Are you coming to the 2025 SAS (Society for Affective Science) meeting on March 20-22? If so, join us for the symposium "Loneliness and Emotion Across the Adult Life Span," chaired by Enna Chen (Stanford) and Anna Pot (Stanford), on Saturday, March 22, from 11:15 AM to 12:15 PM in the Broadway Room. Our own Ahria will present her recent findings on how not engaging in enjoyable activities explains the link between caregiving burden and perceived loneliness in dementia caregivers. Other speakers include Ozge Ugurlu (UC Berkeley) and Anna Pot. Barbara Fredrickson (UNC) will serve as the discussant! Hope to see you there!

Arianna Tidball has been awarded an UNMC Medical Student Summer Research Program Scholarship to conduct research in our lab during summer 2025. Her work will focus on better understanding the social and emotional factors contributing to the early progression of dementia and its impact on family caregivers. Congratulations, Arianna!

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and the lab have been awarded a $200K grant by the Alzheimer's Association to study how connectedness to family members and communities influences the early progression of Alzheimer's disease! Congratulations to Dr. Chen and the CHEN Lab! 

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and colleagues (Joan Monin, Stephanie Wilson, and Youngmee Kim ) are co-guest-editing a special issue for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine (formerly Psychosomatic Medicine) featuring the current and future directions of interpersonal processes and health research. Please consider submitting your abstract by April 1, 2025! For more details, see HERE. 

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and colleagues (Stephanie Wilson, Rosie Shrout, and Julianne Holt-Lunstad) are co-guest-editing a special issue for Biological Psychology featuring the psychobiology of dyadic and interpersonal processes across adulthood. Please consider submitting your letter of intent by Nov. 15, 2024! For more details, see HERE. 

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen's paper, entitled "Interpersonal linkage in positive and negative emotional behaviors, emotional well-being, and physical functioning in dementia caregivers" has been published in APS journal Clinical Psychological Science! Click HERE to read! 

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and the lab have been awarded supplement support from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGHS) with $200K to study how grandparents' and grandchildren's emotions, physiology, and brains (EEG) are synchronized during dyadic interactions, and how this relates to child development, health, and risk of developing dementia and cognitive declines. 

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen has been awarded IMPACT Collaboratory Faculty Scholar.  Through this award, he will enhance relevant skills to conduct technology-centered and community-based pragmatic clinical trials that aim to optimize social connectedness and mitigate health declines in rural and urban aging Americans in their homes and other healthcare settings.

Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and the lab have been awarded Diversity Research Award from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) with $100K for 2 years to study the relationships between social support and healthcare access, social connectedness, and health in persons with dementia and their spousal caregivers living in rural areas of the Nebraska and nearby states! 

A symposium chaired by Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen, highlighting recent technological advancements in studying dementia care dyads, was held at the 2024 meeting of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). The symposium featured presentations by Dr. Christopher Fagundes (Rice University), Dr. Neil Thomas (University of Ottawa), Dr. Lyndsey Miller (Oregon Health & Science University), and Dr. Rashelle Hoffman (Creighton University). Allison Lindauer (Oregon Health & Science University) served as our discussant!

On May 24, 2024, Dr. Chen shared his journey in developing dyadic wearables to study "time spent together (physical proximity) between persons with dementia and family caregivers at the  2024 APS meeting in San Francisco, CA. 

On May 10, 2024, Dr. Chen spoke about dementia caregiving at the 2024 Chicago Consortium on Longevity Summit, co-hosted by Dr. Claudia Haase at Northwestern University and Dr. Joe Mikels at DePaul University.

Ahria's work to determine the optimal bin size to compute physiological linkage in married dyads was highlighted in the 2024 SAS meeting poster sessions and later be selected to be included in Affective Science as a long abstract. Congrats, Ahria!

This November at the 2023 GSA (The Gerontological Society of America) meeting, we had a successful symposium chaired by Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen that featured recent research advances using technology to study real-world emotions and social behaviors in aging individuals and couples! Other speakers include: Dr. Casey Brown (Georgetown), Ms. Enna Chen (Stanford), Dr. Michael AuYeung (OHSU), and Dr. Bob Levenson (UC Berkeley).

This March at the APS (American Psychosomatic Society) meeting, we had a successful symposium (chaired by Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and Dr. Joshua Novak) that features recent advances in technology-based health science research. Other speakers include Dr. David Newman (UCSF), Dr. Lüscher Janina (Swiss Paraplegic Research), and Dr. Stephanie Wilson (SMU). 

Are you coming to the 2024 SAS (The Society for Affective Science) meeting in March? If so, come to the symposium chaired by Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen to learn more about how people's physiological responses become synchronized during social interactions! Other speakers include: Mr. Chen Erez (Bar-Ilan University), Ms. Olivia Jurkiewicz (UCSD), and Dr. Bob Levenson (UC Berkeley).

This April at the SAS (Society for Affective Science) meeting, we had a successful symposium (chaired by Dr. Kuan-Hua Chen and Dr. Bob Levenson) that features recent advances in social and emotional aging!  Other speakers include Dr. Casey Brown (Georgetown), Dr. Janelle Beadle (UNO), and Ms. Sangha Jeon (IC Irvine). 

Are you coming to the 2025 SAS (Society for Affective Science) meeting on March 20-22? If so, join us for the symposium "Loneliness and Emotion Across the Adult Life Span," chaired by Enna Chen (Stanford) and Anna Pot (Stanford), on Saturday, March 22, from 11:15 AM to 12:15 PM in the Broadway Room. Our own Ahria will present her recent findings on how not engaging in enjoyable activities explains the link between caregiving burden and perceived loneliness in dementia caregivers. Other speakers include Ozge Ugurlu (UC Berkeley) and Anna Pot. Barbara Fredrickson (UNC) will serve as the discussant! Hope to see you there!