Megan FinneganMegan Finnegan is a fifth-year dual-doctoral student studying psychology and neuroscience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
At the Beckman Institute, Finnegan is affiliated with the Intelligence, Learning, and Plasticity Working Group, where she collaborates with Wendy Heller, Karen Rudolph, and Heidemarie Laurent.
Her work focuses on developing new tools to better identify the cognitive processes underlying brain activity. She uses these advances to develop models of how the brain responds to everyday experiences related to past, current, and future mental illness.
Her aim is twofold: first, to use these findings to build more nuanced artificial intelligence models of emotions that can take advantage of the rich sources of information that human emotions provide; and second, to better understand the bio-physiological causes and consequences of our own distress and joy and to use this knowledge to promote human flourishing.
What is the most important question you want to answer through your research?
For my current work, I would like to identify what part of a teenager’s brain response to being excluded in online contexts is most closely coupled with the development of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. In the bigger picture, I would like to understand how social connectedness and threats to that connectedness interact with brain systems that are involved in the experience of emotion.
What made you first take an interest in your field?
There was never one thing. It might sound silly, but I first fell in love with the idea of emotion as an essential component of intelligent behavior when I was a very small child. My mom would let me stay up late to watch "Star Trek: The Next Generation" with her, and I fell in love with the character Data. The idea of an android that possessed cognitive abilities far superior to any human but could still make silly mistakes simply because he did not have the full richness of human emotion and social knowledge seems profound to me. When I was 16, I learned to write code and built a simple player for the game "Othello," and it seemed like a whole new world had opened.
Beckman’s mission is to build a better world. How does your research make the world better?
Suicide is tragic. No parent, sibling, child, or friend should ever have to experience a loss that can cut so deep. No person should ever have to experience despair so profound that it can carry them to the edge where death seems like a better option.
Depression is one of the biggest risk factors for suicide, and prior depression is one of the biggest risk factors for subsequent depression. Life transitions, like the transition to adulthood, are a vulnerable period for developing depression and anxiety. Yet we know so little about what depression really is, how it emerges, or what helps people maintain resilience in the face of adversity.
Ido recognize that the neurophysiology of depression is one small sliver of a picture that encompasses behavioral, social, political, and cultural contributions, but my hope is that by developing a more nuanced understanding of how the brain navigates stressors relevant to daily life and how that relates to trajectories of mental health, I might be able to help identify differences in information processing that put people at risk for these serious mental health conditions.
When thinking about it more abstractly, the brain is an exquisite piece of information-processing machinery. Often cognitive reasoning gets all the limelight when we talk about why human brains are so intelligent, but emotion is also a critical source of information in adaptive decision-making. When the brain systems that support emotion are damaged (say, due to stroke or head injury), people often become much worse at making decisions that maximize their well-being.
We also know, in large part due to work from my advisor, that those with depression and anxiety attend to and process information in ways distinct from those without either disorder. How can we leverage what we know about how the brain implements emotion and emotional distress to make our current AI algorithms better at reasoning about the world? In the end, Data from "Star Trek" got his emotion chip, but what would that look like in the real world? How would Tesla cars drive if they were a little more apprehensive? How much more careful might chatGPT be if it were a bit socially anxious?
That might all be a little far-fetched right now, but it’s my dream to take the discoveries I’m making right now in how the brain processes emotions and implement them as computational abstractions that could be used to improve reasoning algorithms.
Describe a transformative moment or experience you have had at Beckman.
Two stills from Finnegan's video wedding invitation display the couple's shared home at the Beckman Institute.I met my husband here! We always passed each other on the elevators and one day started chatting. My husband is in mechanical engineering in a field completely different from mine. One of the most beautiful things about Beckman is that in everything from the events it hosts, its boundary-crossing philosophy, and even the architecture designed to physically bring people together into a common space, it simply invites conversation.
For me, that has expanded the direction my science has grown, and has given me the opportunity to meet the love of my life. I am certain I would have spent my entire Ph.D. at the U of I and have never known who he was otherwise. The Beckman Institute was so important to our story together that we even featured it on our wedding invitation!
Being a student is hard. What advice do you have for the next generation?
I am a parent of a young child and a graduate student. Frankly, I do not have a healthy life balance. This has been exacerbated by the way in which the pandemic impacted parents of young children, which has caused me to need to work extra in order to make up for it. I would never fault anyone for feeling compelled to work more than what is healthy. This is driven by broader systemic problems that reward and incentivize overwork.
However, I would also encourage others to not be afraid to be firm on holding personal boundaries. It is OK to not hold meetings after regular work hours. It’s okay to not work on the weekend. It’s okay to explicitly name overwork when you see it happening. That may be the only way the culture will ever change. Especially those in a position where they can afford to set those boundaries with limited impact on their career, know that what you are doing is not just an act of self-care, but a potent act of social justice and cultural change.
Who or what has influenced you the most?
I’m not sure there is a simple answer to that. Many people have impacted my life and my career in profound and unique ways. It would take a novel to give them the honor and gratitude they deserve.
What are you passionate about?
I really enjoy writing code. It’s one of the few things that I can always get completely absorbed in and lose track of time. When I have time, I love gardening and growing vegetables. One of the really great things about the Midwest is how big a backyard garden culture there is. What I love most deeply though is those moments I get to spend with my daughter when I can just forget about the never-ending to-do's and let her lead the way. That sense of unfettered curiosity about the world and her delight in the smallest and simplest things makes all the hard work feel worth it.
Imagine that you’re the host of a new podcast. What is it about?
I think it would be fun to have a podcast that explored the methodological shortcoming of neuroscience and ways the envelope is being pushed forward.
What is your favorite book and what life lesson has it taught you?
I don’t have a favorite book, but I am a fan of sci-fi. Although it’s definitely a product of the times it was written in, I read "Stranger in a Strange Land" in middle school and it left a deep impression on how uncritically I had accepted so many things in my life.
Tell us about your post-university plans!
That answer depends on the day of the week. I always envision myself in a research setting because that is where I am happiest, but whether that is in academia or industry, I’m not sure. Wherever it is, I hope to continue my work on understanding emotions and emotional disorders, although I’m not yet certain whether I would stay in human neuroimaging or branch into other neuroscience methodologies.
Speed Round:
Favorite song at the moment: My 2-year-old likes to control the playlist when we’re in the car. Right now, she is really into "Nacho Nacho" (the Hindi version of "Naatu Naatu," which won an Oscar this year). It was really great the first dozen or so times she listened to it, and diminishing returns after that. I prefer "Udi Udi Jaye," but my daughter is more than happy to let me know how unsatisfactory my musical picks are when I put them on.
Something you’re looking forward to in the next month: Warm weather!
What do you like to do in your free time outside of the lab? I don’t really have free time, but outside the lab, my time is mostly spent taking care of my daughter and the housework. When we do find downtime, we will read children’s books, color, or play small games together.
