Richard J. Davidson

PI: Conte Center, Project 4, Core A

Dr. Davidson is a William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD from Harvard University in Psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984.

He has published more than 250 articles, chapters and reviews, and has edited 13 books. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, including the most distinguished award for science given by the American Psychological Association -- the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.

In 2003, Dr. Davidson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters in 2004. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006, the year he was also awarded the first Mani Bhaumik Award by UCLA for advancing the understanding of the brain and conscious mind in healing. Madison Magazine named him Person of the Year in 2007. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Mind and Life Institute.

In 2011, he was given the Paul D. MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig from 2011-2017 and as Chair of the Psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science from 2011-2013. Author of the forthcoming book (with Sharon Begley) "The Emotional Life of Your Brain" to be published by Penquin in 2012.

Center-Related Publications

The following is a representative list of Dr. Davidson's Center-related publications:

In Press

Heller, A. S., Greischar, L. L., Honor, A., Anderle, M. J., & Davidson, R. J. (in press). Simultaneous acquisition of corrugator electromyography and functional magnetic resonance imaging: A new method for objectively measuring affect and neural activity concurrently. NeuroImage. PMID: 21742043

Lapate, R. C., Lee, H., Salomons, T. V., van Reekum, C. M., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (in press). Amygdalar function reflects common individual        differences in emotion and pain regulation success. Journal of  CognitiveNeuroscience.

Light, S. N., Heller, A. S., Johnstone, T., Kolden, G., Peterson, M. J., Kalin, N. H., & Davidson, R. J. (in press). Reduced right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activity while inhibiting positive affect is associated with improvement in hedonic capacity after 8 weeks of antidepressant treatment in major depressive disorder. Biological Psychiatry.

2011

Abercrombie, H. C., Jahn, A. L., Davidson, R. J., Kern, S., Kirschbaum, C., & Halverson, J. (2011). Cortisol's effects on hippocampal activation in depressed patients are related to alterations in memory formation. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 45(1), 15-23. PMCID: PMC3050626

McMenamin, B. W., Shackman, A. J., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2011). Electromyogenic artifacts and electroencephalographic inferences revisited. Neuroimage, 54, 4-9. PMCID: PMC2962711

Shackman, A. J., Maxwell, J. S., McMenamin, B. W., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2011). Stress potentiates early and attenuates late stages of visual processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(3), 1156-1161. PMCID: PMC3037336

Shackman, A. J., Salomons, T. V., Slagter, H. A., Fox, A. S., Winter, J. J., & Davidson, R. J. (2011). The integration of negative affect, pain, and cognitive control in the cingulate cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 12, 154-167. PMCID: PMC3044650

2010

Fox, A., Shelton, S., Oakes, T. R., Converse, A., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. (2010). Orbitofrontal cortex lesions alter anxiety-related activity in the primate bed nucleus of stria terminalis. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(20), 7023-7. PMCID:            PMC2915894

Hanson, J. L., Chung, M. K., Avants, B. B., Shritcliff, E. A., Gee, J. C., Davidson, R. J., & Pollak, S. D. (2010). Early stress is associated with alterations in the orbitofrontal cortex: A tensor-based morphometry investigation of brain structure and behavioral risk. Journal of Neuroscience, 30(22), 7466-72. PMCID:       PMC2893146

Jahn, A. L., Fox, A. S., Abercrombie, H. C., Shelton, S. E., Oakes, T. R., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2010). Subgenual prefrontal cortex activity predicts individual differences in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity across different contexts. Biological Psychiatry, 67, 175-81. Supplement 1. PMCID: PMC2804442

McMenamin, B. W., Shackman, A. J., Maxwell, J. S., Bachhuber, D. R., Koppenhaver, A. M., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2010). Validation of ICA-based myogenic artifact correction for scalp and source-localized EEG. Neuroimage, 49, 2416–2432. PMCID: PMC2818255

Oler, J. A., Fox, A. S., Shelton, S. E., Rogers, J., Dyer, T. D., Davidson, R. J., Shelledy, W., Oakes, T. R., Blangero, J., & Kalin, N. H. (2010). Amygdalar and hippocampal substrates of anxious temperament differ in their heritability. Nature, 466, 864-8. Supplemental Information. doi:10.1038/nature09282. Editorial comment. PMCID: PMC2998538

Schuyler, B. S., Ollinger, J. M., Oakes, T. R., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2010). Dynamic causal modeling applied to fMRI data shows high reliability. Neuroimage, 49(1), 603-611. PMCID: PMC2867050

Shackman, A. J., McMenamin, B. W., Maxwell, J. S., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2010). Identifying robust and sensitive frequency bands for interrogating neural oscillations. Neuroimage, 51, 1319–1333. PMCID: PMC2871966

Vandehey, N. T., Moirano, J. M., Converse, A. K., Holden, J. E., Mukherjee, J., Murali,  D., Nickles, R. J., Davidson, R. J., Schneider, M. L., & Christian, B. T. (2010).                        High-affinity dopamine D2/D3 PET radioligands 18F-fallypride and 11C-FLB457: A comparison of kinetics in extrastriatal regions using a multiple-injection protocol. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 30(5), 994-1007. PMCID: PMC2897717

2009

Bauer, P. M., Hanson, J. L., Pierson, R. K., Davidson, R. J., & Pollak, S. D. (2009). Cerebellar volume and cognitive functioning in children who experienced early deprivation. Biological Psychiatry, 66(12), 1100-1106. PMCID: PMC2878609

Christian, B. T., Fox, A. S., Oler, J. A., Vandehey, N. T., Murali, D., Rogers, J., Oakes, T. R., Shelton, S. E., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2009). Serotonin transporter binding and genotype in the nonhuman primate brain using   [C-11]DASB PET. Neuroimage, 47(4), 1230-6. PMCID: PMC2798593

Christian, B. T., Vandehey, N. T., Fox, A. S., Murali, D., Oakes, T. R., Converse, A. K., Nickles, R. J., Shelton, S. E., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2009) The distribution of D2/D3 receptor binding in the adolescent rhesus monkey using small animal PET imaging. NeuroImage, 44(4), 1334-1344. PMCID: PMC2649779

Heller, A. S., Johnstone, T., Shackman, A. J., Light, S., Peterson, M., Kolden, G., Kalin, N., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Reduced capacity to sustain positive emotion in major depression reflects diminished maintenance of fronto-striatal brain activation. Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, 106(52), 22445–22450. PMCID: PMC2796908 Press Release.

Lee, H., Shackman, A. J., Jackson, D. C., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Test-retest reliability of voluntary emotion regulation. Psychophysiology, 46, 874–879. PMCID:      PMC2706917

Light, S. N., Coan, J. A., Zahn-Waxler, C., Frye, C., Goldsmith, H. H., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Empathy is associated with dynamic change in prefrontal brain electrical activity during positive emotion in children. Child Development, 80(4), 1210-1231. PMCID: PMC2717040

Light, S. N., Goldsmith, H. H., Coan, J. A., Frye, C., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Dynamic variation in pleasure in children predicts non-linear change in lateral frontal activity. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 525-533. PMCID: PMC2758087

Locke, R. L., Davidson, R. J., Kalin, N. H., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2009). Children’s context inappropriate anger and salivary cortisol. Developmental Psychology, 45(5), 1284-1297. PMCID: PMC2776065

McMenamin, B. W., Shackman, A. J., Maxwell, J. S., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Validation of regression-based myogenic correction techniques for scalp and source-localized EEG. Psychophysiology, 46(3), p578-592. PMCID: PMC2677703

Nitschke, J. B., Sarinopoulos, I., Oathes, D. J., Johnstone, T., Whalen, P. J., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2009). Anticipatory activation in the amygdala and anterior cingulate in generalized anxiety disorder and prediction of treatment response. American Journal of Psychiatry, 166, 302-310. PMCID: PMC2804441. Press release.

Oler, J., Fox, A., Shelton, S., Christian, B., Murali, D., Oakes, T. R., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. (2009). Serotonin transporter availability in the amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis predicts anxious temperament and brain glucose metabolic activity. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(32), 9961–9966. PMCID: PMC2756094

Shackman, A. J., McMenamin, B. W., Maxwell, J. S., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Right dorsolateral prefrontal cortical activity and behavioral inhibition. Psychological Science, 20(12), 1500-1506. PMCID: PMC2858783

Shackman, A. J., McMenamin, B. W., Slagter, H. A., Maxwell, J. S., Greischar, L. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Electromyogenic artifacts and electroencephalographic inferences. Brain Topography. DOI: 10.1007/s10548-009-0079-4 PMCID:           PMC2712576

Urry, H. L., van Reekum, C. M., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2009). Individual differences in some (but not all) medial prefrontal regions reflect cognitive           demand while regulating unpleasant emotion. NeuroImage, 47, 852–863. PMCID: PMC2766667

Vandehey, N. T., Garell, P. C., Hampel, J. A., Murali, D., Smith, E. M., Davidson, R. J., Converse, A. K., Nickles, R. J., & Christian, B. T. (2009). PET measurement of changes in D3/D3 dopamine receptor binding in a nonhuman primate during chronic deep brain stimulation of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 176, 129-35. PMCID: PMC2638170

2008

Chung, M. K., Dalton, K. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Tensor-based cortical surface morphometry via weighted spherical harmonic representation. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 27(8), 1143-51. (Accepted 2007) PMID: 18672431

Fox, A. S., Shelton, S. E., Oakes, T. R., Davidson, R. J., & Kalin, N. H. (2008). Trait-like brain activity during adolescence predicts anxious temperament in primates. PLoS ONE, 3(7), e2570. PMCID: PMC2430534

Goldsmith, H. H., Pollak, S., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Developmental neuroscience perspectives on emotion regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 2(3), 132-140. PMCID: PMC2756715

Kalin, N. H., Shelton, S. E., Fox, A. S., Rogers, J., Oakes, T. R., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). The serotonin transporter genotype is associated with intermediate brain phenotypes that depend on the context of the eliciting stressor. Molecular Psychiatry, 13, 1021-1027. PMCID: PMC2785009

Kelley, D. J., Oakes, T. R., Greischar, L. L., Chung, M. K., Ollinger, J. M., Alexander, A. L., Shelton, S. E., Kalin, N. H., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Automatic physiological waveform processing for fMRI noise correction and analysis. PLoS            ONE, 3(3), e1751. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001751. PMCID: PMC2268243

Kern, S., Oakes, T. R., Stone, C. K., McAuliff, E. M., Kirschbaum, C., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Glucose metabolic changes in the prefrontal cortex are associated with HPA axis response to a psychosocial stressor. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 33, 517-529. PMCID: PMC2601562

Putnam, K. M., Pizzagalli, D. A., Gooding, D. C., Kalin, N. H., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Neural activity and diurnal variation of cortisol: Evidence from brain electrical tomography analysis and relevance to anhedonia. Psychophysiology, 45(6), 886-95. PMCID: PMC2785006

Whalen P. J., Johnstone T., Somerville L. H., Nitschke J. B., Polis S., Alexander A., Davidson R. J., & Kalin N. (2008). A functional MRI predictor of treatment response to venlafaxine in generalized anxiety disorder. Biological Psychiatry,            63(9), 858-63. PMCID: PMC2654286 [epub ahead of print at doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.08.019]