Dr. Tara White is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health at Brown Medical School. Dr. White has strong research interests in the biological bases of personality and temperament, and is interested in the differences between people in effects of alcohol and drugs on mood, behavior, and brain function. Her research is conducted at the Brown University Tim Trio 3 tesla MRI facility in Sidney Frank Hall and at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.

Biography

Brief Bio

Dr. White is an Assistant Professor in Community Health at Brown University. She received her PhD from Cornell University in 1998, pursued postdoctoral training in long-term effects of prenatal drug exposure using animal models at Cornell from 1998 to 2000, and completed postdoctoral training in human behavioral psychopharmacology at the University of Chicago in 2002 and neuroimaging methods at the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2001. She has taught undergraduate, graduate and extension courses in the neural bases of emotion and drug effects at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Chicago's Graham School of General Studies. Dr. White joined the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies as research faculty in July 2002.

Dr. White's research interests concern the biological bases of individual differences in personality and acute drug effects, with an emphasis on identifying brain mechanisms conferring vulnerability to psychostimulant use and abuse in healthy, nonaddicted populations. Dr. White is PI on a Center Research Excellence Award (REA) grant and a NIDA Imaging-Science Track Award for Research Transition (I/START) and a NIDA R01 grant to investigate the neural mechanisms of individual differences in the impulsive behavioral and emotional effects of moderate doses of psychostimulants. Recent publications have focused on menstrual cycle variation in psychostimulant effects, and the noradrenergic mediation of emotional traits in humans. Her work has been presented at annual meetings of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), College of Problems in Drug Dependence (CPDD), the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Study Group Investigating Drugs as Reinforcers (ISGIDAR) and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). Dr. White has co-authored the book The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next with colleagues in human development at Cornell and serves as reviewer for journals Addiction; Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research; Biological Psychiatry; Drug and Alcohol Dependence; Journal of Psychopharmacology; Journal of Studies on Alcohol; Memory & Cognition; Neuropsychopharmacology; Neuroscience; Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior; Psychology of Addictive Behaviors; and Psychopharmacology.

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Institutions

BH-A

Research Description

Investigation of between-person differences in mood, behavior, physiological responses, and fMRI imaging in healthy volunteers.

Awards

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 1994-97.
Jacob K. Javits' Fellowship (awarded; declined), 1993.
Olin Fellowship, 1994-98.
Sage Fellowship, 1993-94.
NIDA Director's Travel Award, National Institute on Drug Abuse, June 2002.
NIDA Early Career Investigator Award, "Frontiers in Addiction Research", Oct 2004.

Affiliations

Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University
Department of Community Health, Brown University
Brain Science Program (BSP), Brown University

Funded Research

1. Memory in young children, Honors Research Grant, Cornell University, College of Human Ecology. 1992-93. Co-Investigator.
2. Pupil dilation and negative affect. Graduate Research Grant, Cornell University, College of Human Ecology.
$10,800 direct costs; 1994 -1996. Predoctoral Investigator.
3. Imaging Individual Differences in Amphetamine Effects, Research Excellence Award, Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University. $15,227 direct costs; May 1, 2003 – November 30, 2004. Principal Investigator.
4. Amphetamine effects on emotion and behavior assessed by fMRI.
Ittleson Foundation Flexible Fund for Brain Research, Brown University. $13,230 direct costs for fMRI scan time; August 1, 2003 – July 31, 2004. Principal Investigator.
5. Imaging Individual Differences in Amphetamine Effects. Imaging – Science Track Award for Research Transition (I/START). National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 1 R03 DA017178-01. $232,861 total costs; $150,000 direct costs; September 10, 2003 – April 30, 2006. Principal Investigator.
6. Effect of Mood on Impulsivity Among Adolescent Smokers. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 1R21DA018942-01. $426,250 total costs; $275,000 direct costs; September 30, 2004 – August 31, 2006. Co-Investigator.
7. Acquisition of a 3T MRI System. National Science Foundation (NSF: BCS Major Research Instrumentation).
$2,000,000 direct costs. (PI: Sanes, J); funded June 9, 2005. Senior Investigator.
8. Imaging Individual Differences in Drug Effects. RO1. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 1-R01-DA 020725-01A2.
$1,440,303 total costs; $941,610 direct costs; August 15, 2007 – May 31, 2011. Principal Investigator.

Teaching Experience

Neurobiology of personality
Psychopharmacology
Drugs and the brain

Courses Taught

• Special Topics in Psychology (PY0197)

Selected Publications

• White, T.L., Lott, D., & de Wit, H. (2006). Personality and the subjective effects of acute amphetamine in healthy volunteers. Neuropsychopharmacology, 31(5):1064-74. Online publication date September 14, 2005; http://www.acnp.org/citations/NPP091405050197/default.pdf.(2006)
• White, T.L., Grover, V.K., & de Wit, H. (2006; under review). Cortisol effects of D-amphetamine relate to traits of fearlessness and aggression but not anxiety in healthy humans. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior.(2006)
• Gendle, M.H., White, T.L., Strawderman, M.S., Mactutus, C.F., Booze, R.M., Levitsky, D.A., & Strupp, B.J. (2004). Enduring effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on selective attention and reactivity to errors: Evidence from an animal model. Behavioral Neuroscience, 118 (2): 290-7.(2004)
• White, T.L., Justice, A.J.H., & de Wit, H. (2002). Differential subjective effects of d-amphetamine by gender, hormone levels and menstrual cycle phase. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior. 73(4):729-41.(2002)
• Morrone, J.V., Depue, R.A., Scherer, A.J., & White, T.L. (2000). Film-induced incentive motivation and positive activation in relation to agentic and affiliative components of extraversion. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 199-216.(2000)
• White, T.L. & Depue, R.A. (1999). Differential association of traits of fear and anxiety with norepinephrine- and dark-induced pupil reactivity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 863-877.(1999)
• White, T.L., Leichtman, M.D., & Ceci, S.J. (1997). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Accuracy, inaccuracy, and elaboration in preschoolers' reports about a past event. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11, S37-S54.(1997)
• Bronfenbrenner, U., McClelland, P., Wethington, E., Moen, P., Ceci, S.J., Hembrooke, H., Morris, P.A., & White, T.L. (1996). The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next. New York: The Free Press.(1996)
• White, T.L., & Wethington, E. (1996). Youth: Changing beliefs and behaviors. In U. Bronfenbrenner, P. McClelland, E. Wethington, P. Moen, S.J. Ceci, H. Hembrooke, P.A. Morris, & T.L. White, The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next. (pp.1-29). New York: The Free Press.(1996)