Publications

*Denotes equal contribution; ^denotes student/mentee co-author

Psychological and neural mechanisms of emotion regulation

Lopez, R.B. (In Press). Self-regulation in daily life: neuroscience will accelerate theorizing and advance the field. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. [pdf]

Denny, B.T., Jungles, M.L.^, Goodson, P.^, Dicker, E.E.^, Chavez,J.^, Jones, J.S.^, & Lopez, R.B. (In Press). Unpacking reappraisal: A systematic review of fMRI studies of psychological distancing and reinterpretation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. [pdf]

Moughan, E.^ & Lopez, R.B. The neural bases of regulating eating, negative emotions, and drug use: the promise of health neuroscience for lifestyle medicine. (In Press). In Fagundes, C.P & Merlo, G. Lifestyle Psychiatry: Through the Lens of Behavioral Medicine. Milton Park: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis.  

Lopez, R.B., Tausen, B.M., Traub, G.^, Marathia, E., & Saunders, B. (2023). Connecting to our future, healthier selves: Associations between self-continuity measures and eating behaviors in daily life. Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 5, 1-10. [full text online; pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Courtney, A.L., Liang, D.^, Swinchoski, A.^, Goodson, P.N., & Denny, B.T. (2023). Social support and adaptive emotion regulation: links between social network measures, emotion regulation strategy use, and health. Emotion. [full text online; pdf]

Lopez, R.B. & Cruz-Vespa, I.^ (2022). The brain bases of regulation of eating behaviors: the role of reward, executive control, and valuation processes, and new paths to propel the field forward. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 48. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Ochsner, K.N., & Kober, H. (2022). Brief training in regulation of craving reduces cigarette smoking. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. [full text onlinepdf]

Lopez, R.B. & Polletta, I.^ (2021). Regulating self-image on Instagram: Links between social anxiety, Instagram contingent self-worth, and content control behaviors. Frontiers in Psychology. [full text onlinepdf]

Lopez, R.B., Cosme, D., Werner, K.M., Saunders, B., & Hofmann, W. (2021). Associations between self-regulatory strategies and daily eating patterns: an experience sampling study in college-aged females. Motivation and Emotion. [full text onlinepdf]

Shahane, A.D.^, Pham, D.C.^, Lopez, R.B., & Denny, B.T. (2021). Novel computational algorithms to index lexical markers of psychological distancing and their relation to emotion regulation efficacy over time. Affective Science. [pdf]

Cosme, D.*, & Lopez, R.B.* (2020). Neural indicators of food cue reactivity, regulation, and valuation and their associations with body composition and daily eating behavior. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. [link]

Lopez, R.B.*, Brown, R.L.*^, Wu, E.L.*^, Murdock, K.W., Denny, B.T., Heijnen, C., & Fagundes, C.P. (2020). Emotion regulation and immune functioning during grief: testing the role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal in inflammation among recently bereaved spouses. Psychosomatic Medicine. *denotes equal contribution [pdf]

Lopez, R.B. & Denny, B.T. (2019). Negative affect mediates the relationship between use of emotion regulation strategies and general health in college-aged students. Personality and Individual Differences. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B.*, Courtney, A.L.*, & Wagner, D.D. (2019). Recruitment of cognitive control regions during effortful self-control is associated with altered brain activity in control and reward systems in dieters during subsequent exposure to food commercials. PeerJ–Brain and Cognition, 7:e6550. [full text onlinepdf

Huckins, J.F., daSilva, A.W., Wang, R., Wang, W., Hedlund, E.L., Murphy, E.I., Lopez, R.B., Rogers, C., Holtzheimer, P.E., Kelley, W.M., Heatherton, T.F., Wagner, D.D., Haxby, J.V., & Campbell, A.T. (2019). Fusing mobile phone sensing and brain imaging to assess depression in college students. Frontiers in Neuroscience13, 1-15. [full text onlinepdf]

Shahane, A.D.^*, Lopez, R.B.*, & Denny, B.T. (2018). Implicit reappraisal as an emotional buffer: Reappraisal-related neural activity moderates the relationship between inattention and perceived stress during exposure to negative stimuli. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience19(2), 355-65. [pdf

Lopez, R.B., Denny, B.T., & Fagundes, C.P. (2018). Neural mechanisms of emotion regulation and their role in endocrine and immune functioning: A review with implications for treatment of affective disorders. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 95, 508-14. [pdf]

Chen, P.-H.A., Kelley, W.M., Lopez, R.B., & Heatherton, T. F. (2018). Reducing reward responsivity and daily food desires in female dieters through domain-specific training. Social Neuroscience, 14, 470-83. [pdf]

Reader, S.W.^, Lopez, R.B., & Denny, B.T. (2018). Cognitive reappraisal of low-calorie food predicts real-world craving and consumption of high- and low-calorie foods in daily life. Appetite, 131, 44-52. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Stillman, P.E., Heatherton, T.F., & Freeman, J.B. (2018). Minding one’s reach (to eat): the promise of computer mouse-tracking in studying self-regulation of eating. Frontiers in Nutrition, 5, 1-6. [full text onlinepdf]

Lopez, R.B., Chen, P.-H.A., Huckins, J.F., Hofmann, W., Kelley, W.M., & Heatherton, T. F. (2017). A balance of activity in brain control and reward systems predicts self-regulatory outcomes. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(5), 832-38. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Milyavskaya, M., Hofmann, W., & Heatherton, T. F. (2016). Motivational and neural correlates of self-control of eating: A combined neuroimaging and experience sampling study in dieting female college students. Appetite103, 192-199. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Wagner, D.D., & Heatherton, T.F. (2015). The neuroscience of desire regulation. In W. Hofmann & L.F. Nordgren (Eds.), The Psychology of Desire. New York: Guilford Press. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Wagner, D.D., Vohs, K.D., & Heatherton, T.F. (2015). Self-regulatory strength: neural mechanisms and implications for training. In Gendolla, Tops & Koole (Eds.), Biobehavioral Foundations of Self-regulation. New York: Springer. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Onyemekwu, C.O., Hart, C.L., Ochsner, K.N., & Kober, H. (2015). Boundary conditions of methamphetamine craving. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology23(6), 436-44. [pdf]

Lopez, R.B., Hofmann, W., Wagner, D.D., Kelley, W.M., & Heatherton, T.F. (2014). Neural predictors of giving in to temptation in daily life. Psychological Science, 25(7), 1337-44. [pdf] [press]

Buhle, J., Silvers, J.A., Wager, T.D., Lopez, R.B., Onyemekwu, C., Kober, H., Weber, J., & Ochsner, K.N. (2014). Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex24(11), 2981-90. [pdf]


Multilab replication studies

Wang, D., Chan, K. Q., Morys-Carter, W., Hagger, M. S., … (2023). Ironic effects of thought suppression: a multi-lab registered report. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science (Manuscript accepted in principle).


Media multitasking and altered processing of external cues

Lopez, R.B., Brand, J., & Gilbert-Diamond, D. (2019). Media multitasking is associated with higher body mass index in pre-adolescent children. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1-7[full text onlinepdf]

Lopez, R.B., Heatherton, T.F., & Wagner, D.D. (2019). Media multitasking is associated with higher risk for obesity and increased responsiveness to rewarding food stimuli. Brain Imaging and Behavior. [pdf] [press] [video interview]

Lopez, R.B., Salinger, J.M.^, Heatherton, T.F., & Wagner, D.D. (2018). Media multitasking is associated with altered processing of irrelevant cues during person perception. BMC Psychology, 6(44). [full text online; pdf]