James F. Cavanagh
Associate Professor
- Email:
- jcavanagh@unm.edu
- Office:
- Logan Hall, 138
- Education:
- PhD University of Arizona, 2010
- Personal Website
- Lab Website
- Curriculum vitae
Research Area/s:
Cognition, Brain and Behavior
Research Interests:
- EEG Signatures of Frontal Cortical Function
- Reward and Decision Making
- Computational Psychiatry
Profile:
Accepting students? Dr. Cavanagh is accepting students for Fall 2025. Please email Dr. Cavanagh if you are interested in pursuing graduate studies. Good GRE scores and academic performance are expected. Emphasis will be placed on research experience, publications/presentations, and letters of reference.
I direct the Cognitive Rhythms and Computation Lab at the University of New Mexico Department of Psychology. I've recently been awarded the Early Career Award from the Society for Psychophysiological Research, as well as an NIMH Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) RO1. These resources help our lab advance the use of electrophysiology as a theoretical and methodological hub in the neural sciences, translating findings directly from the lab bench to the patient bedside. Current projects include:
- Frontal theta as a mechanism of cognitive control
- Cognition in Parkinson’s disease
- Role of theta in drift diffusion model defined adaptations to control
- Distributed sources of the Reward Positivity EEG feature
- Multimodal imaging and TMS stimulation
- Cortical representation of Information value vs. affective value
- Neural mechanisms of anhedonia
- Cross-species translation of these electrophysiological markers of cognitive functions
- Collaborative with the Brigman lab at UNMH -- https://hsc.unm.edu/directory/brigman-jonathan.html
Selected Publications
- Cavanagh, J.F., Gregg, D., Light, G.A., Olguin, S. Sharp, R.F., Bismark, A.W., Bhakta, S.G., Swerdlow, N.R., Brigman, J.L. & Young, J.W. (2021) Electrophysiological biomarkers of behavioral dimensions from cross-species paradigms. Translational Psychiatry, 11, 482
- Cavanagh, J.F. (2019) Early Career Award 2018: Electrophysiology as a theoretical and methodological hub in the neural sciences. Psychophysiology, 56(2)
- Cavanagh, J.F. & Frank, M.J. (2014) Frontal theta as a mechanism for cognitive control. Trends in Cognitive Science, 18(8), 414-421.
Courses Taught
- PSYC 443/463: Psychobiology of Emotion
- PSYC 2250: Brain and Behavior
- PSYC 444/644: Advanced EEG Analysis in Matlab
- PSYC 450/650: Principles of Psychophysiology
- PSYC 650: Predictable Irrationality in Decision Making
Lab
Current Graduate Students:
- Christopher Pirrung, M.A. https://sites.google.com/site/crclunm/lab-members/chris-pirrung
- Garima Singh, M.A. https://sites.google.com/site/crclunm/lab-members/garima-singh
- Mark Lavelle, M.A. https://sites.google.com/site/crclunm/lab-members/mark-lavelle
Alumni
- Trevor Jackson, PhD https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=rtF-kuIAAAAJ
- John F.L.Pinner, PhD https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Pinner
- Darin Brown, PhD https://sites.google.com/view/rad-lab/home
- Jacki Janowich, PhD https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackijanowich/?originalSubdomain=be
Note: If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies in my laboratory, please contact me (jcavanagh@unm.edu). Good GRE scores and academic performance are expected. Emphasis will be placed on research experience, publications/presentations, and letters of reference.
