RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research interests are in the fields of behavioural neuroscience and developmental neuroendocrinology. I investigate how environmental experiences (e.g., exposure to social stressors, hormones, malnutrition) either prenatally, neonatally, or during adolescence, alter cognitive and emotional behaviour in adulthood in laboratory rats. I also investigate the physiological and neurochemical underpinnings of the effects of early life experiences, as well as how the early experiences alter the animal's vulnerability to addictive drugs. Related research areas of mine are the investigation sex differences in the effects of early experiences, and how the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress response is influenced by the actions of sex hormones in the brain. A third research interest is how hormones (testosterone, cortisol, estradiol) influence neuropsychological function in people.

A SELECTION OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS: (students in BOLD)

For a complete list of publications, visit: http://www.psyc.brocku.ca/research/mccormicklab-nw/publications.html.

McCormick CM (2013) Watch where and how you stick pins when playing with voodoo correlations. Journal of General Psychology. 140: 1-5.

McCormick CM, Green MR, Cameron NM, Nixon F, Levy MJ, Clark RA (in press) Deficits in male sexual behaviour in adulthood after social instability stress in adolescence in rats. Hormones and Behavior.

McCormick CM, Green MR (in press) From the stressed adolescent to the anxious and depressed adult: Investigations in rodent models. Neuroscience.

Green MR, McCormick CM (in press) Effects of stressors in adolescence on learning and memory in rodent models. Hormones and Behavior.

Cote KA, McCormick CM, Geniole SN, Renn RP, MacAuley S (in press) Sleep deprivation lowers reactive aggression and testosterone in men. Biological Psychology.

Green MR, Barnes B, McCormick CM (in press) Social instability stress in adolescence increases anxiety and reduces social interactions in adulthood in male Long Evans rats. Developmental Psychobiology.

Geniole SN, Keyes AE, Mondloch CJ, Carre JM, McCormick CM (2012) Facing aggression: Cues differ for male and female faces. PLoS ONE.  7: e30366.

Mathews IZ, McCormick CM (in press) Role of medial prefrontal cortex dopamine in age differences in response to amphetamine in rats: Locomotor activity after intra-mPFC injections of dopaminergic ligans.Developmental Neurobiology.

Waters P, McCormick CM (2012) Caveats of chronic exogenous corticosterone treatments in adolescent rats and effects on anxiety-like and depressive behaviour and HPA function. Biology of Mood and Anxiety Disorders. 1:4, 1-13.

Short LA, Mondloch CJ, McCormick CM, Carre JM, Ma R, Fu G, Lee K (2012) Detection of propensity for aggression based on facial structure irrespective of face race. Evolution and Human Behavior. 33: 121-129.

McCormick CM, Thomas CM, Sheridan CS, Nixon F, Flynn JA, Mathews IZ (2012) Social instability stress in adolescent male rats alters hippocampal neurogenesis and produces a deficit in spatial location memory in adulthood. Hippocampus. 22:1300-1312.