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John J.B. Allen, PhD

Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Neuroscience
The EEG system from Grass Instruments that was state of the art in 1992 when I began my career at U of A

440 Psychology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721

I received my bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin Madison under the direction of mentors Loren and Jean Chapman, and completed my graduate training at the University of Minnesota under the direction of mentor William G.. Iacono. Following an internship at the VA medical center in Minneapolis, I joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at The  University of Arizona in 1992, where I am currently Distinguished Professor of Psychology, with appointments in the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs in Cognitive Science, and in Neuroscience.

My research spans several areas, but the main focus is the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. I am interested in identifying risk factors for depression using electroencephalographic and autonomic psychophysiological measures, especially EEG asymmetry, resting state fMRI connectivity, and cardiac vagal control.  Based on these findings, I wish to develop novel and neurally-informed treatments for mood and anxiety disorders, including Transcranial Ultrasound, EEG biofeedback, and Transcranial Direct Current and Transcranial Alternating Current.  Other work includes understanding how emotion and emotional disorders influence the way we make decisions and monitor our actions.

Additionally, I have published on the assessment of memory and amnesia using event-related potentials, including the assessment of deception ("lie" detection and the polygraph) as well as malingering, and the assessment of the veridicality and the nature of amnesia in dissociative disorders. 

I enjoy teaching.  I teach courses ranging from enormous introductory-level survey courses to small graduate-level courses, and I mentor graduate and undergraduate students who work in the psychophysiology laboratory.  Each semester, at least a dozen undergraduate research assistants are involved in research in the laboratory.  Please contact me if you are interested in the possibility of joining the laboratory.

More information is available on these various web pages, as well as in my Curriculum Vitae (pdf format).