A lab picnic

To celebrate the onset of spring, our lab members went on a spring retreat to Wondong, Yangsan.

The retreat was a refreshing break, helping us recharge energy for our academic steps.

An award: PNU’s SODA 2.0 interdisciplinary program.

Our lab member, Haein Yeo, participated in the “SODA 2.0 Interdisciplinary Education Program,” hosted by the College of Social Sciences at PNU.

As part of the program, she carried out a team project titled “Improving Accessibility of Urban Rail Transit for People with Disabilities in Busan.” The project focused on addressing social issues through data preprocessing, analysis, and visualization.

Her team received the Excellence Award (우수상), and we are proud of her achievement.

A public talk: The Neuroscience of Happiness

Brain Awareness Week (BAW), launched in 1992 by the Dana Foundation (U.S.), is a global campaign that is held annually during the third week of March in over 60 countries. It aims to promote public awareness of brain science and share insights from neuroscience with society.

As part of this global initiative, Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital hosted a special event in collaboration with the Korean Society of Human Brain Mapping (KHBM).

Professor Sunhae Sul was invited to give a lecture on “The Neuroscience of Happiness” to local middle school students and community members.

Through her engaging talk, Professor Sul contributed to bridging the gap between neuroscience and the public, fostering greater interest in and awareness of brain science among the general audience.

2025 KSAH methodology workshop (Busan)

From February 19 to 20, 2025.

We held the KSAH Methodology workshop in Busan, South Korea, with the Yonsei Social Networks & Neuroscience Lab (YSNNL) and the Yonsei Biological Health Psychology Lab (YBHPL).

On the first day, Kiho Sung, a PhD candidate at YSNNL have introduced KSAH social network data and how to do ERGM (Exponential Random Graph Models) analysis using R.

Next, Professor Sungha Lee (PI of YBHPL) and Professor Kipoong Kim of Changwon National University introduced the KSAH genomic data and GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Study).

On the second day, Junho Bang from our lab introduced PsychoPy and Pavlovia.

Students and researchers from PNU and Yonsei University had a great opportunity to learn about various analytical methods.

A 2025 SSK Workshop (Busan)

On February 3rd, 2025, we held a workshop with researchers from PNU and UNIST, with whom we collaborating on the government-funded Social Science Korea (SSK) project, titled “Delineating the Mechanisms of Cognitive Bases Underlying the Exaggeration of Polarization and Social Conflicts in a Hyper-Connected Society.”

In the workshop, we shared our analyses on how political polarization influences cognitive processing, resource allocation, and social learning. Moreover, We discussed how cognitive differences resulting from political polarization can be explained by the structural characteristics of the brain.

Based on these discussions, we plan to strengthen our collaboration and expand our academic contributions through journal publications and conference presentations.

A year-end lab dinner

December 23rd

Our lab held its annual year-end dinner, reflecting on 2024 and celebrating our achievements. It was inspiring to see many of last year’s resolutions fulfilled.

We shared fun and memorable stories with Professor Sul.

We sincerely hope that, just like in 2024, all our members remain healthy and achieve their goals in 2025.

Paper published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Prof. Sul and Won-Gyo published a new paper in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience !!

"Striatal-hippocampal functional connectivity contributes to real-life positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being"

Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsae096

Paper published in Scientific Reports

Prof. Sul and Seungmin (A graduate of our lab's master's program) published a new paper in Scientific Reports !!

"Motivational and behavioral mechanisms underlying generalized health risking behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic in smokers"

Link : www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-81898-7

Our interns excells in undergraduate conference

Our lab RAs, Minyeong and Hyewon, presented their research poster in the academic conference for undergraduate students hosted by the Department of Psychology at Pusan National University (November 29th, 2024).

They won the first place and we are proud of them!

Poster title: “What promotes pro-environmental behavior? Integrating the role of personal and social motivations.

The 2024 KSPPA conference (Korea University)

Our lab participated in the 2024 conference of KSPPA (Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association), which was held in Korea University in Seoul, Korea (November 30th, 2024).

As the academic chair for the conference, professor Sul moderated a program in which many junior researchers, including professors and graduate students, presented their research.

In our lab, Sunghwan presented his research in the poster session for the first time, and received a lot of attention from other students.

Poster title: “The effects of political orientation on social discounting for ingroup vs. outgroup members”