Rate My Professor Jessica Andrews-Hanna

Research in the NET Lab investigates the functional and dysfunctional aspects of internally-guided cognition and their neural underpinnings. Core areas include self-referential thinking, autobiographical memory, future thinking, emotion appraisal, mentalizing, creativity, mind-wandering, and spontaneous thought. The lab examines lifespan changes, particularly in older age, altered states of consciousness such as dreaming and psychedelic experiences, and alterations in clinical populations including neurodegenerative diseases, mood and anxiety disorders, and perseverative thinking. Methods encompass task-related and resting-state functional MRI, psychophysiology, behavioral tasks, and smartphone apps for ecological momentary assessment. Key publications include 'Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: a dynamic framework' (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2016, with Christoff et al.), 'The default network and self-generated thought: component processes, dynamic control, and clinical relevance' (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2014), 'Functional-anatomic fractionation of the default network' (Neuron, 2010), and 'The brain’s default network: anatomy, function, and relevance to disease' (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2008, with Buckner and Schacter). Her contributions to understanding the default mode network have significantly influenced cognitive neuroscience. Andrews-Hanna has received the inaugural Galileo Circle Curie Award (2019), the Early Investigator Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists (2019), and the Indonesian-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellowship. She has secured a $4.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (2022, with Matt Grilli) and delivers public lectures, such as on the neuroscience of compassion.