Professor
Ph.D., University of Vermont, 1993
Office: (603) 646-2196, Moore 349
Email: paul.j.whalen@dartmouth.edu
Go to the Whalen Lab Web site
The focus of my research is to better understand the neural substrates of biologically relevant learning in the human. To this end, my laboratory studies the human amygdala as a model system for such learning. Building upon animal and human research documenting the role of the amygdala in emotion, specifically fear, we aim to expose the more subtle abilities of this system in the modulation of moment-to-moment levels of vigilance.
Somerville LH, Whalen PJ. Prior experience as a stimulus category confound: An example using facial expressions of emotion. Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2006; 1:271-274.
Whalen PJ, Kagan J, Cook RG, Davis FC, Kim H, Polis S, McLaren DG, Somerville LH, McLean AA, Maxwell JS, Johnstone T. Human amygdala responsivity to masked fearful eye whites. Science, 2004; 306:2061.
Kim H, Somerville LH, Johnstone T, Polis S, Alexander AL, Shin LM, Whalen PJ. Contextual modulation of amygdala responsivity to surprised faces. J Cog Neurosci, 2004; 16:1730-1745.
Somerville LH, Kim H, Johnstone T, Alexander A, Whalen PJ. Human amygdala response during presentation of happy and neutral faces: Correlations with state anxiety. Biological Psychiatry, 2004; 55:897-903.
Kim H, Somerville LH, Johnstone T, Alexander A, Whalen PJ. Inverse amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex responses to surprised faces. Neuroreport, 2003; 14:2317-2322.
Whalen PJ, Shin LM, McInerney SC, Fischer H, Wright CI, Rauch SL. A functional MRI study of human amygdala responses to facial expressions of fear vs. anger. Emotion, 2001; 1:70-83.
Shin LM, Whalen PJ, Pitman RK, Bush G, Macklin ML, Lasko NB, Orr SP, McInerney SC, Rauch SL. An fMRI study of anterior cingulate function in posttraumatic stress disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 2001; 50:932-942.
