Columbia University Health & Society Scholar, Cohort 5
Kimberly Montgomery received her PhD in psychology and neuroscience from Princeton University in June 2007. In addition to her PhD, she earned a Certificate in Health and Health Policy from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Her dissertation research focused on the role the mirror neuron system, a network of brain areas that are important for action understanding, plays in social functioning. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), she found a positive relationship between activity in the human mirror neuron system and empathy and reduced activity in the mirror neuron system in individuals with high functioning autism. Her findings suggest that the mirror neuron system is important for proper social functioning. At Columbia, she is working on two projects exploring the relationship between activity in the mirror neuron system and health and well being. In the first study, she is examining the behavioral, neural and social consequences of empathy by conducting a three-part study: a behavioral, daily diary, and an fMRI study with the same participants. Using the data from the three studies, she will be able to make connections between behavioral, relationship, and mirror neuron system activity differences with empathy levels. Additionally, she is investigating the relationship between activity in the mirror neuron system and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) by conducting a study exploring whether BPD is associated with mirror neuron system activity differences.
Education & Training
Affiliations
Contact Information
722 West 168th St room 1612
MSPH, Columbia University New York, NY 10032
USA
Phone
work: 212-305-5873
fax:
Email : km2483@columbia.edu
Other Websites:
Selected Published Works
Communicative hand gestures and object-directed hand movements activated the mirror neuron system. Montgomery KJ, Isenberg N, Haxby JV. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2007 Jun;2(2):114-122.
Mirror neuron system differentially activated by facial expressions and social hand gestures: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Montgomery KJ, Haxby JV. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008 Oct;20(10):1866-77.
Two takes on the social brain: a comparison of theory of mind tasks. Gobbini MI, Koralek AC, Bryan RE, Montgomery KJ, Haxby JV. J Cogn Neurosci. 2007 Nov;19(11):1803-14.
