James A. Waltz

James A. Waltz, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Principal Investigator of the IDRIS lab at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) in Catonsville, Maryland. His federally-funded program uses behavioral experiments, functional neuroimaging, and computational modeling to understand how disturbances in reinforcement learning and reward processing give rise to the motivational and cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia.

Education & Training

• BA, Psychology (Cognitive Science), Yale University (1994)
• MA, Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience), University of California, Los Angeles (1995)
• PhD, Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience), UCLA (1999)
• Post-doctoral Fellow, Neurophysiology Department, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany (1999–2004)
• Post-doctoral Fellow, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (2004–2006)

Research Interests

Dr. Waltz’s work centers on the neural and computational mechanisms of reinforcement learning and decision-making, with a translational focus on schizophrenia. His lab combines functional MRI, EEG, eye-tracking, and computational modeling to dissect how abnormalities in dopaminergic reward circuits—particularly fronto-striatal networks—contribute to anhedonia, avolition, and other negative symptoms of psychotic illness. Current projects examine (1) altered reward-prediction-error signaling in striatal and cortical regions; (2) effort-cost computations and motivational impairment; and (3) cognitive flexibility deficits and their relationship to delusions and hallucinations.

Ongoing clinical protocols recruit first-degree relatives, patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder, and healthy volunteers to probe the impact of stress, genetics, and antipsychotic medications on reward processing and learning.

Scientific Awards & Honors

• National Research Service Award, NIH (1998–1999)
• Joseph A. Gingerelli Award for Distinguished Dissertation, UCLA (1999)
• H. McKee Jarboe Award for Outstanding Research in Psychiatry, UMSOM (2009)
• Young Investigator Mentor, International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (2013)

Funding & Collaborations

Dr. Waltz’s research is supported by an NIH R01 grant (R01MH094460) and is conducted in close collaboration with the Gold CANS Lab at MPRC, the Neuroimaging Research Branch at NIDA (Dr. Elliot Stein), and the Section of Human Neurogenetics at NIAAA (Dr. David Goldman). The IDRIS lab is embedded within MPRC’s Center for Brain Imaging Research (CBIR), which houses a 3-Tesla Siemens Trio MRI scanner, 64-channel EEG suites, and eye-tracking facilities.

Advising & Team

The laboratory trains a continuum of researchers, from undergraduate volunteers through post-doctoral fellows. Current trainees include Adam J. Culbreth, PhD (Assistant Professor), Jacob Nudelman, BS (Senior Clinical Research Assistant), Elie Holzel, BA, and Safa Riaz, BA. Lab alumni have progressed to faculty positions at Charité Medical University, Maastricht University, KU Leuven, and Northwestern University.