Overview
Professor Strauman’s work is grounded in the premise that mental health and well-being are fundamentally shaped by self-regulation—how individuals pursue goals, respond to challenges, and adapt over time. His research integrates clinical psychology, affective neuroscience, and behavioral science to characterize the psychological and neurobiological systems that support self-regulation, and to understand how disruptions in these systems contribute to vulnerability to depression and related conditions.
Across a program of experimental, clinical, and neuroimaging research, his work has examined self-regulation as a multi-level system, including its cognitive and motivational mechanisms, its development through socialization, and its links to affective and immunological processes. This work has also informed the development and evaluation of novel interventions targeting self-regulatory dysfunction.
More recently, his work has focused on translating this science of self-regulation into scalable, AI-informed approaches to intervention and prevention. This includes the development of new models of treatment that target regulatory processes across disorders, as well as efforts to extend effective self-regulation skills beyond traditional clinical settings and into everyday contexts. This translational focus reflects a broader aim of building integrated, system-level approaches to mental health that can improve outcomes at population scale, using the capabilities of AI responsibly and creating the most effective synergy of human professional augmented by machine-based intelligence.
Current Duke Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Scholarly Works
The Functional Architecture of Self-Regulation: Network-Level Control Parameters of Regulatory Focus in Normative Adult and Adolescent Samples
Preprint · May 19, 2026 Regulatory focus theory distinguishes promotion- and prevention-related motivational systems that support adaptive goal pursuit and are implicated in vulnerability to internalizing psychopathology. Prior neuroimaging work has characterized where in the ... Full text CiteClinical Changes Following Concurrent fMRI-Guided rTMS and Psychotherapy for Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression
Conference BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY · May 15, 2026 Link to item CiteNeural signatures of promotion and prevention goal activation in adolescence.
Journal article Social neuroscience · April 2026 Adolescence is marked by major changes in self-regulation, goal pursuit, and brain function. Regulatory focus theory (RFT) distinguishes between promotion and prevention self-regulatory systems, activated by ideal and ought goals, respectively. These syste ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
Randomized Controlled Trial of Self-System Therapy to Reduce Distress, Improve Emotion Regulation and Enhance Quality of Life in Older Adults with Advanced Cancer: A Telehealth Delivered Intervention
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2026 - 20312/3 CTSA K12 Program at Duke University
ResearchMentor · Awarded by National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences · 2025 - 2030Assessing the feasibility and acceptability of a Time Restricted Feeding intervention among older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill · 2023 - 2026View All Grants