Rachel Alison Adcock
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Adcock received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Emory University and her MD and PhD in Neurobiology from Yale University. She completed her psychiatry residency training at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute at UC-San Francisco and did neurosciences research as a postdoctoral fellow at UC-SF, the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and Stanford before joining the Duke faculty in 2007. Her work has been funded by NIDA, NIMH, NSF and Alfred P. Sloan and Klingenstein Fellowships in the Neurosciences, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and honored by NARSAD awards, the 2012 National Academy of Sciences Seymour Benzer Lectureship, and the 2015 ABAI BF Skinner Lectureship. The overall goals of her research program are to understand how brain systems for motivation support learning and to use mechanistic understanding of how behavior changes biology to meet the challenge of developing new therapies appropriate for early interventions for mental illness.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Behavioral Medicine & Neurosciences, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences 2017
Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences 2018
Interim Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2021
Associate Professor of Neurobiology, Neurobiology, Basic Science Departments 2017
Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2017
Member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences 2007
Affiliate of the Center for Brain Imaging and Analysis, Duke-UNC Center for Brain Imaging and Analysis, Institutes and Centers 2007
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2008
Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708-0999
Center for Cognitive Neuroscie, Durham, NC 27708
Motivated Memory Lab
M.D., Yale University School of Medicine 1999
Ph.D., Yale University 1999
Associate Director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers 2019 - 2021
Associate Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences 2015 - 2018
Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Clinical Science Departments 2007 - 2017
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology, Neurobiology, Basic Science Departments 2008 - 2017
Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2011 - 2017
An Element of Surprise is the Recipe for Creating False Memories
Imagination Exercise Helps People Get a Grip on Real Pandemic Risks
AUG 17, 2018 Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Adcock to Direct Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
MAR 4, 2016 NPR
Could you hack your brain to get more motivated?
Self-Motivation Can Help Tune Your Brain
Allen Song Named Interim Director of Brain Institute
OCT 29, 2013 WUNC Radio
How a sugar pill can treat mental illness
Sloan Research Fellowship-Neuroscience. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 2008
Muser Mentor
Neurobiological Effects of Long-Term Opioid Therapy in the Brain and Spinal Cord awarded by National Institutes of Health 2022 - 2027
Targeting reward dysfunction as a mechanism to improve smoking cessation awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2022
Instructed Activation of the Human Dopaminergic Midbrain Using Real-Time fMRI in Nicotine-Dependent Individuals awarded by Brain and Behavior Research Foundation 2016 - 2021
Increasing Motivation in ADHD Via Self-activation of VTA awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2021
Smoking/Nicotine Dependence in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) awarded by National Institutes of Health 2017 - 2020
Modeling the Neurobehavioral Basis of Extrinsic and Volitional Motivation in ADHD awarded by National Institutes of Health 2017 - 2020
Environment Cue-Reactivity: Brain, Behavior and Clinical Outcomes in Tobacco Use awarded by National Institutes of Health 2014 - 2020
Characterizing Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control awarded by National Institutes of Health 2010 - 2019
Basic predoctoral training in neuroscience awarded by National Institutes of Health 1992 - 2018
Connectivity of the Dopaminergic Midbrain During Learned Regulation of Intrinsic Motivation awarded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research 2014 - 2017
BRAIN EAGER: Bayesian Models of Translational Neural Networks: Motivation and Reward awarded by National Science Foundation 2014 - 2017
Acute and chronic nicotine modulation of reinforcement learning awarded by National Institutes of Health 2013 - 2017
A Compute Cluster for Brain Imaging and Analysis awarded by National Institutes of Health 2016 - 2017
Motivated Memory as Therapeutic Target awarded by National Institutes of Health 2011 - 2017
Instructed Activation of the Human Dopaminergic Midbrain using Real-Time fMRI awarded by National Institutes of Health 2014 - 2016
Training in Fundamental &Translational Neuroscience awarded by National Institutes of Health 2005 - 2016
Brain Imaging Studies of Negative Reinforcement in Humans awarded by National Institutes of Health 2009 - 2015
From Phenotype to Mechanism: Mapping the Pathways underlying Risky Choice awarded by National Institutes of Health 2009 - 2011
External Relationships
Editas Medicine
Poh, Jia-Hou, Mai-Anh T. Vu, Jessica K. Stanek, Abigail Hsiung, Tobias Egner, and R Alison Adcock. "Hippocampal convergence during anticipatory midbrain activation promotes subsequent memory formation." Nature Communications 13, no. 1 (November 2022): 6729. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34459-3.
Teaching & Mentoring
NEUROSCI 494: Research Independent Study 2 2023
NEUROBIO 393: Research Independent Study 2021
NEUROBIO 793: Research in Neurobiology 2021
NEUROSCI 391: Neuroscience Independent Scholarship 1: Advanced Topics 2021
NEUROSCI 755: Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Neuroscience (IPCN) Independent Research Rotation 2021
Advising & Mentoring
Available to mentor:
Bass Connections Team Leader. Movement through Racial Healing and Justice. 2021 - 2022 2021 - 2022
Summer Neuroscience Program Mentor. Summer Neuroscience Program. 2020 2020
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member . The Construction of Memory at Duke and in Durham: Using Memory Studies. August 2016 - May 2017 2016 - 2017
Bass Connections Faculty Team Member. The Construction of Memory at Duke and in Durham: Using Memory Studies. August 2016 - May 2017 2016 - 2017