Director
Maital Neta
Dr. Neta is the Director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Dartmouth College in 2010, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurology at Washington University.
Dr. Neta is now the Happold Professor of Psychology and Associate Director of the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior (CB3). Her research capitalizes on a number of methods from psychology and neuroscience to examine ambiguity resolution in the domain of emotional facial expressions. Specifically, although some expressions provide clear predictive information that something good (e.g., happy) or bad (e.g., angry) will happen, other expressions, like surprise, have predicted both positive (e.g., birthday party) and negative (e.g., car accident) events for us in the past. When presented in the absence of contextual information, these ambiguously valenced expressions can be used to delineate a valence bias: ambiguous stimuli are stably interpreted negatively by some people and positively by others. We explore individual differences in valence bias in a variety of ways: (1) by examining the mechanisms that drive people toward a more positive or negative valence bias, (2) determining that factors that shape the development of a particular bias, and (3) testing interventions that can shift bias, particularly in circumstances when it interferences with healthy functioning (e.g., depression).
Her work is funded in part by an R01 from the National Institute of Mental Health and an NSF CAREER Award. She has received multiple academic achievement awards, including being selected as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Outstanding Research and Creative Activities Award, and the Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award. She serves as Past-President of the Society for Affective Science, Consulting Editor for Emotion, Affective Science, and Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience, and just completed a 4-year term as a standing member of the Human Complex Mental Functions NIH study section.
For more information, see https://psychology.unl.edu/person/maital-neta/).
E-mail: maitalneta@unl.edu
Phone: (402) 472-3646
(CV)
Post-doctoral Researchers
Jordan E. Pierce
Email: jpierce14@unl.edu
Jordan joined the lab in November 2020. She received her PhD from the University of Georgia in 2016 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva, Switzerland from 2016-2020. Her research has utilized eye tracking and neuroimaging to study visual attention and emotion in clinical and healthy populations and to investigate mechanisms of neurocognitive plasticity. Her current work in the lab focuses on emotion valence bias in face processing and regulating emotional responses in healthy individuals across the lifespan using fMRI. (CV)
Graduate Students
Laelle E. Novotny
Email: lnovotny11@huskers.unl.edu
Pronounced Lay-ell, Laelle is a graduate student in the Neuroscience & Behavior program at UNL. She completed a B.S. in Neuroscience & Psychology at Saint Louis University and studied cognitive and affective neuroscience. Laelle served as a Technician & Coordinator in the Luking Lab at SLU, where she worked with EEG to study the impact that female sex hormones have on individual social rejection sensitivity and the development of psychopathology. Laelle was also involved in advocacy groups to help individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) access specialized, evidence-based treatment. After graduating, she worked as a Neuromodulation Technician in a local psychiatry clinic, where she administered Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for clinical and research purposes for post-stroke recovery and Parkinsons. Her specific research interests include lifespan episodic memory, emotion regulation, and clinical neuroscience applications—especially in populations with anxiety or mood disorders. (CV)
Lab Managers
Bella Peckinpaugh
Email: ipeckinpaugh2@unl.edu
Bella joined the lab in June of 2024. She graduated from Purdue University with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Statistics and Spanish. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Dan Foti’s PACER Lab and Dr. Sean Lane’s REACT Lab. Bella is broadly interested in how negative cognition and emotion regulation impact depression symptomology over time. Her CV is available upon request.
Kaitlyn Zhu
Email: kzhu16@unl.edu
Kaitlyn joined the lab in July of 2025. She graduated from New York University with a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Art History. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant in Dr. Tessa West’s Interpersonal Perception Lab and Dr. Moriah Thomason's SCAN Lab at NYU Langone. Kaitlyn is broadly interested in how people differ on an individual level with respect to social cognition and perception. Her CV is available upon request.
Kabe Aberle
Email: maberle3@unl.edu
Kabe joined the lab in September of 2025. He graduated from the University of Denver with a B.S. in Psychology with a concentration in Cognitive Neuroscience and minors in Biology, Chemistry, and Leadership Studies. During his undergraduate years, Kabe worked in the AACT Lab under Dr. Kateri McRae and in the Brain and Behavior Lab at the University of Geneva under Dr. Patrik Vuilleumier. Kabe is interested in how emotions change the way we interact with one another and interventions to optimize emotional and social wellbeing. His CV is available upon request.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Nate Matulka - Junior at UNL
Madison Livingston - Junior at UNL
Daylin Crowley - Junior at UNL
Evelyn Dahlman - Junior at UNL
Nancy Tran - Senior at UNL
Lab Alumni
Amelia Burba - Former research assistant
Ashley Humphries - Former lab manager
Grace Kupka - Former lab manager, currently a Clinical Research Assistant, COBRE Sleep and Circadian Methods Core
Macey Grisso - Former lab manager, currently a Ph.D. student at UC Riverside
Johannah Bashford-Largo - Former graduate student, currently a Research Scientist at Boys Town National Research Hospital
Kaylee Donner - Former research assistant
Jaylen Starks - Former research assistant, currently a Masters student at the University of Wisconson - La Crosse
Jenny Nguyen - Former research assistant
Emily Hearn - Former research assistant
Isabel Sigmon - Former research assistant
Carlie Cahoy - Former research assistant, currently a Masters student at the University of Nebraska - Omaha
Eisha Haque - Former lab manager, currently a Ph.D. student at Columbia University
Becca Walker - Former research assistant
Tabitha Ristvedt - Former research assistant, currently a Ph.D. student student at the University of Texas - Dallas
Jenna Kramer - Former research assistant
Jake Vogel - Former research assistant
Lauren Anderson - Former research assistant
Liv O'Clair - Former research assistant
Nicholas Harp - Former graduate student, currently a postdoc at UC Berkeley.
Lauren Chan - Former lab manager
Nathan Petro - Former postdoctoral fellow, currently a postdoc at Boys Town National Research Hospital.
Kayla Clark - Former lab manager, currently a Ph.D. student at Rice University.
Jada Loro - Former research assistant, currently a M.P.H. student at Washington University.
Ava Landis - Former research assistant
Lauren Unruh - Former research assistant, currently working full-time as a behavioral health technician.
Catie Brown - Former graduate student, currently a UX Researcher at Buildertrend in Omaha.
Daniel Henley - Former lab manager, currently a Ph.D. student at Michigan State University.
Tien Tong - Former lab manager, currently a Neuroinformatics Data Manager at U Penn.
Ruby Basyouni - Former lab manager, currently a Ph.D. student at University of California, Los Angeles.
Maggie Rempe - Former research assistant, currently a MD-Ph.D. Scholar in the College of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medicine.
Nathan Pettid - Former research assistant, currently a Ph.D. student at Colorado State University.
In loving memory of former mentor, Dave Bucci (1968-2019)
Lab Photos
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Summer 2025
Getting coffee and welcoming Laelle, our new graduate student, to the team!
Left to right: Maital Neta, Isabella Peckinpaugh, Kaitlyn Zhu, Laelle Novotny, and Jordan Pierce
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Fall 2024
The lab celebrates Halloween!
Left to right: Nate Matulka, Ashley Humphries, Bella Peckinpaugh, Maital Neta, Jordan Pierce, and Maddie Livingston
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June 2024
Saying goodbye to lab managers Grace and Macey during a cookout at Maital's place! We will miss you! Also the debut of our lab shirts!
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Fall 2023
The lab celebrates Halloween!
Left to right: Macey Grisso, Doug Schultz, Jordan Pierce, Isabel Sigmon, Ashley Humphries, Grace Kupka, Maital Neta
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Summer 2023
The lab gets together for ice cream!
Starting from the back (left to right): Jordan Pierce, Isabel Sigmon, Grace Kupka, Tabitha Ristvedt, Jay Schalk, Eisha Haque, Macey Grisso, Maital Neta
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Summer 2022
The lab tries an escape room!
Left to right: Maital Neta, Eisha Haque, Jordan Pierce, Jay Schalk, Nick Harp
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Winter 2021
The lab gets together for drinks!
Back row (left to right): Eisha Haque, Jay Schalk, Nick Harp
Front row (left to right): Johannah (Jo) Bashford-Largo, Jordan Pierce, Maital Neta -
Spring 2021
The lab gets together for pizza!
Left to right: Kayla Clark, Jordan Pierce, Nick Harp, Nate Petro, Alli Dunne, Jay Schalk, Danielle Clark
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Fall 2020
The lab gets together for pumpkin carving!
Back row (left to right): Nick Harp, Kayla Clark, Jay Schalk
Front row (left to right): Alli Dunne, Johannah (Jo) Bashford-Largo, Lauren Chan, Nate Petro -
Spring 2019
The lab celebrates Maital's tenure!
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Fall 2018
Back row from left: Nathan Petro, Joshua Jolton, Nick Harp
Middle row from left: Catie Brown, Ruby Basyouni, Claudia Clinchard, Nathan Pettid
Front row from left: Maital Neta, Bethany Mahan -
Summer 2018
Lab members, friends, and family welcome lab manager Ruby Basyouni (3rd from left) and bid farewell to fomer lab manager Dan Henley (far right).
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Fall 2017 semester
Back row (from left): Nathan Pettid, Autumn Dern, Dan Henley (Lab Manager: CAN Lab), Jake Derby
Middle row: Maggie Rempe, Tina Javidi, Kaitlyn Winter, Nick Harp (graduate student), KayLee Flower
Front row: Krupa Patel, Maital Neta (PI: Director of CAN Lab), Sara Cipolla, Catie Brown (graduate student), Saisha Adhikari -
Our kick-off party at Maital's house (Fall 2017)
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Our end-of-the-year lab meeting (Spring 2015)
Back row from left: Alex Enersen, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Alex Wasserman (graduate student in Adolescent Development Lab), Elaina Montague (graduate student in Serious Mental Illness Research Group), Maital Neta (PI: Director of CAN Lab)
Front row from left: Michaela Frenzel, Aaron Hoagland, Tien Tong (Lab Manager: CAN Lab), Carley Beinlich