BIO

Jay is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona where he co-directs the SEMA (Sonication Enhanced Mindful Awareness) lab with Shinzen Young. SEMA lab investigates how mindfulness practice impacts the brain and behavior, and whether focused ultrasound neuromodulation can augment mindfulness practice. He is also the Assistant Director at the Center for Consciousness Studies at Arizona.

Jay received his PhD in Cognition and Neural Systems in 2014 from the University of Arizona. His doctoral research focused on neural oscillations related to visual perception and feedback models of vision. He used several methods to study visual perception, including EEG, eye-tracking, and unconscious masking.

During his graduate training, he also used invasive and noninvasive neurostimulation to study a wide range of topics, including cognitive control, attention, working memory, emotion and mood. Jay has been at the forefront of the growing field of

transcranial ultrasound for human neurostimulation, conducting one of the first human experiments to date showing that ultrasound can enhance mood in healthy participants. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, he used concurrent EEG-fMRI to study the neural basis of depression.

From 2016-2018, Jay was a postdoctoral fellow for the Army Research Labs, where he investigated neuromodulation and mindfulness training. Jay is also the Assistant Director for the Center for Consciousness Studies, which runs the largest conference on the study of consciousness.

Click here for Jay's CV.