Research Description

Gregory A. Miller  is now Professor Emeritus in the UIUC Department of Psychology and Affiliate of the Beckman Cognitive Neuroscience Group. He moved to the University of Delaware in 2011, where he is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology, after serving UIUC as the Director of the Beckman Biomedical Imaging Center, head of the Beckman Cognitive Neuroscience Group, and Program Director of the NIMH-funded "Training in Cognitive Psychophysiology" training grant. Formerly he served as Director of Clinical Training and Associate Head in the UIUC Department of Psychology, where he was a member of the Brain & Cognition and Clinical/Community Divisions. He continues collaborations with colleagues at UIUC and U. Konstanz (Germany) as well as at U. Delaware. Miller’s research pursues mechanisms relating cognitive, emotional, and physiological aspects of normal and abnormal human behavior, using the methods of cognitive, affective, and clinical psychophysiology / neuroscience. Interests include executive function, emotional dysregulation, and sensory processes as well as development of multimodal neuroimaging methods. The research integrates sMRI, fMRI, and dense-array scalp event-related brain potential (ERP) measures as well as structured diagnostic interviews. In collaboration with Profs. Wendy Heller, Brad Sutton and Marie Banich, the MRI / ERP studies address questions of regional brain specialization in emotion and its effects on executive function, with a particular interest in differentiation of depression and anxiety. A collaboration with Profs. Brigitte Rockstroh and Thomas Elbert and Drs. Nathan Weisz and Tzvetan Popov at the U. of Konstanz (Germany) pursues MEG and EEG studies of compromised sensory, emotional, and cognitive processing in schizophrenia and nonspecific effects of stress and the development of a cognitive treatment method. Publications include philosophy-of-science issues that arise in psychological and biological research on cognition, emotion, and psychopathology as well as tutorials on method issues in psychophysiology / cognitive neuroscience.

Education

• Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin

Webpages

• Beckman Institute Gregory A. Miller Web Page
• University of Delaware

Recent Publications

Bredemeier, K., Spielberg, J.M., Silton, R.L., Berenbaum, H., Heller, W., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Screening for depressive disorders using the Mood and Anxiety Symptoms Questionnaire Anhedonic Depression Scale: A receiver-operating characteristic analysis. Psychological Assessment, 22, 702-710.

Engels, A.S., Heller, W., Spielberg, J.M., Warren, S.L., Sutton, B.P, Banich, M.T., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Co-occurring anxiety influences patterns of brain asymmetry in depression. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 141-156. NIHMS280971.

Fisher, J.E., Sass, S.M., Heller, W., Silton, R.L., Edgar, C.E., Stewart, J.L., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Time course of processing emotional stimuli as a function of perceived emotional intelligence, anxiety, and depression. Emotion, 4, 486-497.

Herrington, J.D., Heller, W., Mohanty, A., Engels, A., Banich, M.T., Webb, A.W., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Localization of asymmetric brain function in emotion and depression. Psychophysiology, 47, 442-454.

Huang, M.X., Lee, R.R., Gaa, K.M., Song, T., Harrington, D.L., Loh, C., Theilmann, R.J., Edgar, J.C., Miller, G.A., Cañive, J.M., & Granholm, E. (2010). Somatosensory system deficits in schizophrenia revealed by MEG during a median-nerve oddball task. Brain Topography, 23, 82-104.

Miller, G.A. (2010). Mistreating psychology in the decades of the brain. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5, 716-743.

Sass, S.M., Heller, W., Stewart, J.L., Silton, R.L., Edgar, C., Fisher, J.E., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Time course of attentional bias to threat in anxiety: Emotion and gender specificity. Psychophysiology, 47, 247-259.

Silton, R.L., Miller, G.A., Towers, D.N., Engels, A.S., Edgar, J.C., Spielberg, J.M., Sass, S.M., Stewart, J.L., Sutton, B.P., Banich, M.T., & Heller, W. (2010). The time course of activity in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex during top-down attentional control. NeuroImage, 50, 1292-1302.

Smith, A.K., Edgar, J.C., Huang, M.X., Lu, B.Y., Thoma, R.J., Hanlon, F.M., McHaffie, G., Jones, A.P., Paz, R.D., Miller, G.A., & Cañive, J.M. (2010). Cognitive abilities and 50 and 100 ms paired-click processes in schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167, 1264-1275.

Stewart, J.L., Silton, R.L., Sass, S.M., Fisher, J.E., Edgar, J.C., Heller, W., & Miller, G.A. (2010). Attentional bias to negative emotion as a function of approach and withdrawal anger styles: An ERP investigation. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 76, 9-18.

Warren, S.L., Bost, K.K., Roisman, G.I., Levin Silton, R., Spielberg, J.M., Engels, A.S., Choi, E., Sutton, B.P., Miller, G.A., & Heller, W. (2010). Effects of adult attachment and emotional distractors on brain mechanisms of cognitive control. Psychological Science, 21, 1818-1826.

Popov, T., Jordanov, T., Rockstroh, B., Elbert, T., Merzenich, M.M., & Miller, G.A. (2011). Specific cognitive training normalizes auditory sensory gating in schizophrenia: A randomized trial. Biological Psychiatry, 69, 465-471.

Popov, T., Jordanov, T., Weisz, N., Elbert, T., Rockstroh, B., & Miller, G.A. (2011). Evoked and induced oscillatory activity contributes to auditory sensory gating in schizophrenia. NeuroImage, 56, 307-314.

Silton, R.L., Heller, W., Towers, D.N., Engels, A.S., Edgar, J.C., Spielberg, J.M., Sass, S.M., Stewart, J.L., Sutton, B.P., Banich, M.T., & Miller, G.A. (In press). Depression and anxiety distinguish frontocingulate cortical activity during top-down attentional control. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 120, 272-285.

Spielberg, J. M., Miller, G. A., Engels, A. S., Herrington, J. D., Sutton, B. P., Banich, M. T., & Heller, W. (2011). Trait approach and avoidance motivation: Lateralized neural activity associated with executive function. NeuroImage, 54, 661-670.

Steffen, A., Rockstroh, B., Wienbruch, C., & Miller, G.A. (2011). Distinct cognitive mechanisms in a gambling task share neural mechanisms. Psychophysiology. (Epub ahead of print, doi: 10.1111)

Hanlon, F.M., Houck, J.M., Pyeatt, C.J., Lundy, L.S., Euler, M.J., Weisend, M.P., Thoma, R.J., Bustillo, J.R., Miller, G.A., & Tesche, C.D. (In press). Bilateral hippocampal dysfunction in schizophrenia. NeuroImage.

Spielberg, J.M., Heller, W., Silton, R.L., Stewart, J.L., & Miller, G.A. (Accepted pending minor revisions). Approach and avoidance profiles distinguish dimensions of anxiety and depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research.