Mara Mather

Director of the Research Center for Affective und Autonomic Neuroscience

Publications
Google Scholar
ORCID

Contact:
Sandra Schmidt
E-Mail: sekmather@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
Telephone: +49 30 82406-574

 

Memberships and Service

• American Psychological Association Division 20 – Adult Development and Aging
• Association for Psychological Science, Fellow
• Gerontological Society of America, Fellow
• Elected Member, Memory Disorders Research Society
• Society for Neuroscience
• International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment 
• Member, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences (BBCSS) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
• Member, NIH Special Emphasis Panel on Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging

 

Short CV:

• Stanford University; A.B. in Psychology, with distinction and honors, Stanford President’s Award for Academic Excellence
• Ph.D., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 
• National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship
• Princeton Wilson Fellowship awarded by the Princeton Society of Fellows of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology Department, Stanford University
• Assistant - Associate Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Professor of Gerontology, Psychology, and (since 2020) Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California (USC)
• Scholar, Summer Institute on Emotion and Choice, Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship for sabbatical year at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Research Interests:

• Aging and Affective Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience, Computer Science, Economics, and Sociology
   

Selected Literature:

• Mather, M. (2025). Autonomic dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 26, 276-292.
• Min, J., Liu, G., Dahl, M. J., Lee, T. H., Nashiro, K., Yoo, H. Y., Cho, C., Bogdan, P., Chang, C., Lehrer, P., Thayer, J. F., Mather, M., (in press). Distinct brain systems support afferent and efferent autonomic activity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
• Nashiro, K., Cahn, B. R., Choi, P., Lee, H. R. J., Satchi, S., Min, J, Yoo, H. J., Cho, C., Mercer, N., Sordo, L., Head, E., Choupan, J., Mather, M. (2025). A randomized clinical trial reveals effects of mindfulness and slow breathing on plasma amyloid beta levels. Psychophysiology, 62, e70182.
• Kapoor, A., Mather, M., & Nation, D. A. (2025). Emotional enhancement of memory in Alzheimer’s disease dementia: A systematic review. Nature Mental Health, 3, 1078-1087.
• Song, R., Min, J., Wang, S., Goodale, S. E., Rogge-Obando, K., Yang, R., Yoo, H. J., Nashiro, K., Chen, J. E., Mather, M., Chang, C. (2025). The physiological component of the BOLD signal: Impact of age and heart rate variability biofeedback training. Imaging Neuroscience, 3: IMAG.a.99.
• Mather, M. (2024). The emotion paradox in the aging body and brain. Ann N Y Acad Sci.
• Bachman, S. L., Cole, S., Yoo, H. J., Nashiro, K., Min, J., Mercer, N., Nasseri, P., Thayer, J. F., Lehrer, P., & Mather, M. (2023). Daily heart rate variability biofeedback training decreases locus coeruleus MRI contrast in younger adults in a randomized clinical trial. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 193, 112241. 
• Dahl, M. J., Bachman, S. L., Dutt, S., Düzel, S., Bodammer, N. C., Lindenberger, U., Kühn, S., Werkle-Bergner, M., & Mather, M. (2023). The integrity of dopaminergic and noradrenergic brain regions is associated with different aspects of late-life memory performance. Nature Aging, 3, 1128-1143.
• Dahl, M. J., Mather, M., Werkle-Bergner, M. (2022). Noradrenergic modulation of rhythmic neural activity shapes selective attention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26 (1), 38-52. 
• Dahl, M. J., Mather, M., Werkle-Bergner, M., Kennedy, B. L., Guzman, S., Hurth, K., Miller, C. A., Qiao, Y., Shi, Y., Chui, H. C., & Ringman, J. M. (2022). Locus coeruleus integrity is related to tau burden and memory loss in autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 112, 39-54.
• Min, J., Rouanet, J., Martini, A. C., Nashiro, K., Yoo, H. J., Porat, S., Cho, C., Wan, J., Cole, S. W., Head, E., Nation, D. A., Thayer, J. F., & Mather, M. (2023). Modulating heart rate oscillation affects plasma amyloid beta and tau levels in younger and older adults. Sci Rep, 13(1), 3967.
• Min, J., Nashiro, K., Yoo, H. J., Cho, C., Nasseri, P., Bachman, S. L., Porat, S., Thayer, J. F., Chang, C., Lee, T. H. & Mather, M. (2022). Emotion down-regulation targets interoceptive brain regions while emotion up-regulation targets other affective brain regions. Journal of Neuroscience, 42 (14), 2973-2985. 
• Nashiro, K., Yoo, H. J., Min, J., Cho, C., Nasseri, P., Zhang, Y., Lehrer, P., Thayer, J. F., and Mather, M. (2022). Effects of a randomised trial of 5-week heart rate variability biofeedback intervention on mind wandering and associated brain function. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 22, 1349-1357.
• Yoo, H. J., Nashiro, K., Min, J., Cho, C., Bachman, S. L., Nasseri, P., Porat, S., Dutt, S., Grigoryan, V., Choi, P., Thayer, J. F., Leher, P., Chang, C., & Mather, M. (2022). Heart rate variability (HRV) changes and cortical volume changes in a randomized trial of five weeks of daily HRV biofeedback in younger and older adults. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 181, 50-63.
• Mather, M., & Thayer, J. (2018). How heart rate variability affects emotion regulation brain networks. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 19, 98-104.
• Lee, T. H., Greening, S. G., Ueno, T., Clewett, D., Ponzio, A., Sakaki, M., & Mather, M. (2018). Arousal increases neural gain via the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in younger adults but not in older adults. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 356-366.
• Mather, M. (2016). The affective neuroscience of aging. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 213-238.
• Mather, M., Clewett, D., Sakaki, M., & Harley, C. W. (2016). Norepinephrine ignites local hot spots of neuronal excitation: How arousal amplifies selectivity in perception and memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39, e200.
• Mather, M., & Harley, C.W. (2016). The locus coeruleus: Essential for maintaining cognitive function and the aging brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 214-226.