With the 2025 Flux Congress mere months away, the Flux Trainee Committee is excited to spotlight some of your fellow attendees through our trainee research profiles. If you’re a trainee—whether a student, post-bacc, or postdoc—and would like to be featured, we invite you to fill out our interest form!
At Flux, we are committed to nurturing the next generation of researchers who are shaping the future of developmental cognitive neuroscience. In our new Trainee Spotlight series, we will highlight the achievements, aspirations, and contributions of outstanding trainees within our community. These young scientists are not only pushing the boundaries of research but also embodying the spirit of collaboration and innovation that drives our field forward.
Today, we are excited to introduce Ellyn Butler. Let's dive into their journey, insights, and what motivates them to make a lasting impact in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
Ellyn Butler
PhD Student, Northwestern University
What is the focus of your research?
The aim of my research program is to determine how threatening experiences impact the brain to lead to mental illness. To accomplish this, I use personalized functional network methods and advanced statistical models to better get at causality.
What is your most interesting research finding so far?
In my most recent paper (which is currently under review), I proposed a threat controllability model of sex differences in response to violence where I suggested that violence leads to a more expanded and connected salience network among females but not males, which in turn leads to more severe depression. While I did find that being exposed to more violent events is associated with more severe depression among females and not males, this effect did not remain after controlling for depression prior to the violence, suggesting that if violence leads to depression in females, the relevant violent experiences likely occur earlier in development.
Contrary to my hypotheses, I found that salience network expansion and connectivity are positively associated with depression among males and not females. These effects remained after controlling for depression levels measured two years prior, suggesting that there are events happening in lives of adolescent males that impact the salience network to lead to depression.
Did you attend Flux last year?
Yes
If you presented at Flux last year, is there a link or GitHub where people can find a copy of your work (poster/etc)?
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5822551/v1
What do you enjoy doing when not researching?
I have spent most of my free time in graduate school playing board games with friends, playing the flute in Northwestern's medical orchestra, reading books while snuggling up with my cats, taking salsa dancing lessons with my husband, and weightlifting in the gym.
Best piece of advice you have received as a trainee?
It is never a waste of time to invest in methodological skill development.
Do you have any advice for early-stage trainees?
Imagine what you want to say in a job talk one day, and say no to almost everything that does not directly contribute to you conducting the work that you want to share in that talk. You will be really busy in graduate school (especially if you are in a clinical program like me), so you need to be protective of your time.
Most useful resource you would recommend to other trainees:
The classes offered in the Department of Statistics at your university.
Please list any social media accounts/personal websites that you would like us to highlight.
https://butellyn.github.io/