Rate My Professor Jessica Andrews-Hanna

Jessica Andrews-Hanna is an Associate Professor in the Cognition and Neural Systems area of the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona. She holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in Cognitive Science - GIDP, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, and Neuroscience - GIDP. She earned a B.S. in Psychology from Duke University, an M.A. in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University. Prior to her position at the University of Arizona starting in 2017, she directed the Neuroscience of Emotion and Thought (NET) Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder. Andrews-Hanna serves as Interim Director of the Cognitive Science program and is a member of the graduate faculty.

Research in the NET Lab investigates the functional and dysfunctional aspects of internally-guided cognition and their neural underpinnings. Core areas include self-referential thinking, autobiographical memory, future thinking, emotion appraisal, mentalizing, creativity, mind-wandering, and spontaneous thought. The lab examines lifespan changes, particularly in older age, altered states of consciousness such as dreaming and psychedelic experiences, and alterations in clinical populations including neurodegenerative diseases, mood and anxiety disorders, and perseverative thinking. Methods encompass task-related and resting-state functional MRI, psychophysiology, behavioral tasks, and smartphone apps for ecological momentary assessment. Key publications include 'Mind-wandering as spontaneous thought: a dynamic framework' (Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2016, with Christoff et al.), 'The default network and self-generated thought: component processes, dynamic control, and clinical relevance' (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2014), 'Functional-anatomic fractionation of the default network' (Neuron, 2010), and 'The brain’s default network: anatomy, function, and relevance to disease' (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2008, with Buckner and Schacter). Her contributions to understanding the default mode network have significantly influenced cognitive neuroscience. Andrews-Hanna has received the inaugural Galileo Circle Curie Award (2019), the Early Investigator Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists (2019), and the Indonesian-American Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellowship. She has secured a $4.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging (2022, with Matt Grilli) and delivers public lectures, such as on the neuroscience of compassion.