John JB Allen

John JB Allen

Professor, Psychology
Distinguished Professor
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Member of the General Faculty
Professor, Neuroscience - GIDP
Member of the General Faculty
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-7448

Work Summary

Depression is a major health problem that is often chronic or recurrent. Existing treatments have limited effectiveness, and are provided wihtout a clear indication that they will match a particular patient's needs. In this era of precision medicine, we strive to develop neurally-informed treatments for depression and related disorders.

Research Interest

Dr. Allen’s research spans several areas, but the main focus is the etiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. His work focuses on identifying risk factors for depression using electroencephalographic and autonomic psychophysiological measures, especially EEG asymmetry, resting state fMRI connectivity, and cardiac vagal control. Based on these findings, he is developing novel and neurally-informed treatments for mood and anxiety disorders, including Transcranial Ultrasound, EEG biofeedback, and Transcranial Direct Current and Transcranial Alternating Current stimulation. Other work includes understanding how emotion and emotional disorders influence the way we make decisions and monitor our actions. Keywords: Depression, Neuromodulation, EEG, Resting-state fMRI

Publications

Schnyer, R. N., Chambers, A. S., Hitt, S. K., Moreno, F. A., Manber, R., & J., J. (2007). Ms. Schnyer and colleagues reply [2]. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68(10), 1617-1618.
Accortt, E. E., Freeman, M. P., & Allen, J. J. (2008). Women and major depressive disorder: Clinical perspectives on causal pathways. Journal of Women's Health, 17(10), 1583-1590.

PMID: 19049352;Abstract:

Background and aims: Epidemiological data on the prevalence of mood disorders demonstrate that major depressive disorder (MDD) is approximately twice as common in women as in men and that its first onset peaks during the reproductive years. We aimed to review key social, psychological, and biological factors that seem strongly implicated in the etiology of major depression and to focus on sex-specific aspects of depression, such as the role of a woman's reproductive life cycle in depressive symptomatology. Methods: A review of the literature, from 1965 to present, was conducted. Results: An integrated etiological model best explains gender and sex differences in depression. Social, psychological, and biological variables must be simultaneously taken into account. These vulnerabilities include (but are not limited to) gender-specific roles in society, life stress such as trauma, a tendency toward ruminative coping strategies, and the effects of sex hormones and genetic factors. Conclusions: To effectively treat MDD in women and to prevent the recurrence of illness in vulnerable women, clinicians must understand the sex-specific aspects of mood disorders over the longitudinal course of women's reproductive lives. A biopsychosocial approach should, therefore, be the main focus of future research and practice, to eventually result in an integrated etiological model of depression in women. Based on the prevalence of MDD in women, timely screening, diagnosis, and intervention should be public health priorities. © 2008 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Allen, J., Trujillo, L. T., Peterson, M. A., Kaszniak, A. W., & Allen, J. J. (2005). EEG phase synchrony differences across visual perception conditions may depend on recording and analysis methods. Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, 116(1).

(1) To investigate the neural synchrony hypothesis by examining if there was more synchrony for upright than inverted Mooney faces, replicating a previous study; (2) to investigate whether inverted stimuli evoke neural synchrony by comparing them to a new scrambled control condition, less likely to produce face perception.

Harmon-Jones, E., & J., J. (1997). Behavioral activation sensitivity and resting frontal EEG asymmetry: Covariation of putative indicators related to risk for mood disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(1), 159-163.

PMID: 9103728;Abstract:

Dispositional tendencies toward appetitive motivation have been hypothesized to be related to the development of psychopathology. Moreover, decreased left-frontal cortical activity has been reported in depression and has been related to low-trait positive affect and high-trait negative affect. The present study tested the hypothesis that relatively greater left- than right-frontal cortical activity would be related to heightened approach- related dispositional tendencies. Resting frontal cortical asymmetrical activity, as measured by electroencephalographic activity in the alpha band, was examined in relation to the motivational response tendencies of a behavioral activation system (BAS) and a behavioral inhibition system (BIS), as measured by C. S. Carver and T. L. White's (1994) BIS-BAS self-report questionnaire. Results supported the hypothesis.

Allen, J. J., Keune, P. M., Sch\"onenberg, M., & Nusslock, R. (2018). Frontal EEG alpha asymmetry and emotion: From neural underpinnings and methodological considerations to psychopathology and social cognition. Psychophysiology, 55(1).