David Evans, PhD

Dr. Evans’ work seeks to understand the effects of nicotine on attention and related cognitive processes.  The capacity to pay attention is important and necessary for the efficient completion of daily tasks, and some smokers may find smoking more reinforcing because of nicotine’s capacity to enhance attentional control. Dr. Evans is currently working on funded projects that examine genetic moderation of the effects of nicotine on attention and related cognitive processes.  Preliminary findings from these studies suggest that brain chemical-related genetic variants may moderate the effects of nicotine on neural indices of attentional control.  Individuals with genetic variants associated with suboptimal brain activity may experience greater cognitive benefits from nicotine, suggesting nicotine self medication of cognitive processing.  This research program may contribute to the development of tailored behavioral and/or pharmacotherapy treatment programs that target individual smoker characteristics (e.g., smokers with attentional deficits).

• Macqueen DA, Heckman BW, Blank MD, Janse Van Rensburg K, Park JY, Drobes DJ, Evans DE. Variation in the α 5 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit gene predicts cigarette smoking intensity as a function of nicotine content. Pharmacogenomics J. 2013 Jan. Pubmedid: 23358500.
• Mun J, Tam C, Chan G, Kim JH, Evans D, Fleiszig S. MicroRNA-762 Is Upregulated in Human Corneal Epithelial Cells in Response to Tear Fluid and Pseudomonas aeruginosa Antigens and Negatively Regulates the Expression of Host Defense Genes Encoding RNase7 and ST2. PLoS One. 2013;8(2):e57850. Pubmedid: 23469087.
• Macqueen DA, Heckman BW, Blank MD, Janse Van Rensburg K, Evans DE, Drobes DJ. Transient compensatory smoking in response to placebo cigarettes. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Sep;223(1):47-54. Pubmedid: 22427021.
• Evans DE, Craig C, Oliver JA, Drobes DJ. The Smoking N-Back: A Measure of Biased Cue Processing at Varying Levels of Cognitive Load. Nicotine Tob Res. 2011 Feb;13(2):88-93. Pubmedid: 21127029.
• Hitsman B, Shen BJ, Cohen RA, Morissette SB, Drobes DJ, Spring B, Schneider K, Evans DE, Gulliver SB, Kamholz BW, Price LH, Niaura R. Measuring smoking-related preoccupation and compulsive drive: evaluation of the obsessive compulsive smoking scale. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2010 Sep;211(4):377-387. Pubmedid: 20582399. Pmcid: PMC2908436.
• Evans DE, Rothbart MK. A Two-Factor Model of Temperament. Pers Individ Dif. 2009 Oct;47(6):565-570. Pubmedid: 20161172. Pmcid: PMC2722842.
• Evans DE, Park JY, Maxfield N, Drobes DJ. Neurocognitive variation in smoking behavior and withdrawal: genetic and affective moderators. Genes Brain Behav. 2009 Feb;8(1):86-96. Pubmedid: 19220487.
• Evans D, Drobes D. Nicotine self-medication of cognitive-attentional processing. Addict Biol. 2009 Jan;14(1):32-42. Pubmedid: 18855804.
• Drobes D, Elibero A, Evans D. Attentional bias for smoking and affective stimuli: a stroop task study. Psychol Addict Behav. 2006 Dec;20(4):490-495. Pubmedid: 17176185.
• Posner MI, Rothbart MK, Vizueta N, Levy KN, Evans DE, Thomas KM, Clarkin JF. Attentional mechanisms of borderline personality disorder. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Dec;99(25):16366-16370. Pubmedid: 12456876. Pmcid: PMC138617.
• Rothbart MK, Ahadi SA, Evans DE. Temperament and personality: origins and outcomes. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000 Jan;78(1):122-135. Pubmedid: 10653510.
• Davis J, Banks I, Wrigley D, Peedell C, Pollock A, McPherson K, McKee M, Irving WL, Crome P, Greenhalgh T, Holland W, Evans D, Maryon-Davis A, Smyth A, Fleming P, Coleman M, Sharp DJ, Whincup P, Logan S, Cook D, Moore R, Rawaf S, McEewen J, West R, Yudkin JS, Clarke A, Finer N, Domizio P, Bambra C, Jones A, Feder G, Scott-Samuel A, Irvine L, Sharma A, Fitchett M, Boomla K, Folb J, Paul A, McCoy D, Tallis R, Burgess-Allen J, Edwards M, Tomlinson J, Colvin D, Gore J, Brown K, Mitchel S, Lau A, Sayer M, Clark L, Silverman R, Marmot S, Rainbow D, Carter L, Mann N, Fielding R, Logan J, Tebboth L, Arnold N, Stobbart K, Cabot K, Finer S, Edwards M, Davies D, Buttivant H, Kraemer S, Newell J, Griffiths A, Fitzgerald R, Macgibbon R, Lee A, Macklon AF, Hobson E, Jenner D, Jacobson B, Timmis A, Salim A, Evans-Jones J, Caan W, Awsare N, Pride N, Suckling R, Bratty C, Rossiter B, Hawkins D, Currie J, Camilleri-Ferrante C, Fluxman J, Bhatti O, Anson J, Etherington R, Lawrence D, Fell H, Clarke E, Ormerod J, Ormerod O, Ireland M, Duncan JA, Chandy R, Mindell J, Mullen P, Bennett-Richards P, Hirst J, Murphy E, Martin P, Lowes S, Fleming P, Grunewald R, Reeve J, Schweiger M, Coates J, Farrelly G, Chamberlain MA, Lewis G, Young J, Scott B, Gibbs J, Landers A, Deveson P, Ingrams G, Leigh M, Gawler J, Ford A, Nixon J, McCartney M, Bareford D, Singh S, Lockwood K, Cripwell M, Ehrhardt P, Bell D, Wortley P, Tomlinson L, Hotchkiss J, Ford S, Turner G, Reissman G, Lewis D, Johnstone C, Tomson M ...