William D. "Scott" Killgore, PhD

Dr. Killgore is a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Medical Imaging and is the Director of the Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Lab in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.  He is a clinical neuropsychologist and research neuroscientist whose research focuses on understanding the brain systems involved in emotional processes and cognitive performance.  For the past decade, his work has focused nearly exclusively on the factors affecting the mental health, wellbeing, and performance of military personnel.  His work combines neurocognitive assessment with state-of-the-art neuroimaging methods to study the role of emotion in complex cognitive processes such as moral judgment, decision-making, and risk-taking.  His work also focuses on how these brain-behavior systems may be affected by environmental and lifestyle factors such as insufficient sleep, nutrition, light exposure, physical activity, and the use of stimulants such as caffeine.  In particular, Dr. Killgore has explored the role of sleep as a mediator of psychological and emotional health and the potential role of insufficient sleep as a contributor to psychiatric disturbance, emotional dysregulation, risk-related behavior, and performance.  He is currently conducting several Department of Defense funded studies aimed at improving sleep and resilience in military personnel.  In particular, current studies focus on assessment and treatment of mild traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), developing statistical models of the stress response, enhancing resilience and emotional intelligence, and improving sleep and cognitive performance through various interventions such as targeted light exposure, caffeine, and neuromodulation with transcranial magnetic stimulation.