Dr

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. James M. Beale

Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurobiology

Department of Biological Sciences, UTB/TSC

BACKGROUND / EDUCATION:

Born in Germany in 1965 as an American Air Force brat, James Beale grew up in central Ohio. He graduated from Watkins Memorial High School in Pataskala, Ohio in 1983, and then attended the Ohio State University main campus in Columbus with a partial scholarship from the Ohio Board of Regents. Initially enrolled as a computer science major, James’ interests quickly shifted from computer information processing to human knowledge systems: epistemology, metaphysics, sensation, perception, and cognition. He received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in the fields of Philosophy and Psychology in 1989 – graduating with distinction in Cognitive Science after completing an honors thesis in neuro-linguistics.

James went on to become active in the Cognitive Studies program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York while working toward his doctoral degree in Psychology. During his years at Cornell, James studied psycho-linguistics and cognitive psychology, and furthered his knowledge of neural function through both coursework in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and research on neuro-physiological changes during early cortical development. He also took part in the 1990 McDonnell Foundation Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience run by Dr. Michael Gazzaniga at Dartmouth College and Medical School.

Dr. James M. Beale received his Ph.D. in Experimental Cognitive Psychology from Cornell University in 1996, with specialization in visual cognition and the cortical pathways underlying object recognition and face perception.

As a multi-disciplinary cognitive scientist, Dr. Beale has published research addressing a range of issues in developmental neurobiology, computational neuroscience, neuro-linguistics, visual perception and cognition, and social cognition.

CURRENT RESEARCH:

Dr. Beale’s primary research focus at present is a community-based survey assessing the incidence of dementia (including Alzheimer’s Disease) among the Mexican-American Hispanic-majority population in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Factors of interest in this study include: degree of cognitive function/impairment, anxiety, depression, age, sex, education, and literacy in both Spanish and English. This project is being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Joseph McCormick and Dr. Susan Fisher-Hoch of the UT-Houston School of Public Health and the Hispanic Health Research Center (HHRC) on the UT-Brownsville campus.

Dr. Beale’s other current research collaborations include: an examination of the behavioral and neurobiological effects of long-term exposure to cell-phone microwave radiation in rats (with Dr. Fabio Urbani, UTB Dept. of Engineering; Dr. Luis Colom and Dr. Emilio Garrido-Sanabria, UTB Dept. of Biology), and a study of the relationship between chess expertise, language proficiency, and academic performance among children within the Brownsville Independent School District (with Dr. Sylvia Pena and Dr. John Sutterby, UTB Dept. of Education).

TEACHING INTERESTS:

While pursuing his diverse interests in the Cognitive Sciences, Dr. Beale still considers himself to be a philosopher at heart – continually striving to better comprehend the underlying mechanisms that allow for the wide range of human and animal behavior, and seeking to instill in his students the same appreciation for fundamental neurobiological principles.

Dr. Beale’s teaching interests currently include courses in general biology, neurobiology and behavior, neural development, sensory neuroscience, animal behavior, and cognitive neurobiology.