Biography

UNLV psychology professor and neuroscientist James Hyman leads the Hyman in vivo Electrophysiology (HivE) Lab. The lab studies neural interactions related to learning, emotion, behavior, time tracking, cognitive flexibility, and memory, and the effects of neurodegenerative and other diseases on these processes.

His most recent work has focused on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and hippocampus — which are integral for memory and cognitive processing, are affected early in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and represent areas of therapeutic interest for a host of illnesses. For example, one study unraveled how high blood sugar and glucose levels associated with Type 2 diabetes weakened function in these two key parts of the brain. Another study analyzed changes in brain activity patterns to determine how the ACC tracks the passage of time over a span of just a few minutes to hours.

Additionally, Hyman has made several notable discoveries, including hippocampal-prefrontal theta interactions, multiple neural prediction error signals in the ACC, and ACC-led interactions with the hippocampus during long-term memory recall.

Hyman's research has been published in many prominent journals, including Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, Cell Reports, Current Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Neuroscience. And his work has gathered national media attention from outlets including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Gizmodo, Neuroscience News, Medical News Today, and KNPR. Hyman also regularly pens a contributor column for Psychology Today.