Richard J. Davidson
PhD, Harvard
Faculty Core Director, Brain Imaging Core
Vilas Professor, Psychology and Psychiatry

Contact Information:
Waisman Center
UW-Madison
1500 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53705
Phone: (608) 265-8189
Fax: (608) 262-9440
E-mail: rjdavids@wisc.edu
Web: Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience
Web: Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior

Research Statement

Research in my laboratory is focused on cortical and subcortical substrates of emotion and affective disorders, including depression and anxiety. We study normal adults and young children, and those with, or at risk for, affective and anxiety disorders. We use quantitative electrophysiology, positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging to make inferences about patterns of regional brain function. A major focus of our current work is on interactions between prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in the regulation of emotion in both normal subjects and patients with affective and anxiety disorders.

Representative Publications

Davidson, R. J. & Lutz, A. (2008). Buddhas Brain: Neuroplasticity and Meditation. IEEE Signal Processing 25(1), 171-174.

Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Johnstone, T., & Davidson, R. J. (2008). Voluntary regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: Effects of expertise. PLoS One 3(3), e1897.

Brefczynski-Lewis J. A., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H. S., Levinson, D. B. & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(27) 11483-11488.

Dalton, K. M., Nacewicz, B. M., Alexander, A. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2007). Gaze-fixation, brain activation and amygdala volume in unaffected siblings of individuals with autism. Biological Psychiatry 61 (4), 512-520.

Johnstone, T., van Reekum, C. M., Urry, H. L., Kalin, N. H. & Davidson R. J. (2007). Failure to regulate: Counter-productive recruitment of top-down prefrontal-subcortical circuitry in major depression. Journal of Neuroscience 27: 8877-8884.

Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S. & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12) 1032-1039.

Larson, C. L., Schaefer, H. S., Siegle, G. J., Jackson, C. A. B., Anderle, M. J., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Fear is fast in phobics: Amygdala activation in response to fear-relevant stimuli. Biological Psychiatry, 60, 410-417.

Nacewicz, B.M., Dalton, K.M., Johnstone, T., Long, M., McAuliff, E.M., Oakes, T.R., Alexander, A.L. & Davidson, R.J. (2006) Amygdala volume and nonverbal social impairment in adolescent and adult males with autism. Archives of General Psychiatry 63:1417-1428.

Nitschke, J. B., Dixon, G. E., Sarinopoulos, I., Short, S. J., Cohen, J. D., Smith, E. E., Kosslyn, S. M., Rose, R. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Altering expectancy dampens neural response to aversive taste in primary taste cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 9(3):435-42.

Shackman, A. J., Sarinopoulos, I, Maxwell, J. S., Pizzagalli, D. A., Lavric, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Anxiety selectively disrupts visuospatial working memory. Emotion, 6, 40-61.

Urry, H. L., van Reekum, C. M., Johnstone, T., Kalin, N. H., Thurow, M. E., Schaefer, H. S., Jackson, C. A., Frye, C. J., Greischar, L. L., Alexander, A. L., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 26, 4415-4425

Dalton KM, Nacewicz BM, Johnstone T, Schaefer HS, Gernsbacher MA, Goldsmith HH, Alexander AL, Davidson RJ. (2005) Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nature Neuroscience. 8, 519-526

Lutz A, Greischar LL, Rawlings NB, Ricard M, Davidson RJ. (2004) Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 101:16369-73

Davidson RJ. (2004) Well-being and affective style: neural substrates and biobehavioural correlates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (London). 359:1395-411

Salomons TV, Johnstone T, Backonja MM, Davidson RJ. (2004) Perceived controllability modulates the neural response to pain. Journal of Neuroscience. 24:7199-203.

Urry HL, Nitschke JB, Dolski I, Jackson DC, Dalton KM, Mueller CJ, Rosenkranz MA, Ryff CD, Singer BH, Davidson RJ. (2004) Making a life worth living: neural correlates of well-being. Psychological Science. 15:367-72.

Wager TD, Rilling JK, Smith EE, Sokolik A, Casey KL, Davidson RJ, Kosslyn SM, Rose RM, Cohen JD. (2004) Placebo-induced changes in FMRI in the anticipation and experience of pain. Science. 303:1162-7.

Rosenkranz MA, Jackson DC, Dalton KM, Dolski I, Ryff CD, Singer BH, Muller D, Kalin NH, Davidson RJ. (2003) Affective style and in vivo immune response: neurobehavioral mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 100:11148-52.

Visions of Compassion: Western scientists and Tibeta2n Buddhists examine human nature (2002). New York: Oxford University Press.

Davidson, R. J., Pizzagalli, D., Nitschke, J. B., & Putnam, K. M. (2002). Depression: Perspectives from affective neuroscience. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 545-574.