Position:

Assistant Professor

Contact Information:

epalser@paloaltou.edu

Education:

Postdoc in Clinical Affective Neuroscience, UCSF 
PhD in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK 
MSc in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Durham University, UK 
BSc in Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, UK

Biography:

Eleanor completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London (UCL), then a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Affective Neuroscience at UCSF. Her primary research interests are understanding emotional differences in neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism spectrum disorder. Through this work she hopes to inform understanding of both the core features of these conditions, but also frequently co-occurring mental health challenges, such as anxiety. She advocates for adopting a strength-based approach to understanding and managing neurodevelopmental disorders, and has received grant funding to research creativity and empathy in dyslexia. On the side, she has written op-eds and commentaries on DEI issues in academia, with particular interest in supporting those from non-traditional academic backgrounds.

As the Director for the Pediatric Behavioral Health emphasis at PAU, she teaches courses on child and adolescent development and developmental psychopathology.

Areas of Interest:

Teaching Interest Areas

Child development; Developmental psychopathology; affective science; gender

Research Interest Areas

Neurodevelopmental disorders, emotion, empathy

Selected Publications:

Palser, E. R., Veziris, C. R., Morris, N. A., Roy, A. R., Watson‐Pereira, C., Holley, S. R., ... & Sturm, V. E. (2024). Elevated unanticipated acoustic startle reactivity in dyslexia. Dyslexia, 30(3), e1779. 

Palser, E. R., Lazerwitz, M., & Fotopoulou, A. (2022). Gender and geographical disparity in editorial boards of journals in psychology and neuroscience. Nature Neuroscience, 25(3), 272-279. 

Palser, E. R., Galvez-Pol, A., Palmer, C. E., Hannah, R., Fotopoulou, A., Pellicano, E., & Kilner, J. M. (2021). Reduced differentiation of emotion-associated bodily sensations in autism. Autism, 25(5), 1321-1334. 

Palser, E. R., Fotopoulou, A., Pellicano, E., & Kilner, J. M. (2018). The link between interoceptive processing and anxiety in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder: Extending adult findings into a developmental sample. Biological Psychology, 136, 13-21.