower activity linkage between caregivers and persons with neurodegenerative diseases is associated with greater caregiver anxiety. Psychophysiology, 59, e14040.
Chen, K.-H., Brown, C. L., Wells, J. L., Rothwell, E. S., Otero, M. C., Levenson, R. W., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2021). Physiological linkage during shared positive and shared negative emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(5), 1029–1056.
Chen, K.-H., Okerstrom, K. L., Kingyon, J. R., Anderson, S. W., Cavanagh, J. F., & Narayanan, N. S. (2016). Startle habituation and midfrontal theta activity in Parkinson disease. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28, 1923 -1932.
Education
Postdoctoral Training in Social and Affective Science, University of California, Berkeley & University of California, San Francisco
Ph.D. in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, University of Iowa