Our Laboratory

                         

The Anxiety, Psychophysiology, and Pain Research (APP) Laboratory is located in the Life Sciences Building, which houses the Department of Psychology and the Department of Biology on WVU’s downtown campus. The four-room APP suite is situated in a secure research corridor on the second floor of the LSB, near Dr. McNeil’s Psychology faculty office. The lab itself provides facilities for holding meetings as well as housing three computers, two printers, and one printer/scanner for use by lab members. Computers are hardwired to the University’s intranet as well as the Internet.

In the laboratory, there is Coulbourn® psychophysiological data acquisition equipment that is computer-controlled, with automated data storage. This equipment also can be used remotely (e.g., in chronic pain clinics). To allow psychophysiological recording without interference, a Faraday shield, aka Faraday “cage” (unobtrusively) completely surrounds two of the lab rooms, blocking external static and non-static electric fields. The physiological equipment also has been configured to allow its use in biofeedback applications with clinical patients from the WVU Department of Psychology’s clinic, the Quin Curtis Center for Psychological Services.

The APP lab also has strong linkages with the WVU Health Sciences Center, particularly the School of Dentistry. Numerous field studies have been conducted there. Access to clinical populations (e.g., oral surgery patients, general dental patients; family medicine patients) and research facilities is readily available there.

Laboratory Research Foci 

Consistent with a high level of intellectual and scientific curiosity about human behavior generally, the areas of focus in the Anxiety, Psychophysiology, and Pain Research Laboratory are quite broad. Much of the research falls under the broad purview of pain and anxiety disorders. The interactions among anxiety, fear, and pain provide a linkage between the “Health Psychology” and “Anxiety Disorders” areas of interest that exist in contemporary psychology, psychiatry, social work, and other areas of health care. Since the dental setting is a “natural laboratory” for the study of pain, anxiety, and fear, the field of Behavioral Dentistry is another primary focus. Similarly, the interaction between pain and a variety of emotional states are an area of current interest, specifically focusing on “emotional pain.”

Another area of emphasis in the APP Lab is multiculturalism, particularly focusing on Appalachian populations, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and indigenous peoples globally. The disparities in health that face underserved groups is an interest, including problems with utilization, particularly those that are involved in avoidance behavior related to fear, anxiety, and phobia.

Multimodal and multimethod approaches to assessment are valued in the lab, so psychophysiological measures are an area of interest. There are some long-standing and continuing tertiary interests in social anxiety, including Social Anxiety Disorder/Social Phobia. Historically and currently, much of the research in the lab has had an experimental psychopathology focus. Nevertheless, some other current interests include methods to enhance exposure therapies for dental phobia and other anxiety disorders. 

                                    

      One of the lab rooms is furnished as a dental operatory, which can be used in laboratory-based             studies (e.g., as a “fear stimulus” in the assessment and treatment of dental phobia). 

Selected List of Current Research Projects 

• Intensity of exposure stimuli as a factor of patient adoption and preference for phobia treatment (Matthew Arias' dissertation) 

• Effects of age on pain-related fear through a large cross-sectional study (Casey Wright's master's thesis)

• Novel approach to present  stimuli for self-directed exposure utilizing smartphone technology (Matthew Arias' master's thesis)

• Relations of stress, zonulin, and periodontal disease (F31 grant submission to the National Institutes of Health)

• Factors contributing to oral health disparities in Appalachia (2R01 DE014899; WVU Principal Investigator for a grant from the National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research/National Institutes of Health) 

         

             

                         Dr. McNeil building a cabinet for a dental drill in the operatory room

Ethics and Science  

Involvement in the APP Lab is intended to train students in the proper and ethical conduct of research. All lab members are expected to embody the highest ethical and professional principles and behaviors. Each semester, lab meetings include a discussion of applied research ethics.

As such the lab operates in accordance with the following documented ethical principles: 
•  Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct from the American Psychological Association 
•  Principles of Ethics and Code of Professional Conduct from the American Dental Association 
•  Declaration of Helsinki regarding Ethical Principles for Research involving Human Subjects 
•  The Belmont Report of 1979 regarding Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research 
•  United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 

          

 

                                                          Annual McNeil Lab Ski Trip

           

  Cameron Ford, WVU Graduate Student in the Clinical Psychology Program, Helping Matthew Arias                                Develop Exposure Videos for His Master's Thesis 

             

                                          Psychophysiology Room in the APP Lab