Dr Raluca Petrican
Lecturer
- petricanr@cardiff.ac.uk
- 3.17, Tower Building, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT
Overview
I am particularly interested in the relationship between individual differences in episodic memory (i.e., memory for previously experienced events) and cognitive control processes. Specifically, I seek to understand how this relationship is reflected in the brain, as well as how it changes across the lifespan and in mood disordered populations.
My work has two broad objectives. One is to characterize patterns of change and stability in the brain mechanisms underlying cognitive control and episodic memory across typical lifespan development. Such information can then be used to test whether age-specific versus age-invariant mechanisms relevant to episodic memory and cognitive control make distinguishable contributions to the emergence and maintenance of mood-related problems.
A second objective is to characterize the role of genetic and environmental factors in shaping the relationship between cognitive control and episodic memory processes. I am particularly interested in understanding typical patterns of co-adaptation in the brain architecture supporting episodic memory in members of long-term biologically related and unrelated dyads. One goal is to characterize the role of these adaptation mechanisms in optimal interpersonal functioning among healthy individuals. A second goal is to probe the specificity of such co-adaptation mechanisms by comparing the neural profiles of dyads in which one member had been diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorder that interferes with affective expression and/or experience.
Biography
Undergraduate Education
Hon. BSc Psychology & Drama, University of Toronto (2004)
Postgraduate Education
PhD Psychology, University of Toronto (2010) Thesis “Gaze control as a marker of self-other differentiation: Implications for sociocognitive functioning and close relationship quality” (Prof. M. Moscovitch)
Employment
Postdoctoral fellow (2011-2019) Rotman Research Institute (University of Toronto: Profs. C. Grady, B. Levine)
Publications
2023
- Petrican, R., Paine, A. L., Escott-Price, V. and Shelton, K. H. 2023. Overlapping brain correlates of superior cognition among children at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease and/or major depressive disorder. Scientific Reports 13(1), pp. 984. (10.1038/s41598-023-28057-6)
2022
- Petrican, R., Fornito, A. and Jones, N. 2022. Psychological resilience and neurodegenerative risk: a connectomics-transcriptomics investigation in healthy adolescent and middle-aged females. NeuroImage 255, article number: 119209. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119209)
2021
- Petrican, R., Miles, S., Rudd, L., Wasiewska, W., Graham, K. S. and Lawrence, A. D. 2021. Pubertal timing and functional neurodevelopmental alterations independently mediate the effect of family conflict on adolescent psychopathology. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience 52, article number: 101032. (10.1016/j.dcn.2021.101032)
- Petrican, R., Graham, K. S. and Lawrence, A. D. 2021. Brain-environment alignment during movie watching predicts fluid intelligence and affective function in adulthood. NeuroImage 238, article number: 118177. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118177)
2020
- Petrican, R., Palombo, D. J., Sheldon, S. and Levine, B. 2020. The neural dynamics of individual differences in episodic autobiographical memory. eNeuro 7(2), article number: ENEURO.0531-19.2020. (10.1523/ENEURO.0531-19.2020)
2019
- Petrican, R. and Grady, C. 2019. The intrinsic neural architecture of inhibitory control: The role of development and emotional experience. Neuropsychologia 127, pp. 93-105. (10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2019.01.021)
- Petrican, R., Soderlund, H., Kumar, N., Daskalakis, Z. J., Flint, A. and Levine, B. 2019. Electroconvulsive therapy “corrects” the neural architecture of visuospatial memory: Implications for typical cognitive-affective functioning. NeuroImage: Clinical 23, article number: 101816. (10.1016/j.nicl.2019.101816)
2018
- Petrican, R. and Levine, B. T. 2018. Similarity in functional brain architecture between rest and specific task modes: A model of genetic and environmental contributions to episodic memory. NeuroImage 179, pp. 489-504. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.06.057)
2017
- Petrican, R., Taylor, M. J. and Grady, C. L. 2017. Trajectories of brain system maturation from childhood to older adulthood: Implications for lifespan cognitive functioning. NeuroImage 163, pp. 125-149. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.09.025)
- Petrican, R. and Grady, C. L. 2017. Contextual and developmental differences in the neural architecture of cognitive control. Journal of Neuroscience 37(32), pp. 7711-7726. (10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0667-17.2017)
2015
- Petrican, R., Saverino, C., Shayna Rosenbaum, R. and Grady, C. 2015. Inter-individual differences in the experience of negative emotion predict variations in functional brain architecture. NeuroImage 123, pp. 80-88. (10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.031)
- Petrican, R., Rosenbaum, R. and Grady, C. 2015. Expressive suppression and neural responsiveness to nonverbal affective cues. Neuropsychologia 77, pp. 321-330. (10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.09.013)
- Petrican, R., Rosenbaum, R. S. and Grady, C. 2015. Neural activity patterns evoked by a spouse's incongruent emotional reactions when recalling marriage-relevant experiences. Human Brain Mapping 36(10), pp. 4164-4183. (10.1002/hbm.22909)
- Petrican, R., Todorov, A., Burris, C., Rosenbaum, R. and Grady, C. 2015. The look that binds: Partner-directed altruistic motivation and biased perception in married couples. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 39(2), pp. 165-179. (10.1007/s10919-014-0203-3)
2014
- Petrican, R., Moscovitch, M. and Grady, C. 2014. Proficiency in positive vs. negative emotion identification and subjective well-being among long-term married elderly couples. Frontiers in Psychology 5, article number: 338. (10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00338)
- Petrican, R. and Burris, C. 2014. Transcendent experiences motivate "escape" from the body via intimate partnerships. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 24(2), pp. 104-123. (10.1080/10508619.2013.771997)
- Petrican, R., Todorov, A. and Grady, C. 2014. Personality at face value: Facial appearance predicts self and other personality judgments among strangers and spouses. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 38(2), pp. 259-277. (10.1007/s10919-014-0175-3)
2013
- Petrican, R., Burris, C. and Moscovitch, M. 2013. Shame, sexual compulsivity, and eroticizing flirtatious others: An experimental study. Journal of Sex Research 52(1), pp. 98-109. (10.1080/00224499.2013.829796)
- Burris, C. and Petrican, R. 2013. Religion, negative emotions, and regulation. In: Saroglou, V. ed. Religion, Personality, and Social Behavior. New York: Psychology Press, pp. 96-122., (10.4324/9780203125359)
- Petrican, R., English, T., Gross, J., Grady, C., Hai, T. and Moscovitch, M. 2013. Friend or foe? Age moderates time-course specific responsiveness to trustworthiness cues. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B 68(2), pp. 215-223. (10.1093/geronb/gbs064)
2012
- Petrican, R. and Burris, C. 2012. Am I the stone? Overattribution of agency and religious orientation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 4(4), pp. 312-323. (10.1037/a0027942)
2011
- Petrican, R., Burris, C., Bielak, T., Schimmack, U. and Moscovitch, M. 2011. For my eyes only: Gaze control, enmeshment, and relationship quality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 100(6), pp. 1111-1123. (10.1037/a0021714)
- Burris, C. and Petrican, R. 2011. Hearts strangely warmed (and cooled): Emotional experience in religious and atheistic individuals. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 21(3), pp. 183-197. (10.1080/10508619.2011.581575)
- Petrican, R. and Burris, C. 2011. The infernal now: Linking temporal inefficacy to cognitive ability and social adjustment. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science 43(1), pp. 52-62. (10.1037/a0021700)
2010
- Petrican, R., Gopie, N., Leach, L., Chow, T., Richards, B. and Moscovitch, M. 2010. Recollection and familiarity for public events in neurologically intact older adults and two brain-damaged patients. Neuropsychologia 48(4), pp. 945-960. (10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.11.015)
2009
- Schneider, L., Schimmack, U., Petrican, R. and Walker, S. 2009. Acquaintanceship length as a moderator of self-informant agreement in life-satisfaction ratings. Journal of Research in Personality 44(1), pp. 146-150. (10.1016/j.jrp.2009.11.004)
2008
- Petrican, R., Moscovitch, M. and Schimmack, U. 2008. Cognitive Resources, Valence, and Memory Retrieval of Emotional Events in Older Adults. Psychology and Aging 23(3), pp. 585-594. (10.1037/a0013176)
- Petrican, R. and Schimmack, U. 2008. The role of dorsolateral prefrontal function in relationship commitment. Journal of Research in Personality 42(4), pp. 1130-1135. (10.1016/j.jrp.2008.03.001)
Teaching
BSc
Year 2
Abnormal and Clinical Psychology/Perception, Attention and Action (academic tutorials); Thinking, Emotion and Consciousness (practicals)
Placement Year
Occupational Placement (Coordinator Team member; university supervisor of placement students)
Final Year
Final Year Research Project (supervisor)
MSc in Neuroimaging
Research Project (supervisor); Research Design and Analysis in Neuroimaging (fMRI computing)
I also act as a Personal Tutor for students across all the BSc years.
Current research
Early life adversity and lifespan neurocognitive development
Early life adversity (e.g., poverty, high family conflict, maltreatment by a caregiver) has been consistently linked to affective and cognitive problems in youth. Nonetheless, some can overcome, at least partially, the handicap of life hostilities. Importantly, even for these youths, current evidence suggests that the effect of previous adversities on cognition and affect is not silenced, but merely delayed and likely to manifest during older adulthood in the form of accelerated cognitive aging and increased susceptibility to dementia.
Ongoing projects follow two lines of inquiry. One seeks to understand how genetic risk and early life adversity interact to predict affective vulnerability and atypical neurodevelopment in adolescence, as well as dementia risk in older adulthood. A second aims to characterise the reversibility of neurocognitive outcomes following early life adversity as a function of genetic resilience and later exposure to positive social environments.
Supervision
Past students
Natalie Jones, MSc
Chloe Apsey, MSc