Biography:

Dr. Todd’s research program focuses on neurocognitive processes underlying the interaction between human emotion and cognition in health and in psychopathology. It employs brain imaging methods and laboratory experiments to investigate how we process the affective salience, or emotional/motivational importance, of objects and events around us, and how such affective salience influences what we see, how we learn, and what we remember. It also focuses on individual differences in how we filter the world so that we are more likely to perceive specific categories of salient event (e.g., threatening vs. rewarding), and how such filters develop over time and influence behaviour, with major consequences for emotional health and wellbeing. Specific programs of research include investigation of neurocognitive processes underlying effects of acute stress or emotional experience on attention, learning and memory and on attentional biases that predict treatment outcomes in depression. Dr. Todd is a MSFHR Scholar and holds a CIHR New Investigator award.