Julie Brefczynski-Lewis, PhD

Research Interests

My main research focus is on testing how compassion meditation training can help relieve stress, especially the stress of difficult interpersonal relations. In my most recent grant, I have developed a Smartphone app to assist in applying meditation techniques for daily stress relief, and will be examining the neural, physiological and behavioral changes that may come from such training.

I serve as the neuroimaging liaison for the Center for Advanced Imaging. Anyone looking to develop a reseach project involving MRI, PET, EEG, or TMS can feel free to contact me. I can help provide training in these techniques and the analyses that are involved, assist with experimental design and IRB, and help connect people with others who may have similar interests. Current CAI projects include studies on working memory, mindfulness, trust, cognition in neonates, structual analyses of airways in pediatric sleep disorders, stroke studies in humans and animal models, PET changes with depression, testing a stand along or MRI insert brain-dedicated PET helmet, and auditory processing in disorded populations.We have a weekly group of neuroimagers that meets at Mondays at 4:00 in the CAI conference room.

Publications

PubMed

Notable Publications

[2024]

• Nanda Siva, Chris Bauer, Colson Glover, Alexander (Sasha) Stolin, Sonia Chandi, Helen Melnick, Gary Marano, MD, Ben Parker, Mary Beth Mandich, James W LEWIS, Jinyi Qi, Si Gao, Stan Majewski, Julie A. Brefczynski-Lewis (2024) Real-time motion-enabling positron emission tomography of the brain of upright ambulatory humans”.  Communications Medicine (4):117.

[2019]

• Brefczynski-Lewis, J. 2019. Chapter 7 - Human neuroimaging-based connections between stress, cardiovascular disease and depression. Cardiovascular Implications of Stress and Depression, 141-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815015-3.00007-6

[2018]

• Van Dam, N., van Vugt, M., Vago, D., Schmalzl, L., Saron, C., Olendzki, A., Meissner, T., Lazar, S., Gorchov, J., Fox, K., Field, B., Britton, W., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Meyer, D. 2018. Reiterated Concerns and Further Challenges for Mindfulness and Meditation Research: A Reply to Davidson and Dahl. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 13(1):66-69. doi: 10.1177/174569161772752
• Van Dam, N., van Vugt, M., Vago, D., Schmalzl, L., Saron, C., Olendzki, A., Meissner, T., Lazar, S., Kerr, C., Gorchov, J., Fox, K., Field, B., Britton, W., Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., & Meyer, D. E. 2018. Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 13(1), 36–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617709589

[2017]

• Melroy, S., Bauer, C., McHugh, M., Carden, G., Stolin, A., Majewski, S., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Wuest, T. 2017. Development and Design of Next-Generation Head-Mounted Ambulatory Microdose Positron-Emission Tomography (AM-PET) System. Sensors, 17(5), 1164. DOI: 10.3390/s17051164

[2016]

• Bauer, C., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Marano, G., Mandich, M., Stolin, A., Marton, P., Lewis, J., Jaliparthi, G., Raylman, R., Majewski, S. 2016. Concept of an upright wearable positron emission tomography imager in humans. Brain and Behavior, 6(9), e00530, doi: 10.1002/brb3.530
• Gong, K., Majewski, S., Kinahan, P., Harrison, R., Elston, B., Manjeshwar, R., Dolinsky, S., Stolin, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Qi, J. 2016. Designing a compact high performance brain PET scanner—simulation study. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 61(10). DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/61/10/3681.

[2008]

• Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone T, Davidson, R. 2008. Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise. PLOS ONE. 3(3): e1897. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001897

[2007]

• Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H., Davidson, R. 2007. Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners. PNAS, 104 (27) 11483-11488. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0606552104

[1999]

• Brefczynski, J., DeYoe, E. 1999. A physiological correlate of the 'spotlight' of visual attention. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 370-374. https://doi.org/10.1038/7280