Primary Appointment

I am particularly interested in furthering the understanding of the affective processes of nicotine addiction and I believe that the psychophysiological study of individual differences resulting from and/or leading to chronic nicotine use offers a promising line of inquiry. Moreover, this line of research can be integrated into future treatment strategies that may be able to target individual differences in smokers attempting to quit. I am also interested in developing a multidisciplinary approach to the study of cigarette smoking, including expanding my knowledge of neuro-imaging and co-morbid mood disorders in a smoking population. My expertise in psychophysiology in general and my interest in becoming an expert in neurobiological indices of high-level cognitive and affective processing in particular will provide a unique addition and potential for collaboration in our department’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Program. I worked closely with a variety of mentors to increase my breadth and depth of knowledge related to nicotine dependence, cognitive and affective neuroscience, EEG and fMRI technology, and project administration through my awarded R-25 and K99 training grants. As an independent researcher funded by an R00 grant, I also mentor graduate students and post-docs in clinical research areas related to behavioral therapy for nicotine dependence as well as psychophysiological research design, methodology, and implementation. It would be a pleasure to have the opportunity to mentor students from the R25E training program.

Dr. Minnix is a clinical psychologist who originally joined the Department of Behavioral Science at M. D. Anderson as a post-doctoral fellow in 2005. Her current research focuses primarily on understanding the neurobehavioral mechanisms of nicotine dependence through the psychophysiological study of affective and attentional processes in smokers. She is also interested in developing a multidisciplinary approach to the study of cigarette smoking, including neuroimaging, affect regulation, and co-morbid psychiatric disorders in a smoking population. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a mentored K99/R00 Career Development Award entitled (R00-DA025181-03) “Suppression of negative affect indexed by the late positive potential in smokers attempting to quit,” which investigates the relationship between smoking deprivation and cognitive reappraisal of emotional stimuli. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Minnix received an UTMDACC Education Program in Cancer Prevention Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant (R25CA57730). This grant was entitled, “Affective modulation of negative affect in response to nicotine administration” and evaluated the hypotheses that stress would potentiate emotional reactivity (indexed by the startle probe) to negative affective cues and that nicotine would suppress responses to negative affective cues. Dr. Minnix was also awarded the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Clinical Research Loan Repayment Award (2006-2008). Dr. Minnix received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University in 2005 and completed her clinical internship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

Academic Appointments

Last updated: 3/7/2013