PhD Student
I investigate the neural correlates and behavioural mechanisms that underpin how people interpret unpleasant situations and apply effort to avoid unpleasant situations. I am also interested in computationally modelling biases and affective states that contribute to evaluations of effort cost, with the aim of better understanding the roles that differing cognitive mechanisms, and mood disorders, play in people’s perception of effort. Furthermore, I help conduct a variety of fMRI data analysis projects, focusing on multivariate analyses of representations of affective stimuli. I am co-supervised by Dr. Rebecca Todd and Dr. Alan Kingstone. Additionally, I collaborate with Dr. Kiran Soma on statistical analyses of local steroid regulations in rodents. I also collaborate with Dr. Tim Murphy in the UBC Department of Psychiatry to develop computer vision methods to track animal behaviours in real time, and segment mesoscale calcium images in mice into functional brain regions.
Research Interests
Publications
Forys, B. J., Tomm, R. J., Stamboliyska, D., Terpstra, A. R., Clark, L., Chakrabarty, T., Floresco, S. B., & Todd, R. M. (2023). Gender impacts the relationship between mood disorder symptoms and effortful avoidance performance. eNeuro, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0239-22.2023
Forys, B. J., Tomm, R. J., Stamboliyska, D., Terpstra, A. R., Clark, L., Chakrabarty, T., Floresco, S. B., & Todd, R. M. (2022). Gender and comorbidity moderate the relationship between mood disorder symptoms and effortful avoidance performance. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.21.497075
Ehlers, M. R., Kryklywy, J. H., Beukers, A. O., Moore, S. R., Forys, B. J., Anderson, A. K., & Todd, R. M. (2021).
Reactivation of hedonic but not sensory representations in human emotional learning. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.11.25.469891
Xiao, D., Forys, B. J., Vanni, M. P., & Murphy, T. H. (2021). MesoNet: automated scaling and segmentation of mouse mesoscale cortical maps using machine learning. Nature Communications, 12(1), 5992. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26255-2
Hamden, J.E., Salehzadeh, M., Gray, K. M., Forys, B. J., & Soma, K. K. (2021). Isoflurane stress induces glucocorticoid production in mouse lymphoid organs. Journal of Endocrinology, 251(2), 137-148. https://doi.org/10.1530/JOE-21-0154
Hamden, J. E., Gray, K., Saledzadeh, M., Kachkovski, G. K., Forys, B. J., Ma, C., Austin, S., Soma, K. K. (2021). Steroid profiling of glucocorticoids in microdissected mouse brain across development. Developmental Neurobiology, 81(2), 189–206. https://doi.org/10.1002/dneu.22808
Forys, B. J., Xiao, D., Gupta, P., & Murphy, T. H. (2020). Real-time selective markerless tracking of forepaws of head-fixed mice using deep neural networks. eNeuro, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0096-20.2020
Forys, B., Xiao, D., Gupta, P., Boyd, J. D., & Murphy, T. H. (2018). Real-time markerless video tracking of bodyparts in mice using deep neural networks. BioRxiv, 482349. https://doi.org/10.1101/482349
Awards
- Stanley Coren Prize in Psychology, UBC, 2023
- Four Year Fellowships (4YF) For PhD Students, UBC, 2022-2026
- President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC, 2022-2026
- Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral, NSERC (2022)
- Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s, NSERC (2020)
- NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, NSERC/UBC (2020)
- Trek Excellence Scholarship for Continuing Students, UBC (2019)
- ARTA Scholarship, Alberta Retired Teachers’ Association (2019)
- Wesbrook Scholar, UBC (2019)
- HSBC Emerging Leader Scholarship, UBC (2019)
- Suedfeld Scholar Award, UBC Psi Chi (2019)
- PSYC 217 Poster Award, 1st Place, UBC Psychology (2018)
- Student Scholarship in Arts, UBC Faculty of Arts (2018)
- Trek Excellence Scholarship for Continuing Students, UBC (2017)
- Stephen Straker Arts One Prize, UBC Arts One Program (2017)
- University of BC Sopron Memorial Scholarship, UBC (2016)
- Dean’s List, UBC Faculty of Arts (2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20)