Educational/Research Interests

• Acute and chronic alcohol and drug effects on cognition and neuropsychological processes
• The effects of neurocognitive deficits and recovery on treatment processes and outcomes
• The role of heart rate variability and the baroreflex mechanism in behavioral flexibility
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and cardiovascular assessment as tools to understand substance-related and emotional cue reactivity, craving, and behavioral flexibility
• Translation of basic knowledge about neurocardiac signaling to develop bio-behavioral interventions for substance use disorders that can be used in daily life
• Collaborative research with computational modelers and systems analysts to build ‘body-brain’ precision medicine models of addiction treatment efficacy and prognosis
• Collaborative research with neuroscientists, physiologists, exercise scientists, and community providers to examine the real world utility of our translational science models

Selected Awards and Achievements

Humanitarian of the Year (2019), Empowering Futures, Transforming Communities, Center for Great Expectations, New Brunswick NJ

Fellow, American Psychological Association

Past President, Society of Addiction Psychologists

Standing Member, Clinical, Treatment and Health Services Review Subcommittee (AA-3) of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (N!AAA) Initial Review Group, National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Steering Committee, Mechanisms of Behavior Change Satellite, NIAAA

Member, Board of Trustees, Alcohol Research Documentation, Inc., the not-for-profit corporation managing the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drug

Consulting Editor: Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

Editorial Board: Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

Senior Member, Brain Health Institute, Rutgers Biomedical & Health Sciences

Vice-Chair, Arts and Sciences Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects Involved in Research

Resident Scholar, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies

Vice Chair of Research, Department of Kinesiology and Health

58 Awards to students and junior faculty mentored in the past 19 years

T32 Training Faculty, Molecular Neuroscience of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Training (NIH, PI Sarkar, Aston-Jones)

Research Program continuously supported by the NIH for 23 years

Recent Publications

For a full publications record click here.

     Bates, M.E., Mun, E.Y., Buckman, J. F., Vaschillo, E., Vaschillo, B., Lehrer, P., Udo, T, & Lesnewich, L.M. (2020). Getting to the heart of low sensitivity to alcohol: Context moderates suppressed cardiovascular adaptation to oral alcohol in persons with a family history of alcohol use disorder. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, in press.

     Verdejo-Garcia, A., Lorenzetti, V., Manning, V., Piercy, H. Bruno, R., Hester, R., Pennington, D., Tolomeo, S., Arunogiri, S., Bates, M.E., Bowden-Jones, H., Campanella, S., Daughters, S., Kouimtsidis, C., Lubman, D.I., Meyerhoff, D. J., Ralph, A., Rezapour, T., Tavakoli, H., Zare-Bidoky, M., Zilverstand, A., Steele, J.D., Moeller, S.J., Baldacchino, A. M., Paulus, M.P. & Ekhtiari, H. (2019). A Roadmap for integrating neuroscience into addiction treatment: A consensus of the Neuroscience Interest Group of the International Society of Addiction Medicine. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10:87, doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00877

     Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Buckman, J.F., Islam, S., Pawlak, A., Vaschillo, B., Vaschillo, E.G., & Bates, M.E. (Stage 1 In Principle Acceptance of Registered Report). The cardiovascular mechanisms of interoceptive awareness: Effects of resonance breathing. International Journal of Psychophysiology.

     Buckman, J.F., Vaschillo, B., Vaschillo, E., Epstein, E.E., Nguyen-Louie, T.T., Lesnewich, L.M. & Bates, M.E. (2019). Improvement in Women’s Cardiovascular Functioning during Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder, Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 33, 659-668.

     Bates, M.E., *Lesnewich, L.M., Uhouse, S.G., Gohel, S. & Buckman, J.F. (2019). Resonance paced breathing alters neural response to visual cues: Proof of concept for a neuroscience informed adjunct to addiction treatments. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 5, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00624.

     Lesnewich, L.M., *Conway, F.N., Buckman, J.F., Brush, C.J., Ehmann, P.J., Eddie, D., Olson, R.L., Alderman, B.L. & Bates, M.E. (2019). Associations of depression severity with heart rate and heart rate variability in young adults across normative and clinical populations. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 142, 57-65. PMC6690725

     Alayan, N., *Eddie, D., Eller, L., Bates, M.E. & Carmody, D.P. (2019). Substance craving changes in university students receiving Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback: A longitudinal multilevel modeling approach. Addictive Behaviors, 97, 35-41.

     Brush, C.J., Olson, R.L., Ehmann P.J., Bocchine, A.J., Bates, M.E., Buckman, J.F., Leyro, T.M. & Alderman, B.L. (2019). Lower resting cardiac autonomic balance in young adults with current major depression. Psychophysiology,56. PMC6650364

     Leyro, T. M., Buckman, J. F., & Bates, M. E. (2019). Theoretical implications and clinical support for heart rate variability biofeedback for substance use disorders. Current Opinion in Psychology, 92-97.

     Borges, A.M., Selby, E., Bates, ME., Zvolensky, M., & Leyro, T.M. (2019). Examining the relation between physiological and psychological components of stress reactivity and recovery in cigarette smokers. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 44, 131-141. PMC6506376

     Eddie D, Bates ME, Vaschillo EG, Lehrer PM, Retkwa M & Miuccio M (2018). Rest, Reactivity, and Recovery: A Psychophysiological Assessment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9, 505. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00505 (16 pp.) PMC6199964

     Eddie, D, *Conway, FN, Alayan, N, Buckman, J & Bates, ME. (2018). Assessing Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback as an Adjunct to College Recovery Housing Programs. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 92, 70-76. PMC6123018.

     Alayan, N., Eller, L., Bates, M.E. & Carmody, D.P. (2018). Current evidence on heart rate variability biofeedback as a complementary anti-craving intervention. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 24, 1039-1050. PMC6422009

     Vaschillo, E., Vaschillo, B., Buckman, JF, Heiss, S., Singh, G. & Bates, ME (2018). Early signs of cardiovascular dysregulation in young adult binge drinkers, Psychophysiology, 55. PMC5899634.

     Buckman, J.F., Vaschillo, E.G. Fonoberova, M. Mezic, I. & Bates, M.E. (2018). The Translational Value of Psychophysiology Methods and Mechanisms: Multi-Level, Dynamic, Personalized. [Special Section of Mechanisms of Behavior Change] Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 79, 229-238. 79, 229-238. PMC6019769.

     Mechanisms of Behavior Change Satellite Committee [Bates, M.E. et al.] (2018). Novel approaches to the study of mechanisms of behavior change. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 79, 159-162. PMC29553341