Harlan Fichtenholtz
Harlan Fichtenholtz is a cognitive neuroscientist who investigates how people understand and interpret the vast array of social and emotional signals that they encounter every day.
Biography
Fichtenholtz is a cognitive neuroscientist who investigates how people understand and interpret the vast array of social and emotional signals that are encountered every day. He tries to answer the question: How do people integrate social and emotional information with cognitive operations to influence behavior? Using behavioral and neuroscientific techniques (e.g., EEG, psychophysiology) Fichtenholtz has shown that social emotions, particularly facial expressions of fear and anger, bias how people pay attention to the world around them. He is currently studying how these effects are modulated by stress and related psychiatric disorders. Fichtenholtz’s teaching interests include Cognition, Affective Science, Social Neuroscience, and the associated methodologies. BA , Oberlin College, PhD, Duke University, Post-Doc Yale University. He was a visiting faculty member at Bennington for academic years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.