Education

2015 Ph.D. Behavioural Neuroscience, Brock University

2009 M.Sc Developmental Psychology, Queen’s University

2007 Honours B.A. Psychology and Child and Youth Studies, Brock University

Research interests

My research combines methods of developmental psychology and neuroscience to study individual differences in self-regulation and executive functioning during adolescence and early adulthood. These are times of major development to these skills and times when extensive individual differences can be observed. I record event-related potentials (ERPs) from participants’ scalps while they perform simple computer tasks. Furthermore, I focus on how these neural measures can help explain some of the wide variation in individuals’ behavior. For example, why some adolescents consistently engage in dangerous behaviour, while others sail through adolescence without any trouble at all. This is not to say that environmental factors (e.g., family, peers, etc.) do not play a role in these individual differences; in fact, they play a large role! Recently I have been focusing on how adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse, death of a loved one, experiencing a natural disaster) and racial stressors (e.g., prejudice and discrimination) can have lasting impact on brain and cognition. Notably, these environmental factors can simultaneously influence both the neural factors and the behavioural outcomes. The complex relationships among all of these variables are not overlooked in my research.

Additionally, together with my colleague Noémie Bergeron-Germain and several student investigators, I am passionate about increasing diversity in EEG research by expanding our traditionally used ways of EEG data collection which end up systematically excluding folks with curly and coiled hair.

Selected publications

Bergeron-German, N., Hickens, N., & Lackner, C. L. (2024). Time spent in Canada and ethnic identity moderate the relationship between race-based traumatic stress symptoms and cognitive and emotional processes. Healthy Populations Journal, 4(1), 13-33. doi: 10.15273/hpj.v4i1.11993

Lackner, C., Thompson, B., Santesso, D. L., Wade, T. J., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2023). Perinatal nicotine exposure relates to stimulus-locked event-related potentials in early adolescence during an emotional Go/No-Go task. Neurotoxicology and Teratology, 107175, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2023.107175

Lackner, C., Gorter, J. W., Segalowitz, S. J., & MyStory Study Group. (2023). Cognitive event-related potentials in young adults with cerebral palsy: A proof of concept study. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 55(1), 64-75. doi:10.1177/1550059420977318

Lackner, C. L., Santesso, D. L., Dywan, J., O’Leary, D., Wade, T. J., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2018). Adverse childhood experiences are associated with self-regulation and the magnitude of the ERN difference. Biological Psychology, 132, 244-251. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.01.006.

Marshall, B., Lackner, C., Marriot, P., Santesso, D. L., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2014). Using phase shift Granger causality to measure effective connectivity in EEG recordings. Brain, 4(10), 826–841. doi:10.1089/brain.2014.0241

Lackner, C., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2014). Culture and context modify neural correlates of adolescent risk-taking behavior. In J. Burack and L. Schmidt(Eds.), Cultural and Contextual Perspectives on Development at Risk (pp. 158–180). Cambridge University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511920165.011

Lackner, C., Santesso, D. L., Dywan, J., Wade, T. L., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2014). ERPs elicited to performance feedback in high-shy and low-shy adolescents. Infant and Child Development, 23(3), 283–294. doi: 10.1002/icd.1865

Lackner, C., Marshall, W. J., Santesso, D. L., Dywan, J., Wade, T. L., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2014). Adolescent anxiety and aggression can be differentially predicted by electrocortical phase reset variables. Brain and Cognition, 89, 90–98. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2013.10.004

Lackner, C., Santesso, D. L., Dywan, J., Wade, T. L., & Segalowitz, S. J. (2013). Electrophysiological markers of selective auditory attention relate to adolescent executive function. Biological Psychology, 93, 325–333.

Sustainable Development Goals for Christine Lackner: Good Health and Well-being