We are pleased to announced that Andrew Westbrook, Ph.D. will join the CAHBIR faculty as an assistant professor in 2023.
After an early career in Environmental Science & Engineering, Andrew completed a Ph.D. at Washington University in Saint Louis. Working with Todd Braver, Andrew’s graduate work focused on on the neural correlates of subjective value during decision-making about cognitive effort. He completed a fellowship with Roshan Cools at the Donders Institute, and in collaboration with Michael Frank at Brown University, investigated how striatal dopamine signaling modulates cognitive control using a combination of PET imaging, pharmacology, eye-tracking, and systems-level neural network modeling. This led to a successful NIH Post-doctoral fellowship studying how striatal dopamine influences cost-benefit decision-making about cognitive effort in combination with factors like visual attention and action prepotency. In addition, Andrew studies how working memory interacts with reinforcement learning mechanisms and how those are influenced by striatal dopamine function as well. He combines neuroimaging skills with computational modelling, EEG recording, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.