G. Elliott Wimmer

Curriculum Vitae, October 2009

 

 

Department of Psychology

Columbia University

New York, NY 10027

gew2105 at columbia dot edu

 

 

 

Education                    Columbia University

                                    Ph.D. candidate, Department of Psychology

 

University of California, Berkeley

BA, May 2005: Cognitive Science (Neuroscience focus)

 

 

Research                      ¥ The interaction of different memory systems in learning and decision making

Interests                       ¥ Computational and neural models of simple reinforcement and goal-directed learning

                                    ¥ The role of neuromodulatory systems in human affect and decision making, and the dysfunction of these systems in diseases and psychiatric disorders

 

 

Publications                Wimmer, G.E., Shohamy, D. (in press). The striatum and beyond: hippocampal contributions to decision making. Attention and Performance XXIII.

 

                                    Cooper, J.C., Hollon, N.G., Wimmer, G.E., Knutson, B. (in press). Available alternative incentives modulate anticipatory nucleus accumbens activation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

 

                                    Ersner-Hershfeld, H., Wimmer, G.E., Knutson, B. (2009). Saving for the future self: neural measures of self-continuity predict temporal discounting. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 4(1): 85-92.

 

                                    Knutson, B., Wimmer, G.E., Rick, S., Hollon, N.G., Prelec, D., Loewenstein, G. (2008). Neural antecedents of the endowment effect. Neuron, 58(5): 814-22.

                                    Knutson, B., Wimmer, G.E., Kuhnen, C., Winkielman, P. (2008). Nucleus accumbens mediates the influence of reward cues on financial risk-taking. NeuroReport, 19(5): 509-513.

                                   

                                    Knutson, B., Wimmer, G.E. (2007). Splitting the difference: How does the brain code reward episodes? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1104: 54-69.

 

                                    Knutson, B., Rick, S., Wimmer, G.E., Prelec, D., Loewenstein, G. (2007). Neural predictors of purchases. Neuron, 53(1): 147-156.


Knutson, B., Wimmer, G.E. (2007). Reward: Neural circuitry for social valuation. Fundamentals of Social Neuroscience, Harmon-Jones, E., and Winkielman, P. (Eds). New York NY, Guilford.

 

Wimmer, G.E. (2005). A default mode of incentive processing in the human brain: reinforcement learning and spontaneous thoughts. BA Thesis.                            

 

 

Presentations               Wimmer, G.E., Szeto, M., Shohamy, D. (2009). Value generalization in conditioning: brain mechanisms supporting human sensory preconditioning with monetary reinforcement. Poster presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, CA.

 

                                    Wimmer, G.E., Shohamy, D., Daw, N.D. (2008). Learning and generalization in human reinforcement learning. Poster presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C.

 

                                    Ersner-Hershfeld, H., Wimmer, G.E., Knutson, B. (2008). Saving for the future self: neural measures of self-continuity predict temporal discounting. Talk presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C.

 

                                    Jerde, T.E., Khanna, K., Wimmer, G.E., Ballard, K., Knutson, B. (2008). Neural responses in smokers and non-smokers to cigarette and food cues in a shopping task. Talk presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C.

 

                                    Knutson, B., Wimmer, G.E., Rick, S., Hollon, N.G., Prelec, D., Loewenstein, G. (2008). Neural antecedents of the endowment effect. Talk presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C.

                                   

                                    Wimmer, G.E., Kuhnen, C., Winkielman, P., Knutson, B. (2007). Nucleus accumbens activation mediates the influence of incidental reward cues on financial risk-taking. Poster presented at the 3rd annual Neuroeconomics conference, Hull, MA, and at the 2007 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.

                                   

                                    Cooper, J.C., Wimmer, G.E., Knutson, B. (2007). Does reward context influence anticipatory affect and nucleus accumbens activation? Poster presented at the 2007 Neural Systems of Social Behavior Conference, Austin, TX.

 

                                    Gibbs, S.E.B., Larkin G., Khanna K., Wimmer, G.E., Laura L. Carstensen, Knutson, B. (2006). Neural responsiveness to incentives in younger and older adults. Poster presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the Organization of Human Brain Mapping, Florence, Italy.

                                   

                                    Wimmer G.E., Cools R., DÕEsposito M. (2005). Bromocriptine improves or impairs outcome-based reversal learning as a function of trait impulsivity. Poster presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Washington, D.C.

 

Knutson B., Bhanji, J.P., Cooney R.E., Wimmer G.E., Gotlib I.H. (2004). Monetary reward processing in unipolar depression. Poster presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Society for Research in Psychopathology, St. Louis, MO.

 

Honors and                 Honorable Mention, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Awards                       Okinawa Computational Neuroscience Summer Course, 2009.

                                   NIH-sponsored student travel award to attend conference, ÒThe Biological Basis of Personality and Individual Differences, SUNY Stony Brook, August 2004.

                                   UCB DeanÕs Honor List, Fall 2003

                                   National Merit Scholar, 2001

 

Professional               Cognitive Neuroscience Society

Associations               Society for Neuroscience

                                   Society for Neuroeconomics

                                   American Psychological Society

 

 

Conference                 Society for Neuroscience 2004-2009

Attendance                 Society for Neuroeconomics 2007, Hull, MA

                                  Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009

                                  Personality and Individual Differences 2004, Stony Brook, NY

 

 

Prior Research

Experience

            ¥ Lab Coordinator, Stanford SPAN Lab (June 2005–June 2007): Professor Brian Knutson, Dept. of Psychology and Dept. of Neuroscience

– affect and decision making; experience included experimental design, fMRI data acquisition and direction of analysis, manuscript preparation, grant management, teaching.

 

¥ Research Assistant, UC Berkeley (July 2004–June 2005): Roshan Cools, Ph.D., in the lab of Professor Mark DÕEsposito, Dept. of Psychology

                       – psychopharmacological studies of learning and working memory

 

¥ Research Assistant, Stanford (May 2004–Sept. 2004): Professor Brian Knutson, Dept. of Psychology and Dept. of Neuroscience

                        – reward processing and brain activity in depression

 

¥ Research Assistant, UC Berkeley (Jan. 2004–May 2005): Professor Terrence Deacon, Dept. of Anthropology

                        – comparative studies of the prefrontal cortex in humans and non-human primates

 

¥ Undergraduate Research Apprentice, UC Berkeley (Sept. 2003–May 2004): Prof. Ann Kring, Psychology

                        – affect and working memory