Anthony Vaccaro

My new piece out in Scientific American!

Join us for the UNC Developmental Psychology Ph.D. Program Info Session! 🎓

Learn about curriculum, funding, application tips, and life in Chapel Hill from faculty and students.
🗓️ Oct 26 | 1–2:30 PM EST
🔗Register: tinyurl.com/uncdevpsych
#UNC #PhD #DevelopmentalPsychology

📢 I'll be recruiting a PhD student in Developmental Psychology for 2026 at UNC Chapel Hill! Student will be co-mentored with Dr. Eva Telzer at the Winston Center. Interests in naturalistic fMRI/fNIRS, developmental affective neuro, and behavioral addictions would be great fits.

(PDF) The duration of affective phenomena or emotions, sentiments and passions PDF | On Jan 1, 1991, Nico H. Frijda and others published The duration of affective phenomena or emotions, sentiments and passions | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

study emotion? sections of this are a v worthwhile read. no paywall. useful reminder that not everyone falls neatly into BET v constructionism buckets researchgate.net/publication/255522683_The_duration_of_affective_phenomena_or_emotions_sentiments_and_passions

I definitely think there's always some degree of fluctuation going on, as well as some meta-awareness of that ongoing fluctuation which is probably important for distinguishing it from "I felt x and then that stopped and I felt y"/

Shout to senior author @darbysaxbe.bsky.social for supporting this work, as well as my co-authors @philnewsomejr.bsky.social , @ywaizman.bsky.social , and Geoff Corner.

Further studying the distinctions in how these affective processes develop in new parents can help us understand the complex factors distinguishing normative negative emotions in new parenthood from those which may represent risks to overall well-being and mental health.

Our results may suggest that biopsychological adaptations to fatherhood involve distinct neural networks for different aspects of the experience. Not just about feeling good or bad - they involve separate neural processes for meaning-making versus immediate emotional responses.

Each measure related to distinct changes. For example: meaning was associated with connectivity changes in insula, thalamus, and frontal pole, positive parenting feelings with ACC, supramarginal gyrus, and caudate, and parenting stress with cerebellum and postcentral gyrus.

But these are on average. Could individual differences in connectivity tell us about the parenting paradox? We tested connectivity changes associated with meaning, positive feelings about parenting, and negative feelings about parenting, each while controlling for the other two affect measures.

In 35 of these fathers, we did brain scans before and after birth.We found increases in resting-state connectivity in temporal poles, angular gyrus, and thalamus, and decreases in frontal pole and ACC - the first longitudinal analysis of resting state connectivity in new fathers!

In 88 new fathers, there was a roughly even split in whether their personal meaning (the sense that life has purpose and coherence), increased or decreased (contrary to our expectations!) Postpartum meaning was strongly associated with parenting stress.

Our new study in Emotion!

Parents report higher satisfaction yet lower daily happiness- the 'parenting paradox'. So in the transition to parenthood, how do we study well-being? We studied how new fathers adapt by examining meaning/purpose and brain connectivity.
psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?d...

My Baby Versus the World: Fathers' Neural Processing of Own‐Infant, Unfamiliar‐Infant, and Romantic Partner Stimuli First-time fathers processed own-infant stimuli in mentalizing, emotion regulation, and reward processing regions, and posterior midline responses tracked with bonding and parental stress. Whole-brai....

🧠Out now in @ohbmofficial.bsky.social ! 🧠

We scanned 32 first-time dads (~8 mos postpartum) while they watched videos of their baby, an unfamiliar baby, their romantic partner, and an unfamiliar woman…1/8

doi.org/10.1002/hbm....

Whole neighborhoods in Los Angeles just burned down months ago. Home owners are desperate to rebuild. Yet ICE is rounding up day laborers from HOME DEPOT - a place where construction crews hire short term help. The goal is to inflict maximum cruelty on a city already hurting.

Neuroscience needs to empower early-career researchers, not fund moon shots Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration.

Large-scale projects run the risk of stifling scientific independence. Instead, let’s explore alternative mechanisms of collaboration, writes @neuralreckoning.bsky.social.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/funding/neur...

Why feeling mixed emotions can actually be healthy Simultaneous joy and rage aren't contradictions — they're part of a spectrum of emotional intelligence

Loved being a part of this amazing article on how affective neuroscientists are grappling with conceptualizing mixed emotions!
www.salon.com/2025/03/23/m...

Music‐Evoked Nostalgia Activates Default Mode and Reward Networks Across the Lifespan Music-evoked nostalgia activates the default mode network, reward network, medial temporal lobe, and supplementary motor regions of the brain more than non-nostalgic but familiar music that sounds mu....

Excited to share that dissertation work is published in Human Brain Mapping! Self-selected nostalgic music engaged the DMN, reward network, and MTL in younger and older adults. With @assalh.bsky.social, @jonaskaplan.bsky.social, Petr Janata, and Talia Ginsberg
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...