The Kirlic Laboratory
Laboratory for Neuroscience-Informed Resilience in Early Life (The REaL Lab)

Namik Kirlic, Ph.D.

Associate Investigator, Laureate Institute for Brain Research
Email: nkirlic@laureateinstitute.org | Phone: 918-502-5747


​Research Approach

Dr. Kirlic’s laboratory focuses on improving our understanding of the broad consequences of early life adversity, and what preventative interventions may mitigate the risk for psychiatric and medical illness in this population. Our research explores the following questions:
​
  1. Can we identify adaptive versus maladaptive patterns of responses to early life adversity, and establish whether these predict resilience or vulnerability, respectively, over time?
  2. By using novel preventative interventions, can we target the neurobiological and psychosocial systems disrupted by early life adversity, thereby improving the short-term and long-term outcomes?

​His research is currently funded by the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). ​


​Research Program Highlights

​Main Question
What are the neuroscience-informed behavioral interventions that successfully reverse the neurobiological and psychosocial consequences of early life adversity and improve outcomes among youth?

Approach
We employ multiple methods of inquiry, including subjective, behavioral, and physiological responses, functional neuroimaging, and immune and hormone markers to test whether selected interventions target the relevant neurobiological systems.

​Future Directions
We will aim to establish (1) the long-term effects of such interventions, (2) strategies that will optimize positive outcomes, and (3) which preventative interventions will work best for whom. 

Media Appearances

Scientific Background

​Dr. Kirlic was born and raised in Southeastern Europe. He earned his B.A. in Psychology from  Middlebury College in Vermont in 2005, where under mentorship of Dr. Adela Langrock his senior thesis focused on the cumulative effects of perceived war- and post-war stress on current psychological functioning. Following his undergraduate studies, he spent two years in the laboratory of Drs. Hans Breiter and Anne Blood at the Massachusetts General Hospital managing studies on addiction and movement disorder and learning neuroimaging methods and technology.
 
Taking a bit of leap of faith, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2010 to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Tulsa and Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR). Under mentorship of Drs. Elana Newman and Ruben Alvarez, Dr. Kirlic focused on individual differences in neural responses to predictable and unpredictable threats, effects of prenatal drug exposure and postnatal adversity on biological stress responses in children, and effectiveness of interventions for youth survivors of natural disasters and war. His clinical practice in graduate school, as well as during his clinical residency at the University of New Mexico Hospitals and New Mexico VA, centered on the assessment and evidence-based treatment of mood, anxiety, emotion dysregulation disorders.
 
Dr. Kirlic returned to Tulsa for his postdoctoral fellowship at LIBR in 2016. Under mentorship of Dr. Robin Aupperle, he trained in the use of translational behavioral and neuroimaging methods to identify reliable predictors of resilience and treatment responses. Additionally, he had an active role in the delivery of the related evidence-based interventions.
 
In January of 2019, Dr. Kirlic became an Associate Investigator at LIBR. His current research focuses on consequences of early life adversity, preventative interventions, and multi-system responses during aversive conditions. 

Lab Members

Zsofia Cohen
Research Assistant

Selected Publications

Kirlic, N., Aupperle, R. L., Rhudy, J. L., Misaki, M., Kuplicki, R., Sutton, A., & Alvarez, R. P. (2018). Latent variable analysis of negative affect and its contributions to neural responses during shock anticipation. Neuropsychopharmacology, 0, 1-8.​
McDermott, T. J., Kirlic, N., & Aupperle, R. L. (2018). Roadmap for optimizing the clinical utility of emotional stress paradigms in human neuroimaging research. Neurobiology of Stress, 8, 134-146.
Kirlic, N., Young, J., & Aupperle, R. L. (2017). Animal to human translational paradigms relevant for approach-avoidance conflict decision. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 96, 14-29.
Aupperle, R. L., Morris, A. S., Silk, J. S., Criss, M. M., Judah, M., Eagleton, S., Kirlic, N., Byrd-Craven, J., Philips, R., & Alvarez, R. P. (2016). Neural responses to maternal praise and criticism: relationship to depression and anxiety symptoms in high-risk adolescent girls. Neuroimage: Clinical, 4(11), 548-554.
Kirlic, N., Newman, E., LaGasse, L., Derauf, C., Shah, R., Smith, L. M., Arria, A., Huestis, M. A., Haning, W., Strauss, A., Della Grotta, S., Dansereau, L. M., Abar, B., Neal, C., & Lester, B. M. (2013). Cortisol reactivity in two-year-old children prenatally exposed to methamphetamine. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 74(3), 447-451.
​Alvarez, R. P., Kirlic, N., Misaki, M., Bodurka, J., Rhudy, J. L., Paulus, M. P., & Drevets, W. C. (2015). Increased anterior insula activity in anxious individuals is linked to diminished perceived control. Translational Psychiatry, 5, e591, 1-9.
Newman, E., Pfefferbaum, B., Kirlic, N., Tett, R., Nelson, S., & Liles, B. (2014). Meta-analytic review of psychological interventions for children survivors of natural and man-made disasters. Current Psychiatry Reports, 16(462) 1-10.