Primary Appointment

Dr. Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral Science at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and a member of its Tobacco Research and Treatment Program. His research interests include identifying the neurobiological mechanisms underlying nicotine dependence and withdrawal and translating this knowledge to assist those wishing to quit smoking, particularly those resistant to treatment and prone to smoking, such as the chronically depressed. Dr. Robinson is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience as a psychophysiologist, and is proficient in the use of electroencephalography (EEG), event-related potentials (ERP), impedance cardiography, skin conductance, and electromyography (EMG) methodology to study addiction in humans. He was recently awarded a NIDA K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (1K23DA024697-01; PI: Robinson), a grant designed to assist him to become an independent researcher with a focus on understanding how the attentional biases of smokers to drug and affective cues help to maintain neural sensitization to nicotine, using ERP techniques. He is currently co-investigator on a NIDA R01 grant titled “Pharmacogenetics, Emotional Reactivity and Smoking” (1R01DA017073, PI: Cinciripini), which is designed to assess the effects of the drugs varenicline and bupropion on changes in emotional reactivity during cessation, and to determine if these effects are moderated by genotype. This grant also uses EEG and acoustic startle eyeblink methodology to directly measure the affects of these drugs on the central nervous system. Dr. Robinson is also co-investigator on another NIDA R01 grant (3R01DA017073-02S1; PI: Cinciripini) that supplements the pharmacogenetics grant by allowing us to examine neurological adaptation to CNS structures not accessible by EEG techniques, such as the amygdala, anterior cingulate, and the prefrontal cortex.

Last updated: 3/12/2013