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Director
Educational Background
On Teaching
My enthusiasm for teaching stems from an exceptional group of mentors, from whom I learned to think critically, communicate clearly, and seek connections between diverse ideas, disciplines, and communities. These skills and values have served as the foundation of my research career and have shaped my teaching philosophy. As an Instructor, I strive to create a collaborative classroom in which conceptual knowledge, experiential learning, and active inquiry come together to facilitate student success. I am a proponent of听learning by doing, which provides a connection for the material discussed in the classroom to a tangible, applied, or feedback-driven outcome, and place considerable emphasis on teaching through demonstrations, discussing clinical case studies, and reviewing cutting-edge research relating to classroom topics. I have 15+ years of experience teaching at the professional, undergraduate, and high school levels, and am most passionate about preparing the next generation of STEM leaders through our work at the SSMV.
Research
I am a cognitive and behavioral neuroscientist who uses neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI) to study the neural mechanisms underlying compulsive cue-induced behaviors, such as nicotine addiction and obesity. My research is focused around a central theme of emotional stimulus processing, using both psychophysiological and behavioral measures to assess motivational and attentional processes in humans. I am interested in how salient cues in the environment capture attention and influence behavior, and have extended this work to populations whose behavior is particularly sensitive to environmental cues, including smokers and individuals with obesity. I expect that a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying nicotine dependence and obesity will lead to more effective smoking cessation treatments and weight-control interventions, inform regulatory policy and treatment practice, and reduce the substantial economic and health consequences associated with smoking and obesity.听
In partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, I run a small psychophysiology research lab to facilitate SSMV student learning and exposure to electroencephalography (EEG) and behavioral research.
Grant Funding
- Students Are Scientists: An inquiry-based curriculum on technology鈥檚 impact on neurocognitive mechanisms of attention and memory. Dana Foundation, 2026-2027.听Role: Co-Principal Investigator.
- Unearthing Nashville: Digging Deeper and Preserving the Past. Community Engagement Collaboration Fund, 91吃瓜网鈥檚 Division of Government and Community Relations, 2024 鈥� 2025.听Role: Principal Investigator.
- 91吃瓜网 AUD Research and Education Center (VAREC), P60 RFA-AA-21-006, NIAAA, PI: Erin Calipari, 3/24/2024-10/31-2028.听Role: Co-Investigator, Dissemination Core.
- Using Accelerometers and Video Analysis to Study Sport-Related Concussions in Adolescent Athletes, 2020 Nashville Predators Foundation Grant, 8/1/2021 鈥� 2/26/2022.听Role: Principal Investigator.
Publications
- ,听,听,听,听, and听2026).听鈥淵oung Scholar[s] on the Beat鈥�: Multimodal Composition as a Form of Critical AI Literacy Pedagogy.鈥澨�Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy听70, no.听2: e70064.听.
- Versace听F,听Green听CE,听Cui听Y,听Robinson听JD,听Deweese M.M., Minnix JA, Kypriotakis, G, Kim, S, Karam-Hage, M, and Cinciripini, PM (2026). Personalizing smoking cessation pharmacotherapy using neuroaffective reactivity profiles: A randomized controlled trial. Addiction. 2026;121(7):1888鈥�1898.听听
- Stein, G., Jean, D., Kittani, S.,听Deweese, M.M., & L茅deczi, 脕. (2025). A Novice-Friendly and Accessible Networked Educational Robotics Simulation Platform.听Education Sciences,听15(2), 198.听
- Deweese, M.M., Roof, E., and Key, A.P. (2023). Food cue reward salience does not explain hyperphagia in adolescents with Prader-Willi syndrome,听Developmental Neuropsychology,听48:7,听335-346,听
- Versace, F., Sambuco, N.,听Deweese, M.M.,听and Cinciripini, P.M. (2022). Electrophysiological normative responses to emotional, neutral, and cigarette-related images. Psychophysiology听60.3 (2023): e14196,听
- Grover, S., Oster, J., Ledeczi, A., Broll, B., &听Deweese, M. M.听(2022). Climate Science, Data Science and Distributed Computing to Build Teen Students' Positive Perceptions of CS. In听Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2听(pp. 1101-1101).
- Deweese, M.M.,听Versace, F., Kypriotakis, G., Dirba, D., Daniel, C. R., & Schembre, S. M. (2021). Satiety does not affect neuroaffective electrophysiological responses to food-related or emotional visual cues.听Behavioral Neuroscience, 135(4), 571鈥�580.听
- Frank, D.W., Cinciripini, P.M.,听Deweese, M.M., Karam-Hage, M., Kypriotakis, G., Lerman, C., Robinson, J.D., Tyndale, R.F., Vidrine, D.J. and Versace, F., 2019. Toward Precision Medicine for Smoking Cessation: Developing a Neuroimaging-Based Classification Algorithm to Identify Smokers at Higher Risk for Relapse.听Nicotine & Tobacco Research.听
- Versace, F., Frank, D. W., Stevens, E. M.,听Deweese, M. M., Guindani, M., & Schembre, S. M. (2019). The reality of 鈥渇ood porn鈥�: Larger brain responses to food鈥恟elated cues than to erotic images predict cue鈥恑nduced eating.听Psychophysiology,听56(4), e13309.听
- Stevens, E.M., Frank, D., Codispoti, M., Kypriotakis, G., Cinciripini, P.M., Claiborne, K.,听Deweese, M.M., Engelmann, J.M., Green, C.E., Karam-Hage, M., Minnix, J.A., Ng, J., Robinson, J.D., Tyndale, R.F., Vidrine, D.J., and Versace, F. (2019). The late positive potentials evoked by cigarette-related and emotional images show no gender differences in smokers.听,听9(1), pp.1-8.
- Versace, F., Stevens, E. M., Robinson, J. D., Cui, Y.,听Deweese, M. M., Engelmann, J. M.,听Green, C. E., Karam-Hage, M, Lam, C. Y.,听Minnix, J.听A.,听Wetter, D.W., and听Cinciripini, P. M.听(2019).听Brain Responses to Cigarette-Related and Emotional Images in Smokers During Smoking Cessation: No Effect of Varenicline or Bupropion on the Late Positive Potential.听Nicotine and Tobacco Research,听21(2), 234-240.听
- Deweese, M.M.,听Codispoti, M., Robinson, J.D., Cinciripini, P.M., and Versace, F. (2018). Cigarette cues capture attention of smokers and never-smokers, but for different reasons. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 185:50-57. doi:听.
- Versace, F., Engelmann, J.M.,听Deweese, M.M., Robinson, J.D., Green, C.E., Lam, C.Y., Minnix, J.A., Karam-Hage M.A., Wetter, D.W., Schembre, S.M., and Cinciripini, P.M. (2017). Beyond cue reactivity: Non-drug-related motivationally relevant stimuli are necessary to understanding reactivity to drug-related cues. Nicotine and Tobacco Research.听
- Deweese, M.M., M眉ller, M.M., and Keil, A. (2016). Extent and Time Course of Competition in Visual Cortex between Emotionally Arousing Distractors and a Concurrent Task. European Journal of Neuroscience. doi:听
- Deweese, M.M., Robinson, J.D., Cinciripini, P.M., and Versace, F. (2016). Conditioned cortical reactivity to cues predicting cigarette-related or pleasant images. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 101:59-68.听.
- Deweese, M.M., Claiborne, K.N., Ng, J., Dirba, D.D., Stewart, H.L., Schembre, S.M., and Versace, F. (2015) Dispensing apparatus for use in a cued food delivery task. MethodsX.听
- Simon, E., Oren, N., Sharon, H., Kirschner , A., Goldway, N., Okon-Singer, H., Tauman, R.,听Deweese, M.M.,听Keil, A.,听 and Hendler, T. (2015). Losing neutrality: the neural basis of impaired emotional control without sleep. Journal of Neuroscience,听35(38):13194-13205;听doi:
- McGinnis Deweese, M.,听Bradley, M.M., Lang, P.J., Andersen, S.K., M眉ller, M.M., & Keil, A. (2014). Snake fearfulness is associated with sustained competitive biases to visual snake features: Hypervigilance without avoidance. Psychiatry Research. doi:听
- Liu, Y., Huang, H.,听McGinnis Deweese, E.M.,听Keil, A., & Ding, M. (2012). Neural substrate of the late positive potential in emotional processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(42):14563-72. doi:听.
- Keil A., Costa V., Smith J.C., Sabatinelli D.,听McGinnis E.M.,听Bradley M.M., Lang P.J. (2011). Tagging Cortical Networks in Emotion: A Topographical Analysis, Human Brain Mapping. doi:听.
- McGinnis E.M.听& Keil A. (2011). Selective Processing of Multiple Features in the Human Brain: Effects of Feature Type and Salience. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16824. doi:.