Personable, with a self-deprecating humor, undertakes聽research that belies his easy-going manner. A new assistant professor in the University鈥檚 psychology department with a secondary appointment in neuroscience, he studies the processes聽that underlie how humans navigate the social world and how those processes go awry in people with schizophrenia.
Every human鈥檚 physical and mental constitution demands social connection and social contact, but 鈥渓arge numbers of people don鈥檛 have that social connection and therefore don鈥檛 get to reap the benefits of having close social relationships,鈥� says Dodell-Feder. That鈥檚 why people with schizophrenia have trouble forming, establishing, and maintaining healthy social relationships, romantic relationships, and relationships at work.
Healthy interpersonal relationships matter
As social animals, the extent of our social connection carries important consequences for our health and well-being, he notes. 鈥淲hen engaged in healthy social contact and rewarding social relationships, we thrive; when socially isolated, we wither.鈥� Studies have shown that social isolation is associated with psychiatric illness, physical illness, and early mortality, making social disconnection a major public health concern.
Meet the faculty
Dodell-Feder is one of 30 new faculty members joing Arts, Sciences & Engineering in 2018-19.
Dodell-Feder is now trying to figure out why people with schizophrenia are experiencing these social difficulties. To that end, he focuses on one process in particular鈥攖heory of mind鈥攂y which humans attribute and reason about the mental states of others.
鈥淵ou can look at your husband, for example, and perhaps know what emotion he鈥檚 feeling, or know what he wants to have for dinner, or do on the weekend,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hese processes that we take for granted are actually really difficult for some groups of people.鈥�
It鈥檚 this group of processes that seems to be disrupted in people with schizophrenia, affecting day-to-day social behavior. Dodell-Feder is working to establish how exactly the neural mechanisms are impaired鈥攁 first step in designing any future interventions.
His research involves neuroimaging, something that made the University with its under the new leadership of , chair of the Department of Neuroscience, very attractive to him. And Dodell-Feder says he鈥檚 looking forward to working closely with schizophrenia expert , a professor of psychiatry at the Medical Center.
Return to Rochester
The new job at Rochester marks a return for Dodell-Feder. 鈥淚 just couldn鈥檛 resist the prospect of six months of winter,鈥� the 32-year old jokes about Rochester鈥檚 abrasive climate. But then he knew what he was getting himself into: he had left the University in 2008 with a BA in psychology and brain and cognitive sciences.
In the intervening decade, Dodell-Feder picked up a , followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the 聽in Belmont, Massachusetts, before returning to the 人妻少妇专区鈥檚聽with a secondary appointment in the
鈥淚鈥檓 fortunate that my colleagues are some of the best psychologists in the country,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o be able to work with them, and collaborate with them is just really exciting.鈥�
The Queens, New York, native fondly remembers his favorite undergraduate class at the University鈥攁 seminar in humanistic psychotherapy, taught by psychology professor (and self-determination theory co-founder) . At his graduation ten years ago, Dodell-Feder had asked Deci for the honor to receive his diploma from his professor鈥檚 hands. Deci was happy to oblige. Little did either man suspect that just a decade later his favorite prof would be voting enthusiastically to bring Dodell-Feder back as a colleague.
鈥淒avid was an excellent student when he was an undergraduate here,鈥� Deci says. 鈥淚 had a sense that he would go on to a successful career in psychology, but I had, of course, no idea he鈥檇 end up here.鈥�
Another passion
During his undergrad years in Rochester, Dodell-Feder followed his second passion鈥攎usic. He took saxophone lessons for credit at the Eastman School of Music. While an 鈥渁wesome鈥� experience, he felt somewhat bad for those professionals who taught him. 鈥淚鈥檓 shocked they let me do it,鈥� laughs Dodell-Feder. 鈥淚 loved playing but, objectively, I wasn鈥檛 terribly good.鈥� Yet, undeterred, he formed a jam band with friends on campus, played one semester in a chamber ensemble group, and for several semesters in a sax quartet.
Ultimately, it was his love of saxophone playing that prompted the idea for his undergraduate honors thesis鈥攁 study comparing visual attention skills in musicians to non-musicians, hypothesizing that musicians would score higher.
A great idea, he was convinced. But things didn鈥檛 quite go as planned. For starters, it was difficult to recruit enough musicians.
His findings?
Nothing. At least nothing interesting.
鈥淢y sample size was just way too small to make any sort of conclusions or inferences from the data I collected, I鈥檓 sorry to say,鈥� he grins.聽Nevertheless, the experience whetted his appetite for academic inquiry.
Does reading fiction make us better human beings?
Most recently, he鈥檚 been looking at the effects of fiction reading on people鈥檚 cognitive social skills, including the ability to feel empathy. Several studies have suggested that fiction reading serves as a way of priming humans鈥� social skills, while others found no effect. Dodell-Feder鈥檚 own meta-analysis of 14 studies confirmed that those people randomly assigned to read fiction performed better on a host of cognitive skills than those assigned to read non-fiction or nothing.
Yet, while Dodell-Feder found a 鈥渞obust鈥� effect, he鈥檚 the first to admit that overall it was 鈥渢iny.鈥� So small, in fact, that it might be the 鈥渢ype of effect that a lot of researchers would disregard as not necessarily meaningful,鈥� he surmises. But for Dodell-Feder, who is looking to improve the social skills of people with schizophrenia with easily available, tolerable, and cost-effective treatments, a seed was planted.
鈥淭he finding is important and at the very least deserving of additional research,鈥� he says. The crux with the studies in his meta-analysis was that the test subjects had read fiction for a very short time, often just for five minutes. It鈥檚 possible, he reasoned, that the short reading duration accounts for the very small effects.
That鈥檚 why this summer, together with co-investigator , a psychologist at Princeton University, and supported by a grant from the National , he set out to study 300 healthy adults, randomly assigned to read fiction (or non-fiction) over the course of four weeks, hoping for a greater measurable impact on social cognition. Data collection has just begun and the results aren鈥檛 in yet.
Currently, he鈥檚 looking for a community partner in Rochester to test a similar hypothesis in adolescents to see whether fiction reading positively affects social and emotional development.
鈥淲hat we really want to know is if fiction reading improves theory of mind and emotion processing, does this actually generalize to day-to-day social functioning and social behavior?鈥� he wonders. 鈥淒oes it actually help someone improve the quality and quantity of their social relationships? Does it make it easier for someone to connect socially with others?鈥�
Essentially the question boils down to this鈥攄oes fiction reading teach you better social skills for the real world?
Helping him in his quest for answers is a 聽for $70,000, paid out over two years, awarded this fall. It鈥檚 for a project that employs real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) to see if social dysfunction in people with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders can be improved through neurofeedback.
But all research aside, what鈥檚 Dodell-Feder going to do about the long winters? As an undergraduate, he says, it didn鈥檛 bother him as much, having spent much of his time working deep in the windowless stacks at Rush Rhees Library. This winter, however, he vows to be active outside鈥攅ither snow shoeing, or trying out cross country skiing.
A habit from his undergrad times that he won鈥檛 repeat any time soon?
鈥淒rink a Genny Light,鈥� he says, referring to the somewhat watery but inexpensive, locally-brewed lager, a perennial favorite with students.
鈥淚 had a few since I came back and it鈥檚 just the way I remembered it,鈥� Dodell-Feder laughs. “Not good.”
