Broadening theories of emotional disorders with naturalistic stimuli

Our understanding of the neurobiology underlying emotional disorders, such as anxiety and depression, has largely relied on a narrow range of tightly controlled experimental paradigms. This focus has often overlooked how these disorders manifest in complex, naturalistic settings, potentially contributing to the stagnation in the development of novel therapeutics. In this talk, I will highlight our ongoing efforts to address this gap by 1) validating the use of movie paradigms as a robust methodology for studying anxiety; 2) exploring brain-heart interactions during movie-watching in patients with emotional disorders; and 3) illustrating how movies provide a unique and effective, yet untapped platform for investigating the pathophysiology of altered subjective experiences in emotional disorders.