Fischer Impulse Lab George Mason University

06/14/2021

Recruiting Korean American parents of teens to participate in the Korean Family Communications Program! The program improves family harmony and communication. If you are 13-17 years old or have a teen sibling, please share the flyer with your parents.

If interested, provide parent contact info here: https://tinyurl.com/nhjrm6kh

05/25/2021

Korean Family Communications Program: A parent-training program for 1st generation Korean-American parents of 2nd generation teens ages 13-17 to improve family harmony and communication.

If interested, click on the link to provide your contact information: http://forms.gle/9bbh6u9aQTnnsQrF9
Any questions: email [email protected]

04/29/2020

Female teens with Type 1 Diabetes: please join our 4-session, virtual positive body image group: Body Project (T1D Style) + make $60 for completing surveys before and after. Email [email protected] learn more!

04/17/2020

If you are or know a female teen with Type 1 Diabetes, please check out our 4-session, virtual positive body image group: Body Project (T1D Style). See the attached flyer and email [email protected] for more information!

09/16/2017

Our very own Lauren Langston presenting the work identifying the bidirectional nature of Eating Disorders and Autoimmune Disorders. Her work was completed at Karolinska Institute in Sweden as part of the National Science Foundation GROW Fellowship. Did we mention she won the Best Student Abstract Award for this work at the Eating Disorders Research Society Conference in Leipzig Germany!? We are very proud of you Lauren!

07/18/2017

How bulimics' brains are different

Another great piece featuring the work of Dr. Sarah Fischer and the Impulse lab! Way to go!

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/18/health/bulimia-brain-stress-food-study/index.html?sr=twCNN071817bulimia-brain-stress-food-study0140PMVODtop

The brains of women with bulimia respond differently to stress and food than those of women without the eating disorder, according to two MRI studies published this month.

07/14/2017

Brain scans show how bulimic women respond to food when stressed

New article from the Daily Mail highlighting recent work by the Impulse Lab. Using brain imaging, we showed that when patients with experience stress they respond to food cues uniquely. Just in time for the release of Netflix . https://t.co/oHzrTPsInw

A recent study by the American Psychological Association suggests that women with bulimia nervosa may use food to avoid negative thoughts about themselves.

10/27/2016

Today the Impulse Lab is in New York at the Eating Disorders Research Society Annual Meeting listening to Sarah present all of our work integrating neuroimaging and ecological momentary assessment. Great Job Sarah!

08/29/2016

Impulse Lab Graduate Students

01/27/2016

The Impusle Lab at George Mason University conducts research studies on binge eating, purging, and alcohol abuse. We examine how personality traits influence these behaviors through deficits in emotion regulation, impulse control, and reward seeking.

The GMU Impulse lab is currently looking to recruit two new volunteer research assistants for a study looking at the mechanisms involved in dissonance-indcued attitude shift. Interested applicants should review the requirements below and send a copy of your academic transcript and CV/resume to Lauren Breithaupt, [email protected].

05/15/2015

Fischer lab member Joe Wonderlich meeting with the President of George Mason University, Dr. Ángel Cabrera, to discuss his NSF research!

04/25/2015

Day 3 of Great morning plenary session about the exercise conundrum in Eating Disorders.

04/06/2015

Joanne will be attending graduate school at VCU! Congrats, Joanne!

I am a senior pursuing a B.S. in Psychology. I am interested in the composition of dreams and the neurobiological basis of addiction and how that relates to personality and impulsive behaviors, specifically criminal behaviors.

04/02/2015

Alumni Research Assistants

04/01/2015

nsf.gov - National Science Foundation (NSF) News - NSF awards 2015 Graduate Research Fellowships...

Congratulations to Joe Wonderlich, a member of the Impulse Lab, for receiving the 2015 Graduate Research Fellowships Program award from the National Science Foundation - one of the most prestigious grants for graduate researchers!

NSF's mission is to advance the progress of science, a mission accomplished by funding proposals for research and education made by scientists, engineers, and educators from across the country.

04/01/2015

Congratulations to Catherine Byrne, a member of the Impulse Lab, for having her paper, "An exploratory examination of patient and parental self-efficacy as predictors of weight gain in adolescents with anorexia nervosa" accepted to the International Journal of Eating Disorders! Way to go!

03/04/2015

Assistant Professor, George Mason University
Clinical Program
Ph.D. University of Kentucky, Lexington, 2007
Email: [email protected]

The focus of my program of research is on personality traits and psychosocial factors influencing the co-morbidity and maintenance of addictive behavior patterns. Specifically, my research investigates how different aspects of the broad trait impulsivity affect substance use and eating disordered behavior, such as binge eating and purging. I am especially interested in how the personality trait of impulsivity affects these behaviors in the context of negative mood states and in conjunction with outcome expectancies for addictive behaviors. A second interest is in mindfulness based interventions, as they may be particularly relevant for harmful behaviors that occur in the context of emotion dysregulation.

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZRXfaDAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

02/08/2015

Alison Ruckstuhl is a senior Psychology major working as a research assistant in the Impulse Lab. Alison is currently assisting with research looking at cognitive dissonance and its subsequent effects on behavior and attitudes. Additionally, Alison is completing her honors thesis in the lab, examining the relationship between internalized and externalized attitudes toward overweight or obese status. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Cognitive/Behavioral Neuroscience, where she will pursue neurobiological factors underlying issues of 1) negative affect in response to real or perceived obese status, 2) fear response to real or perceived obese status, and 3) factors contributing to self-regulation as applied to eating behaviors.

01/22/2015

Maggie is now pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge! Congrats, Maggie.

Maggie Westwater worked as a research assistant in The Impulse Lab. She graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Neuroscience from George Mason University in December 2014. Maggie has been heavily involved with an fMRI study of the effects of stress and food cue-reactivity on cognitive processing. Maggie hopes to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical psychology where she will pursue translational research of: 1) the neurobiological mechanisms of eating and addictive behaviors, 2) the implications of impulsivity and distress tolerance in psychopathology, and 3) novel assessment of impulsive behaviors in daily life.

01/21/2015

Our lab is currently looking to recruit four new research assistants to work on our current studies. Interested applicants should e-mail Dr. Sarah Fischer ([email protected]) for more information.

01/21/2015

Our lab is actively recruiting for the following study!

Earn up to $350 in the Food Cues & Stress Study

Do you lose control over your eating or binge eat? Are you a woman between the ages of 18 and 45 years old with a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 29.9? Do you engage in some sort of behavior to compensate for binge eating?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be eligible to participate in the Food Cues & Stress Study at George Mason University. The Impulse Lab is currently conducting a multi-method study of eating behavior, and participants will earn up to $350.00 for their participation. Participants will be asked to complete:

- A clinical assessment
- A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan
- A two-week protocol in which you respond to prompts on your smartphone

If you are interested in participating, please e-mail us at [email protected] or call (571)766-6390 for more information and to schedule a phone screen.