Terry Davidson

Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience and Professor
Department of Psychology

• Dr. Davidson earned his undergraduate degree in Psychology at Michigan State University and earned his Ph.D. with a specialization in Learning and Memory at Purdue University before completing his post-doctoral training in Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Neurological Science. After serving on the faculty of the Virginia Military Institute, Dr. Davidson returned to Purdue University where he rose to the rank of Full Professor, and served as the Convener of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience and also the founding Director of the multidisciplinary Ingestive Behavior Research Center. Dr. Davidson joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at American University in the fall of 2012 where he is now the founding Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. Davidson’s research focuses on the processes and brain substrates that underlie memory and energy regulation. Dr. Davidson and his students aim to increase understanding of (a) how learning and memory processes contribute to the control of food intake and body weight and; (b) how dietary and other environmental factors that promote obesity might impair the function of brain areas that underlie those cognitive processes. Dr. Davidson works with nonhuman and human animal models.

• Degrees

  Post-doc, Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania Ph.D., Learning and Memory, Purdue University M.A., Experimental Psychology, California State University, Fullerton B.A., Psychology, Michigan State University