Rate My Professor David Moorman

David Moorman is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a position he has held since 2014. His research specializes in behavioral neuroscience, focusing on the cellular and network mechanisms that control motivation, learning, and executive functions such as decision-making. Employing animal models, Moorman investigates neural alterations underlying psychiatric disorders including addiction, ADHD, obesity, and depression. His laboratory utilizes sophisticated techniques including electrophysiology and cellular imaging for monitoring neural activity, as well as optogenetics, chemical genetics, and pharmacology for precise manipulation of defined neural circuits. Current investigations include orbitofrontal cortex signaling in processing natural and drug rewards in addiction models, medial prefrontal cortex regulation of learning about positive and negative outcomes, and the roles of midbrain dopamine systems alongside hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone systems in behavior. Through collaborations with computational neuroscientists and statisticians, his work develops novel approaches to link neural ensembles to behavioral outcomes.

Moorman received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, working with Carl Olson. He conducted postdoctoral research with Laura Peoples in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by further postdoctoral training and a role as research assistant professor with Gary Aston-Jones in the Department of Neurosciences at the Medical University of South Carolina. His highly cited publications have advanced the understanding of reward processing and addiction, including "Motivational activation: a unifying hypothesis of orexin/hypocretin function" (Nature Neuroscience, 2014), "Lateral hypothalamic orexin/hypocretin neurons: a role in reward-seeking and addiction" (Brain Research, 2010), "Role of lateral hypothalamic orexin neurons in reward processing and addiction" (Neuropharmacology, 2009), "Phasic locus coeruleus activity regulates cortical encoding of salience information" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018), and "Prefrontal neurons encode context-based response execution and inhibition in reward seeking and extinction" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2015). These contributions underscore his impact on neuroscience within psychology.