
Research in my laboratory investigates the brain mechanisms underlying economic and social decision making; collectively, this research falls into the field of “decision neuroscience” or "neuroeconomics". My laboratory uses fMRI to probe brain function, behavioral assays to characterize individual differences, and other physiological methods (e.g., eye tracking, pharmacological manipulation, genetics) to link brain and behavior. Concurrent with research on basic processes, my laboratory has also investigated the application of new analysis methods for fMRI data, including functional connectivity analyses, pattern classification analyses, and combinatoric multivariate approaches. We have also been applying computational methods to problems in behavioral economics and consumer decision making.
I have also been very active in outreach, mentorship, and educational activities; as examples, I am lead author on the textbook Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Sinauer Associates; 3rd edition in 2014), I teach courses on Decision Neuroscience and Neuroethics, and many of my postdoctoral and graduate trainees (12 as of 2015) lead research laboratories of their own.
Education and Training
- Duke University, Ph.D. 1999
Associated Faculty Labs
Selected Grants and Awards
- Neurobiology Training Program
- Duke Creating ADRD Researchers for the Next Generation - Stimulating Access to Research in Residency Program (CARiNG-StARR)"
- Targeting reward dysfunction as a mechanism to improve smoking cessation
- Nicotine Withdrawal and Reward Processing: Connecting Neurobiology to Real-World Behavior
- PFI:BIC - A Smart, Flexible, Large-Scale Sensing and Response Service System (LASSaRESS) for Monitoring and Management of Ground, Air and Waterborne Contaminants
- Exploring Reactions to Health Warnings on Waterpipe Tobacco Ads
- Improving Adherence to Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer Patients
- Mechanisms Regulating Complex Social Behavior
- Behavior and Physiology in Aging
- The Modulatory Role of Reward on Attentional Brain Processes
- A Computational Model of Resources and Resilency: Deploying the Elements of National Power for Strategic Influence
- Nonparametric Bayes Methods for Big Data in Neuroscience
- Social Influences on Financial Decision Making
- Basic predoctoral training in neuroscience
- Acute and chronic nicotine modulation of reinforcement learning
- NeuroAIDS research with disadvantaged drug users
- Vulnerability to Drug Abuse:Pathways to Recovery
- Engagement of Social-Cognitive Networks During Game Play in Autism
- Understanding Social Influences on the Development of Risky Choice
- Effects of Cocaine and HIV Decision Making Involving Potential Loss
- Neural Substrates Associated with Executive Functioning in Marijuana and HIV
- Training in Fundamental &Translational Neuroscience
- Neurocognitive Impact of Marijuana Use in Patients with HIV/AIDS
- Neurobehavioral and fMRI Research in HIV Infection and Cocaine Dependence
- Social Threat and Aging: Neural Mechanisms of Emotion Regulation
- Behavior And Physiology In Aging
- Increasing Empathy to Improve Mental Health
- Anhedonia, Aging, and the Neural Correlates of Attentional Control in Depression
- Understanding Information Processing During Consumer Choice
- Prefrontal Function in Adolescent Limited vs Life Course Persistent SUD
- Neural Mechanisms of Social Reward Valuation and Decision Making
- Brain Imaging the Effects of High Sensation Value Anti-Drug PSAs
- Neurogenetic Model of Social Behavior Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorders
- Neural Mechanisms for the Construction of Subjective Value and Preferences
- Neurobiological underpinnings of decisions involving social rewards
- From Phenotype to Mechanism: Mapping the Pathways underlying Risky Choice
- Frontal Function in Adolescent Cannabis Use Disorders
- Functional Neuroimaging of Strategic Retrieval Processes
- Neural Compensation and Economic Decision Making in Aging
- A Linux Cluster Computational Facility for Neuroimaging Research
- High Fidelity fMRI
- Neuroimaging of Executive Processing
- Neuroimaging Attentional Impairment During Abstinence
- Neuroimaging of age related cognitive changes.
- Funtional Neuroimaging of Executive Processing
- Functional Neuroimaging Studies of Object Processing
Department Affiliation
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience