New York University
Department of Psychology

B.A. with Honors in Interdisciplinary Humanities, Class of 2004
Minor in Biology
Stanford University

Research

I graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in Humanities (in MTL which meant Modern Thought and Literature), focusing on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science. I also completed a Biology minor, studying stem cells in zebrafish brains at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, CA.

I'm now studying a different kind of MTL, roughly speaking: I joined the Phelps Lab in September 2007 as a PhD student. My current interests include studying the neural similarities between appetitive and aversive conditioning, and exploring how the valence of a reinforcer can be manipulated contextually or with the use of intentional regulation strategies. I am also interested in testing reinforcement learning models and examining how we make decisions based upon a history of reinforcement. Currently I am working on a conditioned inhibition experiment examining appetitive and aversive conditioned inhibition, hoping to further characterize the roles of the amygdala, striatum, and orbitofrontal cortex in fear and reward learning.

Publications

Schiller, D., Cain, C.K., Curley, N., Schwartz, J.S., Stern, S.A., LeDoux, J.E., Phelps, E.A. (2008). Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans. Learning & Memory. 15:394-402.

Posters

Curley, N., Stern, S., Schwartz, J., Cain, C.K., Schiller, D., LeDoux, J.E., Phelps, E.A. (2007, November) Evidence for Recovery of Fear Following Immediate Extinction in Rats and Humans, Society for Neuroscience.

Curley, N., Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, September) Regulating Loss Aversion: A Physiological Correlate of the Relative Overvaluation of Losses, Society for Neuroeconomics.

Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Curley, N., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, September) Thinking Like A Trader: Distinct Neural Correlates of Loss Aversion and its Intentional Regulation, Society for Neuroeconomics.

Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Curley, N., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, May) Reappraising Losses: Neural Correlates of the Intentional Regulation of Loss Aversion, Neural Systems of Social Behavior.

Curley, N., Sokol-Hessner, P., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2007, May) Reappraising Loss Aversion: A Physiological Correlate of the Relative Overvaluation of Losses, Cognitive Neuroscience Society.

Sokol-Hessner, P., Curley, N., Hsu, M., Delgado, M., Camerer, C., Phelps, E.A. (2006, September) Reappraising Loss Aversion: Manipulating Choices with Emotion Regulation Strategies, Society for Neuroeconomics.