M Luciana

Monica Luciana, PhD, Named MIDB Chief Scientific Officer

February 28, 2022

Monica Luciana, PhD, has been named Chief Scientific Officer for the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB). In this newly-created role, she will be responsible for:

  • developing a strategic research plan for the institute
  • assessing the successful execution of this plan
  • advising the directors regarding research agendas to be pursued or curtailed
  • maintaining knowledge of research operations within MIDB and how these can be leveraged in relation to broader University and national initiatives
  • promoting opportunities for research collaborations
  • working with the MIDB directors to assure an integration between the institute’s research and clinical domains

Luciana is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts, and has an adjunct affiliation with the University's Institute of Child Development in the College of Education and Human Development.

Her research examines brain/behavior relationships in adults and adolescents and the neuroplasticity of neural circuitry during development, as a function of substance use, and in the context of psychopathology. Specifically, she is interested in the neurobiology of executive functions, including working memory, planning, and emotional control as well as reward processing and the neural circuits that promote incentive motivation.

She also co-directs the University of Minnesota’s data collection site for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and has been a member of the Center for Neurobehavioral Development since its inception.

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