Biography

Lauren DiNicola will join the University of Virginia in Fall 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard, where she worked with Randy Buckner, exploring human brain network functions using a precision neuroimaging approach. Her work revealed that side-by-side networks are distinctly recruited for some of our coolest cognitive abilities, like remembering, social inference and language. What’s more, these “domain-specialized” networks are right next to those proposed to support more “domain-flexible” cognitive control functions. Currently, Dr. DiNicola is conducting post-doctoral research in Harvard’s Stress and Development Lab, working with Kate McLaughlin’s group to probe how brain networks might change across adolescence. 

Research Interests 

My research grapples with how the human brain supports complex cognitive functions. With minimal effort, you can recall past experiences, consider friends’ feelings, imagine new scenarios, and communicate. Understanding how we engage in these advanced forms of thought can provide insight into why human minds are flexible but also vulnerable to psychopathology. In particular, my lab uses within-individual (‘precision’) approaches to study association networks – how they are organized, what broad domains and specific processes they support, and how they might change across adolescent development or other periods of life featuring major hormonal shifts.

Association cortex (zones furthest from primary sensory and motor areas) is fascinating because it shows disproportionate evolutionary expansion and prolonged postnatal development, with regions linked to multiple of the complex cognitive abilities that seem particularly advanced in humans. Within association zones, regions form interconnected networks that are distributed (i.e., spread across the brain) and parallel (i.e., with regions of different networks side-by-side). More details of these networks can be appreciated when studying individuals, and our recent work has shown that multiple of these networks can be functionally dissociated. For example, three interwoven networks - often blurred in group-averaged data - can be reliably identified in individuals, and each differentially responds to tasks targeting remembering, social reasoning, or language-relevant functions. Two additional networks appear to have more domain-flexible roles in cognitive control. The exact processes association networks support, how they develop, how they might interact to underlie complex functions and whether networks change in the face of major life events are just some of the open questions my lab will explore further at UVA! We will continue to use precision approaches to tackle these types of questions, including neuroimaging, as well as other tools (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, measures of physical activity, hormone samples) to characterize fluctuations in individual experiences over time.

Recent Publications

• Du J*, DiNicola LM*, Angeli PA*, Saadon-Grosman N, Sun W, Kaiser S, Ladopoulou J, Xue A, Yeo BTT, Eldaief MC, Buckner RL (2024). Organization of the human cerebral cortex estimated within individuadls: Networks, global topography and function. Journal of Neurophysiology 181: 1014-1082.
• DiNicola LM, Sun W & Buckner RL (2023). Side-by-side regions in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex estimated within the individual respond differentially to domain-specific and domain-flexible processes. Journal of Neurophysiology 130(6): 1602-1615.
• DiNicola LM, Ariyo OI & Buckner RL (2023). Functional specialization of parallel distributed networks revealed by analysis of trial-to-trial variation in processing demands. Journal of Neurophysiology 129(1): 17-40.
• DiNicola LM & Buckner RL (2021). Precision estimates of parallel distributed association networks: Evidence for domain specialization and implications for evolution and development. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 40: 120-129.