Date: June 6, 2026
Location: Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens St, San Francisco, CA 94143
| 9:15 – 9:45 am | Breakfast |
| 9:45 –10:00 am | Welcome and Opening Remarks Virginia Sturm, Micah Valero (Local Organizing Committee) |
| 10:00 – 11:00 am | Flash Talks Session 1: Social and Cultural Influences on Emotions Know Thyself, Regulate Thyself: Identity Development and Emotion Regulation Across Time Alex Le, Stanford University Does Authenticity or Appropriateness of Emotional Expression Matter More? Cultural Variation in Perceptions of People who Perform Affect Raphael Uricher, Stanford University What You See is What You Regret: An Eye Tracking Study Kate Petrova, Stanford University Anticipated Affect from Inaction Plays an Outsized Role in Daily Goal Prioritization Skylar Brooks, UC Berkeley Move Over Neuroticism—Agreeable People Feel Bad Too! Deborah Qu, UC Berkeley Changes in Physiological Linkage over 15 years in Long-Term Married Couples Franco Xavier Mercado, UC Berkeley Discussant: Hooria Jazaieri, Santa Clara University |
| 11:00 – 11:15 am | Coffee Break |
| 11:15 am – 12:15 pm | Flash Talks Session 2: The Biological Basis of Emotions Elevated Resting Heart Rate Variability in Cognitively Healthy Older Adults at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease. Isabel Sible, UCSF Rejection Mindset Interventions Help Socially Anxious People Perform Better Under Pressure Amanda Silver, UC San Diego Control of Fear States and Underlying Neural Dynamics by Respiratory Interoception Alexandra Klein, UCSF The Extended Amygdala Tracks Threat Probability, not Uncertainty Mesude Okhan, UC Davis Characterization of Personalized Affective States by Utilizing Large Human Multimodal Neurophysiological Datasets Maryam Bijanzadeh, UCSF Discussant: Greg Hajcak, Santa Clara University |
| 12:15 – 1:30 pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 – 3:00 pm | Panel: The Pursuit of Happiness How can the Pursuit of Happiness be Successful? Insights from Affective Science Iris Mauss, UC Berkeley Towards Neural Inference of Affect Dynamics Brian Knutson, Stanford University Modeling Positive Emotion Across Species Kristen Berendzen, UCSF Panel Discussion Moderator: Kuan-Hua Chen, UC Davis |
| 3:00 – 4:00 pm | Flash Talks Session 3: The Clinical and Developmental Windows into Emotions Dimensions of Childhood Adversity, Emotion Expertise, and Psychological Functioning in College Students Peter Martinez, CSU Dominguez Hills When Coping Falls Short: Social Class Discrimination and Perceived Stress Bingyue Tan, San Francisco State University Reducing Negative Sentiment on Social Media Increases Well-Being Jonas Schoene, Stanford University Strong Ties Over Network Size: Friendships and Loneliness in the First Year of College Maria Calderon Leon, UC Davis Unity in Diversity: Trait, State, Physiological & Narrative Facets of Moral Beauty in Four Countries Alejandro Campero-Oliart, UC Berkeley Neural Correlates of Positive Feelings under Psilocybin: A Personalized Within-Subjects Neuroimaging Study with Healthy Volunteers Lorenzo Pasquini, UCSF Discussant: Alexandra Main, UC Merced |
| 4:00 – 4:15 pm | Break |
| 4:15 – 5:00 pm | Fireside Chat Inside the Adolescent Mind: How Stress, Socialization, and Brain Circuitry Shape Girls’ Mental Health Amanda Guyer, UC Davis Discussant: Zachary Reese, University of San Francisco |
| 5:00 – 5:15 pm | Closing Remarks |
| 5:15 – 6:30 pm | Poster Session and Reception |
Bay Area Affective Science 