Maya Foster

Biography

I am a recent Ph.D. graduate in Biomedical Engineering (2026) from Yale University, advised by Dustin Scheinost, and am also the first Black woman to complete her Ph.D. training at the Yale School of Medicine’s Magnetic Resonance Research Center, founded in 1986. My scholarship, advocacy, and outreach has received several honors during my time at Yale, including the Quad Fellowship, representing the United States twice as a Senior Quad Fellow at the White House, a 2025 Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Predoctoral Scholar, an AIM-AHEAD & NCATS (Cohort 3) Trainee, an Edward Bouchet Graduate Honor Society Inductee, and a Stories of Ethics, Engagement, and Dialogue in Science Case Study Writer.

My academic research background is in quantitative neuroimaging, and my dissertation focused on applying novel and existing computational and statistical methods to analyze brain images acquired using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). From these data, I sought to identify brain patterns that were associated with symptoms of severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. I also developed a novel heuristic framework for understanding these changes, which has since gained recognition in the wider literature.

My current scholarship and research aims to bridge the humanities and the sciences to pioneer research infrastructures that more directly address societal and local community challenges. Through this work, I am committed to making scientific evidence and ideas more accessible and properly contextualized so their interpretations can be applied more precisely and responsibly. This requires being attuned to how a given paradigm shapes the interpretation and understandings of findings within a given scientific discipline. I address these concerns by exploring the ethical and normative consequences of methodological choice in data-driven contexts, recognizing that even the most quantitative disciplines, which have a high degree of presumed objectivity, are not immune to sociocultural influences that can complicate well-intentioned works. As an extension of these interests, I am also dedicated to translating my research findings to audiences outside academia and science through narrative-driven participatory experiences and media (mainly essays, fiction, and film).

Research & Creative Interests

Designing analytic architectures that deconstruct the technical into the ethical
Using narrative as a form of sociotechnical inquiry
Creating educational experiences that invite introspection and reflection
Speculative fiction and film

Selected Academic Projects

Connectome-based predictive modeling of early and chronic psychosis symptoms

Neuropsychopharmacology journal cover thumbnail

This study directly compared the neural correlates of chronic and early psychosis symptoms using connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Publication can be accessed here.

This article was also featured on the journal cover of Neuropsychopharmacology (third panel image) and received a research highlight from the journal and news coverage from the Yale School of Medicine!

Brain States as Wave-Like Motifs

A novel heuristic for understanding dynamic brain changes. Publication can be accessed here and see associated coverage by the Yale School of Medicine here!

Towards integrative brain imaging: Introducing a multitudinal strategy

Strategic framework for integrating insights the neuroimaging field has produced over the years to improve our understandings of the relationship between brain structure, function, and behavior (see preprint here).

Project is in progress.

A mega-analysis of low frequency resting-state measures in mood and psychosis-spectrum disorders

This project analyzes and compares spectral features between mood and psychotic-spectrum disorders in comparisons to healthy controls. (see preprint here).

Project is in progress.

Selected Non-Academic Projects

Tessellated Perceptions (2021)

Description: Proof-of-concept experimental multimedia project and narrative short film exploring the mathematical concept of the tessellation and social pressures that contribute to projected anxieties.

Mediums: Film, sound, narrative
Featuring Christine Cho, photography by Sara (Seo Yeon) Kim
Motivation: This project was designed to encourage audiences to step back and assess themselves and society as a collective in our tendency to project our anxieties onto others. Tessellations are a pattern of repeating shapes without any gaps or overlaps. As with projected anxieties, there is no gap or space for the person experiencing it to breathe or freely exist. The idea was to have the tessellations projected onto a person serve as a metaphor for how, as a society, we tend to constantly project stereotypes and labels onto others. Each tessellation was designed based on four societal anxieties I thought contribute to this behavior: health (the pandemic), understanding, safety, and happiness.
Negativity Purge (2022)

Description: Embedded participatory art activity designed to help individuals who suffer from anxiousness and anxiety.

Mediums: Origami paper, narrative

Motivation: This project was part of a larger series of three pillars (purging, acceptance, and awareness) for participants to reframe their relationship with their anxiety and experiences of anxiousness. This "purging" activity was a participatory, guided exercise in which individuals identified negative thinking styles and wrote reflections on them on origami paper. The idea was that writing would help channel negativity out of the mind (purging). People were also encouraged to fold their origami paper into the desired shape, mimicking the reframing process. They placed their finished products in a basket, symbolizing a shared experience of overcoming negative thinking habits.