Hadar Fisher, PhD · Bar-Ilan University

Understanding how emotions
shape the onset and treatment of depression

The CARED Lab, directed by Hadar Fisher, PhD, brings together clinical science and computational tools such as natural language processing, large language models (LLMs), machine learning, passive smartphone sensing, and intensive longitudinal data to understand how emotional processes contribute to depression and how shifts in these processes support better treatment outcomes.

Our research Join the lab

What we do

Research themes

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Affect dynamics & the etiology of depression

How emotions unfold, get stuck, and recover in daily life: emotion rigidity, feedback loops, and affective equilibria as risk markers for depression, especially in adolescence.

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Computational measurement of emotion

Detecting and tracking emotional states from what people say, write, and do: large language models (LLMs), language-based machine-learning models, facial expression analysis, and passive smartphone sensing.

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Emotional processes in psychotherapy

How emotional experience, expression, and the patient-therapist relationship drive therapeutic change, and how to use these mechanisms to personalize treatment.

Latest

Recent highlights

Aug 2026
Now on air! I really enjoyed joining the Hebrew-language podcast קצר ולעניין (Short and to the Point) for a conversation about the place of emotion in psychotherapy, what actually changes in brief dynamic treatment, and the research behind it. Listen on Spotify
2026
New meta-analysis in npj Digital Medicine: language-based detection of depression with machine learning, a systematic review and meta-analysis of the field. Read the paper
2025
In Emotion: Affect dynamics in adolescent depression: are all equilibria worth returning to? Read the paper
2025
In Nature (correspondence): emotional AI is here, and we should shape it, not shun it. Read

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