A core area of interest in our lab is to examine social processes and their associated role with social functioning in psychiatric disorders. We are particularly interested in these processes in individuals across the psychosis spectrum, as well as individuals across the autism spectrum. Our work examines social processes at multiple levels including the structure and function of the social brain, social cognitive abilities, specific social skills, and overall social functioning. We believe understanding social functioning requires us to examine the building blocks of social interactions. We are particularly interested in whether deficits in social cognitive and social functioning processes in childhood, often present before overt psychotic symptoms, may help identify and predict which children go on to develop a serious mental illness. Using behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational tools we aim to understand how the social brain and social cognition contribute to impairments in social skills and social functioning in neurotypical individuals and those with and at risk for serious mental illness.