Contact Information

UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
300 Medical Plaza, Room 3156
Box 957076
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7076
Tel: (310) 849-4330
Fax: (310) 794-9247
E-mail: neisenbe@ucla.edu

Biosketch

Dr. Naomi Eisenberger graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Psychobiology and then received a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from UCLA in 2005. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology investigating the influence of immune system activity on neural function. Her primary interests are in understanding how the need for social connection has left its mark on the mind, brain, and body. She asks questions such as: “Why does social rejection hurt?” or “Why does social support bolster health and well-being?” and then uses cognitive neuroscience techniques to elucidate the neural systems involved to better understand the computational and experiential substrates of these complex processes. She is currently collaborating with Dr. Bruce Naliboff to better understand the underlying similarities and differences between physical and social pain processes, as well as how these types of pain can influence one another.

Selected References

Eisenberger NI, Lieberman MD, and WilliamsKD. Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292, 2003.

Eisenberger NI and Lieberman MD. Why rejection hurts: A common neural alarm system for physical and social pain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 294-300, 2004.

Eisenberger NI, Lieberman MD, and Satpute AB. Personality from a controlled processing perspective: An fMRI study of neuroticism, extraversion, and self-consciousness. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 5, 169-181, 2005.

Lieberman MD, Hariri A, Jarcho JM, Eisenberger NI, and Bookheimer SY. An fMRI investigation of the associative and perceptual nature of race-related amygdala activity. Nature Neuroscience, 8, 720-722, 2005.