- Assistant Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, College of Liberal Arts
My work aims to understand how internal goals and external environments influence voluntary task selection. The primary goal of my research is to understand the mechanisms underlying cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between tasks or behaviors quickly and efficiently. Cognitive flexibility is disrupted in several mental health disorders such as psychosis, addiction, and autism. Most studies of cognitive flexibility rely on external cues to determine when and which task to perform, but in the real world this choice is under our voluntary control. While external influences may make these decisions difficult, e.g., seeing ads for junk food when we are trying to make healthy choices, they are nevertheless under a degree of internal control. My work takes the unique perspective of focusing on voluntary control in cognitive flexibility. I take a multimodal approach, using brain imaging (fMRI) and measures of electrical brain activity (EEG) to examine the dynamics of the underlying neural mechanisms, and electrical brain stimulation to better understand brain-behavior causal links. More recently, I've been applying computational modeling to determine the exact components underlying task selection. The long-term objective of my research is to understand the factors that limit flexibility to better inform treatments for psychopathology and to maximize flexibility in healthy individuals.
- University of Colorado Boulder - (Boulder, Colorado, United States), Postdoctoral Training 2015
- Ph.D. in Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor - (Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States) 2011
- M.S. in Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor - (Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States) 2008
- B.S. in Psychology, University of Pittsburgh - (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) 2003
Academic Articles45
- Imburgio, M. J., & Orr, J. M (2021). Component processes underlying voluntary task selection: Separable contributions of task-set inertia and reconfiguration.. Cognition. 212, 104685-104685.
- Imburgio, M. J., Ballard, H. K., Cornwall, A. C., Worthy, D. A., Bernard, J. A., & Orr, J. M (2021). Preliminary effects of prefrontal tDCS on dopamine-mediated behavior and psychophysiology.. Behav Brain Res. 402, 113091-113091.
- Dean, D. J., Bernard, J. A., Damme, K., O'Reilly, R., Orr, J. M., & Mittal, V. A (2020). Longitudinal Assessment and Functional Neuroimaging of Movement Variability Reveal Novel Insights Into Motor Dysfunction in Clinical High Risk for Psychosis.. Schizophr Bull. 46(6), 1567-1576.
- Pelletier-Baldelli, A., Orr, J. M., Bernard, J. A., & Mittal, V. A (2020). Social reward processing: A biomarker for predicting psychosis risk?. Schizophr Res. 226, 129-137.
- Jackson, T. B., Maldonado, T., Eakin, S. M., Orr, J. M., & Bernard, J. A (2020). Cerebellar and prefrontal-cortical engagement during higher-order rule learning in older adulthood.. Neuropsychologia. 148, 107620-107620.
Chapters1
- Gehring, W. J., Liu, Y., Orr, J. M., & Carp, J. (2011). The Error-Related Negativity (ERN/Ne). The Oxford Handbook of Event-Related Potential Components. Oxford University Press.
Conference Papers2
- Bernard, J. A., Orr, J. M., & Mittal, V. A (2015). ABNORMAL HIPPOCAMPAL-THALAMIC WHITE MATTER TRACT DEVELOPMENT AND DISEASE COURSE IN ADOLESCENTS AT ULTRA HIGH-RISK FOR PSYCHOSIS. SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN. 41, S246-S246.
- Lopez-Garcia, P., Clark, K. A., Orr, J. M., Walter, R. P., Snitz, B. E., Aizenstein, H. J., & Carter, C. S (2004). Brain volume in chronic schizophrenia and first episode psychoses: Automated ROI based approach in a sample of 112 subjects. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. 55, 220S-220S.
Repository Documents / Preprints9
- Razavi, M., Janfaza, V., Yamauchi, T., Leontyev, A., Longmire-Monford, S., & Orr, J (2021). OpenSync: An opensource platform for synchronizing multiple measures in neuroscience experiments.
- Razavi Ghods, M., Janfaza, V., Yamauchi, T., Leontyev, A., Longmire-Monford, S., & Orr, J (2021). Opensync: An Opensource Platform for Synchronizing Multiple Measures in Neuroscience Experiments.
- Han, Y. u., Prelock, P. A., Coderre, E. L., & Orr, J. M (2021). A Pilot Study Using Two Novel fMRI Tasks: Understanding Theory of Mind and Emotion Recognition Among Children With ASD.
- Razavi, M., Yamauchi, T., Janfaza, V., Leontyev, A., Longmire-Monford, S., & Orr, J (2020). Multimodal-Multisensory Experiments: Design and Implementation.
Co-Principal Investigator2
- NRSC350 Cognitive Neuroscience Instructor
- NRSC485 Directed Studies Instructor
- NRSC489 Sptp: Neurohacking Instructor
- NRSC491 Hnr-research Instructor
- NRSC491 Research Instructor