UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls
Professor
Start Year: 2013
Psychological Sciences
Office: 157 Centennial Science Hall
Phone: 715-425-4114
Email: james.cortright@uwrf.edu
Ph.D. Indiana University
B.S. Indiana University
James is a neuroscientist who teaches Introduction to Neuroscience, Drugs and the Nervous System, Physiological Psychology, and Behavioral Statistics. His research interest is broadly focused on the role of associative learning, conditioning mechanisms, and behavioral characteristics in drug addiction and relapse. Specifically, James is interested in the contributions of various limbic and basal ganglia structures in mediating the interactions between associative learning/behavioral characteristics and drug addiction/relapse. His additional research interests include the role of the frontal cortex in behaviors of depression and the interactions of stress and environmental enrichment on learning and memory. James maintains a laboratory equipped with a MED Associates interface and several operant chambers used to provide students the opportunity to conduct independent research involving animals. In addition to presenting his research findings at conferences such as the Society for Neuroscience and the American Psychological Association, James has coauthored publications in the Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology, and the European Journal of Neuroscience. Finally, he serves as the coordinator of the Neuroscience program.