Carbine’s interest in the overlap between health behaviors and brain activity began as an undergraduate student when she joined a psychophysiology research lab at Brigham Young University (BYU) examining the effects of sleep deprivation on neural responses to food. She then dove deeper into examining how our brain and cognition play a role in our eating habits and decisions as a graduate student at BYU. She has since focused her work on using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potential (ERP) research methods to examine the neural mechanisms of food-related cognition, such as the reward value of food, the attention we give towards food, and if we can inhibit dominate responses to eat food. Specifically, she tests if food-related cognition differs by nutritional characteristics of food (e.g., calorie or sugar content), by individual characteristics (e.g., weight, eating tendencies), and if food-related cognition can be improved by external factors (e.g., exercise, sleep, diet, cognitive interventions).
Carbine has authored more than 25 publications, the majority of which are in the psychophysiology and health related fields. She has also delivered more than 15 oral presentations at conferences and invited addresses concerning psychophysiology, health, and advising students.