THE AUPPERLE LABORATORY

Robin Aupperle, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator, Laureate Institute for Brain Research
Assistant Professor, University of Tulsa
Volunteer Faculty Member, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oklahoma
Curriculum Vitae

Email: raupperle@laureateinstitute.org | Phone: 918-502-5744


Our Research Approach

Dr. Aupperle’s research focuses on using neurocognitive methods to enhance our understanding of anxiety, depression, and trauma. She is particularly interested in:
 
(1) The intersect between cognitive and emotional processing and how this may relate to the development and maintenance of anxiety, depression, and trauma-related symptoms.
 
(2) How knowledge from neuroscientific research may be used to enhance treatment and prevention efforts. 
 
In regards to the former, she has conducted research related to neuropsychological correlates of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has developed translational exploratory and decision-making tasks to better understand behavioral, physiological, and neural correlates of anxiety and depression. In regards to the latter, she has been involved in research investigating behavioral and neural mechanisms of current pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for anxiety, depression, and trauma-related disorders. She is also actively involved in identifying factors that support resilience to college-related stress and strategies to optimize psychological well-being for students.  


Research Program Highlights

Main Question
What are the behavioral or brain-based characteristics that best predict long-term outcomes and help to identify who will respond to what type of intervention? 

Future Directions
​To develop individually tailored anxiety, depression, and trauma interventions or prevention strategies that help patients to have better outcomes.
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Approach
We use a multi-level approach, i.e. test patients behaviorally, physiologically, and during fMRI, to develop individual-based profiles that will help to personalize therapy treatments and develop novel behavioral interventions and prevention programs.

Scientific Background

Dr. Aupperle was born and raised in rural Oklahoma and obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oklahoma State University. She received her master’s and doctoral education in clinical health psychology at the University of Kansas, under the mentorship of Cary Savage, Ph.D. and Douglas Denney, Ph.D. Her graduate research and clinical education focused on neuropsychology, neuroimaging, and anxiety disorders. She then continued out west to complete clinical internship at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, during which her training focused on clinical neuropsychology, cognitive rehabilitation, and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dr. Aupperle remained in San Diego to complete a postdoctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Drs. Martin Paulus and Murray Stein, conducting research related to neural substrates of anxiety disorders and PTSD, with a particular emphasis on decision-making processes and treatment. She moved to Kansas City to join the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC) Department of Psychology as Assistant Professor in August, 2011. In August, 2014, Dr. Aupperle joined the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, OK, as Assistant Professor.
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Dr. Aupperle has initiated research projects at LIBR investigating neurocognitive and behavioral predictors of treatment response to behavioral activation therapy for depression and exposure therapy for anxiety.  In addition, she is taking the lead in LIBR projects investigating predictors of success for females enrolled in a criminal diversion program and factors related to mental health resiliency in college students. 

Lab Members

Elisabeth Akeman
Research Assistant
James Touthang
Research Assistant
Kelly Cosgrove
Graduate Student
Tim McDermott
Graduate Student, TU
Jessica Santiago
Research Therapist

Student Volunteers

Alyssa Clinard
​Kyle Devries
​Janelle Payne
​Srivats Srinivasan 

Selected Publications

Aupperle, R.L., Allard, C.B., Grimes, E.M., Simmons, A.N., Flagan, T., Cissell, C.H., Thorp, S.R., Norman, S.B., Paulus, M.P., Stein, M.B. (2013). Neural responses during emotional processing before and after cognitive trauma therapy for battered women. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 214(1): 48-55. 
Aupperle. R.L, Melrose, A., Francisco, A., Paulus, M.P., Stein, M.B. (2015). Neural substrates of approach-avoidance conflict decision-making. Human Brain Mapping, 36(2):449-62. 
Paulus, M.P. and Aupperle, R.L. (2015). Finding the balance between safety and threat may hold the key to success when treating PTSD. American journal of psychiatry, 172(12): 1173-117.
Chrysikou, L., Gorey, C., Aupperle, R.L. (2016). Anodal transcranical direct current stimulation over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alters decision making during approach-avoidance conflict. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 11:548.54. 
Kirlic, N., Young, J., Aupperle, R.L. Animal to human translational paradigms relevant for approach avoidance conflict decision making. Behaviour Research and Therapy (2017).
Clausen, A.N., Francisco, A.J., Thelen, J., Bruce, J., Martin, L.E., McDowd, J., Simmons, W.K., Aupperle, R.L. PTSD and cognitive symptoms relate to inhibition‐related prefrontal activation and functional connectivity. Depression and Anxiety 34, no. 5 (2017): 427-436.

Research Collaborators

Murray B Stein, Ph.D.
University of California- San Diego
Amy Jak, Ph.D.
San Diego VA Healthcare System
University of California- San Diego
Cary Savage, Ph.D.
University of Kansas Medical Center
Arpi Minassian, Ph.D.
University of California – San Diego
Evangelia Chrysikou, Ph.D.
University of Kansas- Lawrence
Amanda Bruce, Ph.D.
University of Missouri- Kansas City
Kate Wolitzky-Taylor, Ph.D.
University of California – Los Angeles
Amanda Morris, Ph.D.
OSU-Tulsa
Jared Young, Ph.D.
University of California – San Diego
Sandra Billinger, Ph.D.
University of Kansas Medical Center
Michelle Craske, Ph.D.
University of California- Los Angeles
Jim Abelson, M.D., Ph.D.
​University of Michigan
Laura Martin, Ph.D.
University of Kansas Medical Center