Monica Thieu, PhD

Assistant professor

Dept of Neuroscience, Cognition, & Behavior, University of San Diego

In my research, I use behavioral, modeling, and fMRI research methods to characterize how perceptual input contributes to affective experience.

In my teaching, I design and practice reflective, evidence-based, and student-centered training for behavioral scientists, with a focus on technical training in statistics and scientific computing.

Appointments

Aug 2025 - present Assistant professor University of San Diego (San Diego, CA, USA)

  • Dept of Neuroscience, Cognition, & Behavior

Education

2022 PhD in Psychology Columbia University (New York, NY, USA)

2015 BA with honors in Psychology Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA)

Research experience

Aug 2022 - Aug 2025 Postdoctoral fellow Emory University (Atlanta, GA, USA)

Sept 2017 - May 2022 Graduate research assistant Columbia University (New York, NY, USA)

June 2015 - July 2017 Lab manager & research coordinator Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA)

  • Project: Healthy aging and memory
  • Supervisor: Dr. Anthony Wagner

Jan 2013 - June 2015 Undergraduate research assistant Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA, USA)

  • Honors thesis: ‘Chronic media multitasking and distraction: Neural substrates and mnemonic consequences’
  • Advisors: Dr. Melina Uncapher, Dr. Anthony Wagner

Publications

1.
Ali, S. A., McCann, C. F., Thieu, M. K., Whitmore, L. B., & Laird, A. R. (2024). NowIKnowMyABCD: A global resource hub for researchers using data from the ABCD study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101388
2.
Thieu, M. K., Ayzenberg, V., Lourenco, S. F., & Kragel, P. A. (2024). Visual looming is a primitive for human emotion. iScience. https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(24)01108-8
3.
Thieu, M. K., Wilkins, L. J., & Aly, M. (2024). Episodic-semantic linkage for $1000: New semantic knowledge is more strongly coupled with episodic memory in trivia experts. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. https://www.alylab.org/_files/ugd/1d2439_cce8bc7f4626433cb101fc6e9902525f.pdf
Press coverage: NPR Science Friday, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, Scientific American
4.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (n.d.). Categorical perception of facial age and gender (working title, in prep).
5.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (n.d.). Psychophysical estimation of emotion reporting thresholds (working title, in prep).
6.
Bloom, P. A., Thieu, M. K., & Bolger, N. (2022). Commentary on: Unnecessary reliance on multilevel modelling to analyse nested data in neuroscience: When a traditional summary-statistics approach suffices. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9846465/
7.
Thieu, M. K., Foo, J. C., & Marvin, C. B. (2022). Addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in introductory psychology using the jigsaw method adapted for remote learning. Journal of College Science Teaching, 51(3). https://www.nsta.org/journal-college-science-teaching/journal-college-science-teaching-januaryfebruary-2022/addressing
8.
Trelle, A. N., Carr, V. A., Wilson, E. N., Swarovski, M. S., Hunt, M. P., Toueg, T. N., Tran, T. T., Channappa, D., Corso, N. K., Thieu, M. K., Jayakumar, M., Nadiadwala, A., Guo, W., Tanner, N. J., Bernstein, J. D., Litovsky, C. P., Guerin, S. A., Khazenzon, A. M., Harrison, M. B., … Mormino, E. C. (2021). Association of CSF biomarkers with hippocampal-dependent memory in preclinical alzheimer disease. Neurology, 96(10), e1470–e1481. https://n.neurology.org/content/96/10/e1470.abstract
9.
Trelle, A. N., Carr, V. A., Guerin, S. A., Thieu, M. K., Jayakumar, M., Guo, W., Nadiadwala, A., Corso, N. K., Hunt, M. P., Litovsky, C. P., Tanner, N. J., Deutsch, G. K., Bernstein, J. D., Harrison, M. B., Khazenzon, A. M., Jiang, J., Sharon, J. S., Fredericks, C. A., Rutt, B. K., … Wagner, A. D. (2020). Hippocampal and cortical mechanisms at retrieval explain variability in episodic remembering in older adults. eLife, 9, e55335. https://elifesciences.org/articles/55335
10.
Ruiz, N. A., Thieu, M. K., & Aly, M. (2020). Cholinergic modulation of hippocampally mediated attention and perception. Behavioral Neuroscience, 135(1), 51–70. https://github.com/alylab/artMuseNicotine
11.
Uncapher, M. R., Thieu, M. K., & Wagner, A. D. (2016). Media multitasking and memory: Differences in working memory and long-term memory. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 23(2), 483–490. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733435/

Teaching experience

Course instructor

Fa2025 Instructor of record NCB 210: Intro to Statistics (University of San Diego Dept of Neuro, Cog, & Beh)

Sp2024 Instructor of record PSY 417: Statistics II in Psychology (Spelman College Dept of Psychology)

Su2023, Su2024 Instructor Data Science Lab Module (Spelman College WiSTEM)

Su2022 Instructor of record PSYC 1021: Science of Psychology: Explorations & Applications (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Workshop instructor

Fa2019 - Sp2022 Carpentries-certified instructor Introductory coding bootcamps (Columbia Foundations for Research Computing)

Sp2018 - Fa2021 Curriculum developer & instructor Intro to Programming for Social Scientists (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Guest lecturer, section leader, & teaching assistant

Sp2025 Guest lecturer Research Skills Seminar (Spelman RISE Biomedical Training Program)

Sp2022 Assistant curriculum developer & TA PSYC 2821: Cognition in Context: Mental Health & Well-being (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Sp2021 Assistant curriculum developer, TA, & guest lecturer PSYC 1021: Science of Psychology: Explorations & Applications (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Fa2019 Guest lecturer Intro to Psychology (Outlier.org)

Sp2019 - Fa2021 TA & guest lecturer B8144: Intro to Programming in R (Columbia Business School)

Fa2018, Fa2019 TA & section leader PSYC 1490: Research Methods (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Fa2017 TA & guest lecturer PSYC 1001: Science of Psychology (Columbia Dept of Psychology)

Fa2014 - Sp2015 Teaching fellow Psych One (Stanford Dept of Psychology)

Awards and honors

Research

2023 Diversity travel award ($500) (Social and Affective Neuroscience Society)

2022-26 FIRST NIH IRACDA postdoctoral fellowship (Emory School of Medicine)

2019 Honorable mention (NSF GRFP)

June 2015 Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research (Stanford Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education)

Summer 2014 Undergraduate Summer Research Award grant ($6,000) (Stanford Bio-X)

Summer 2013 Best Presentation (Stanford Psych-Summer)

Summer 2013 Undergraduate research grant ($6,000) (Stanford Psych-Summer)

Teaching

Spring 2022 Teaching Development Program Advanced Track certificate (Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning)

Spring 2022 Presidential Graduate Teaching Award finalist (Columbia Office of the Provost)

Spring 2021 Grant to Enhance Remote Learning and Teaching ($1,500) (Columbia Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health)

Spring 2020 Curricular Innovation Fellow (Columbia Libraries)

June 2015 Zimbardo Teaching Prize (Stanford Psych One)

Other

Mar 2024 Quarterfinalist (Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament)

Aug 2023 - present Trivia expert (Master Minds (Game Show Network))

Mar 2019 Second place runner-up (team) (Jeopardy! All-Star Games)

May 2016 Contestant (500 Questions (ABC))

Feb 2013 Quarterfinalist (Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions)

Feb 2012 First place winner (Jeopardy! College Championship)

Winter 2013 Excellence Award (Stanford Introductory Seminars)

Presentations

Talks and workshops

March 2024 Advanced Data Visualization with ggplot2 (Emory Graduate Students in Psychology and Neuroscience workshop)

April 2023 Shallow neural networks for collision detection predict arousal-related differences in subjective experience (Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting)

Jan 2023 Remote brain bingo: Running group games on Zoom (TIP Coast-To-Coast Conference)

June 2022 Remote brain bingo: Running group games on Zoom (Psych One Conference)

July 2020 How to Prepare and Teach an R Lesson (NYC R Conference)

Nov 2020 Exploring the NYPD Civilian Complaint Database (Columbia Foundations for Research Computing workshop)

Apr 2020 Wrangling Multilevel Data in the Tidyverse (Columbia Foundations for Research Computing workshop)

Conference posters

1.
Thieu, M. K., & Kragel, P. A. (2025). The human superior colliculus encodes looming- and object-related visual threat. Cognitive Computational Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
2.
Thieu, M. K., & Kragel, P. A. (2025). Integration of static and dynamic threat signals in the human superior colliculus. Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
3.
Thieu, M. K., & Kragel, P. A. (2024). The human auditory pathway encodes looming sound intensity. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.
4.
Thieu, M. K., & Kragel, P. A. (2024). Shallow neural networks for auditory collision detection predict subjective affect. Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
5.
Thieu, M. K., & Kragel, P. A. (2023). The human superior colliculus encodes looming motion. Organization for Human Brain Mapping Annual Meeting.
6.
Thieu, M. K., Wilkins, L. J., & Aly, M. (2023). Episodic-semantic linkage for $1000: Episodic memory bolsters acquisition of new semantic knowledge in trivia experts. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
7.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (2022). Categorizing affect increases affective represntational distance. Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting. https://youtu.be/MOq7UMjZEUk
8.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (2021). Investigating the neural pattern structure of facial age and gender. Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting. https://youtu.be/cv1ejXoJS38
9.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (2020). Investigating the neural pattern structure of mixed emotion. Society for Affective Science Annual Meeting. https://society-for-affective-science.org/list-of-sas-virtual-posters-2020/entry/5196/?gvid=7225
10.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (2019). Measuring emotion sensitivity and expressivity with psychophysics. Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
11.
Thieu, M. K., & Ochsner, K. N. (2019). Psychophysical estimation of emotion labeling thresholds. Society for Affective Science Annual Meeting. https://osf.io/ubxtm/
12.
Thieu, M. K., Uncapher, M. R., & Wagner, A. D. (2015). Chronic media multitasking and distraction: Neural substrates and mnemonic consequences. Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference.
13.
Uncapher, M. R., Thieu, M. K., & Wagner, A. D. (2015). Chronic media multitasking and distraction: Neural substrates and mnemonic consequences. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting.
14.
Thieu, M. K., Uncapher, M. R., & Wagner, A. D. (2014). Reduced working memory predicts impaired long-term memory in chronic media multitaskers. Bio-x Interdisciplinary Initiatives Symposium.
15.
Thieu, M. K., Uncapher, M. R., & Wagner, A. D. (2013). Effects of media multitasking on working and long-term memory. Psych-Summer Poster Session.

Mentoring

2024 - 2025 Meera Sethi Undergraduate research assistant (Emory University)

2020 - 2022 Lauren Wilkins Undergraduate research assistant & honors thesis student (Columbia University)

  • Class of 1939 Summer Research Fellowship, summer 2020

Service

2025 Conference abstract reviewer (Social & Affective Neuroscience Society)

2024 - 2025 Senator & executive committee member University Senate (Emory University)

2024 - 2025 Chair Emory Postdoctoral Association (Emory University)

2024 - 2025 Executive Committee member FIRST IRACDA program (Emory University)

2023 - 2024 Treasurer Emory Postdoctoral Association (Emory University)

2023, 2024 Moderator & judge Research Day (Spelman College)

Peer reviewer (ad hoc)

  • Cerebral Cortex; Neuropsychologia; Social, Cognitive, & Affective Neuroscience; Humanities & Social Sciences Communications

Workshops & summer schools attended

2022 Neurohackademy (University of Washington)

2019 Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience (University of California, Santa Barbara)

2018 São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences on Social & Affective Neuroscience (Mackenzie Presbyterian University)