Eric Rawls

Cognitive control – the ability to guide thoughts and actions toward our goals – relies on continuous assessments of the costs and benefits of exerting mental effort. Disruptions in these valuation processes are central to substance use disorders (SUDs), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). My work aims to pinpoint how maladaptive valuation intersects with compromised cognitive control to give rise to these disorders, particularly when trauma and addiction co-occur. I then translate these findings into neuromodulation-based interventions, with a strong emphasis on addressing the health disparities faced by underserved groups, including military service members and veterans.

Grounded in computational psychiatry, my research incorporates EEG and fMRI with computational modeling and causal discovery machine learning, linking neural mechanisms to real-world outcomes. By integrating data from large, representative cohorts (e.g., VA populations, twin-family studies), I map how valuation and control processes become perturbed and how targeted interventions might restore them. My overarching aim is to reduce the personal and societal toll of mental illness, especially among populations that have historically been overlooked in clinical research.