Greg H. Proudfit is interested in emotional and cognitive functioning using neural and psychophysiological measures. Proudfit has examined fundamental neural systems that respond to errors, reward, and other emotional stimuli in relation to anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Proudfit has extended this work into pediatric populations, and is increasingly examining error- and reward-related brain activity in relation to risk for psychopathology and the degree to which psychophysiological measures can prospectively predict changes in symptoms over time using large and longitudinal designs.
As part of various NIMH-funded projects, Proudfit is following multiple cohorts of children into early adulthood to examine neural measures that predict and distinguish trajectories of risk for anxiety and depressive disorders. In this way, his work is contributing to a better understanding of specific biomarkers of risk. The long-term goal of these studies is to better understand mechanisms of risk for anxiety and depression, to identify modifiable biomarkers of risk, and to leverage these biomarkers to inform intervention and prevention efforts.
Proudfit has given lectures all over the United States and internationally, and he has been an invited teacher at a number of NIMH-sponsored trainings, including the Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience. Proudfit has presented his research to committees at both the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Cancer Institute, and his studies enroll more than 1,400 adolescents in the Stony Brook Community, and these families become involved in science—both through hands-on participation and newsletter updates.
Proudfit is an associate professor of psychology at Stony Brook University in New York. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Delaware in 2006.