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 stress hormones influence neuropsychological function in people.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

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

Carre, JM, Morrissey, MD, Mondloch, CJ, McCormick, CM (in press). Estimating aggression from emotionally neutral faces: Which facial cues are diagnostic? Perception.

Mathews, IZ, Morrissey, MD, McCormick, CM (in press). Individual differences in locomotor activity and amphetamine conditioned place preference in both adolescent and adult rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior.

Mathews IZ, Waters P, McCormick CM (in press) Changes in acute hyporesponsiveness to amphetamine and age differences in tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the brain over adolescence in male and female rats. Developmental Psychobiology.

Carre JM, McCormick CM, Mondloch CJ (in press) Facial structure is a reliable cue of aggressive behavior. Psychological Science.

McCormick CM (in press) An animal model of social stress in adolescence and risk for drugs of abuse. Physiology and Behavior.

Carre JM, Putnam SK, McCormick CM (2009) Testosterone responses to competition predict future aggressive behaviour at a cost to reward in men. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 34: 561-570 .

Rosania A, Low KG, McCormick CM, Rosania DA (2009) Stress, depression, cortisol and periodontal disease. Journal of Periodontology, 80: 260-266 .

Carre JM, McCormick CM (2009) In your face: Facial metrics predict behavioural aggression in the laboratory and in varsity and professional ice hockey players. Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences. 275: 2651-2656.

Walker CD, McCormick CM (in press) Development of the stress axis: Maternal and environmental influences. In A. Arnold et al. (Eds), Hormones, Brain, and Behavior. 2nd edition. Elsevier.

Carre, JM, McCormick CM (2008) Aggressive behavior and change in salivary testosterone concentrations predict willingness to engage in a competitive task. Hormones and Behavior, 54: 403-409 .

Mathews IZ, Wilton A, Styles A, McCormick CM (2008) Heightened neuroendocrine function in males to a heterotypic stressor and increased depressive behaviour in females after adolescent social stress in rats. Behavioural Brain Research. 190: 33-40.

Mathews IZ, Mills R, McCormick CM (2008) Chronic social stress in adolescence influenced both amphetamine conditioned place preference and locomotor sensitization. Developmental Psychobiology, 50: 451-459.

McCormick, C.M., Smith, C., & Mathews, I.Z. (2008). Effects of chronic social stress in adolescence on anxiety and neuroendocrine response to mild stress in male and female rats. Behavioural Brain Research. 187: 228-238.

Mathews, I.Z., McCormick, C.M. (2007). Female and male rats in late adolescence differ from adults in amphetamine-induced locomotor activity, but not in conditioned place preference for amphetamine. Behavioural Pharmacology, 18: 641-650.

McCormick, C.M. (2007). Practicing safe stress: A selective overview of the neuroscience research. In H. Cohen and B. Stemmer (Eds.) Consciousness and Cognition: Fragments of the Mind and Brain, Elsevier.

McCormick, C.M., Lewis, E., Somley, B., Kahan, T.A. (2007). Individual differences in cortisol and performance on a test of executive function in men and women. Physiology and Behavior, 91: 87-94.

McCormick CM, Ibrahim FN (2007) Locomotor sensitization to nicotine and Fos immunooreactivity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus in adolescent socially-stressed rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 86: 92-102.

McCormick CM, Merrick A, Secen J, Helmreich DL (2007) Social instability in adolescence alters central and peripheral HPA responses to a repeated homotypic stressor in male and female rats. Journal of Neuroendocrinology, 19: 116-126.

McCormick, C.M., Mathews, I.Z. (2006). HPA function in adolescence: Role of sex hormones in its regulation and the enduring consequences of exposure to stressors. Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 86: 220-223 .