Matthew McGinley

Matthew McGinley, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and faculty at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital. His laboratory investigates how neural networks process sensory information to make sense of the world and guide behavior.

• B.S. in Physics and Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2002)
• M.S. in Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004)
• Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Oregon Health & Science University (2010)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Neuroscience, Yale University (2015)

Dr. McGinley's research focuses on neural mechanisms of auditory perceptual decision making behaviors in mice. His lab primarily uses whole-cell recording and two-photon imaging in head-fixed mice while they perform auditory perceptual decision-making tasks. They also employ computational approaches, optogenetics, multi-channel extracellular recording, pupillometry, and histological methods. His three main research projects investigate: 1) Neuromodulatory mechanisms of attentional effort; 2) Improved perceptual learning with peripheral nerve stimulation; and 3) Brain circuits for navigation in acoustic virtual reality.

Analysis of Dr. McGinley's recent publications reveals a consistent research trajectory focused on the relationship between brain state, arousal, and sensory processing. His work demonstrates how pupil-linked neuromodulation, particularly cholinergic and noradrenergic systems, influence perceptual decision making across species. Recent publications increasingly explore therapeutic applications of these findings, particularly in the areas of attention disorders and neural stimulation therapies.

Dr. McGinley has secured significant research funding including an R03 grant from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders for studying the neuromodulatory mechanisms of listening effort (2016-2019) and funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for targeted neuroplasticity training (2017-2021). His laboratory is also supported by the Cain Foundation Laboratories.

The McGinley Lab operates within the Duncan Neurological Research Institute, leveraging state-of-the-art facilities including the In vivo Neurophysiology Core and Optogenetics and Viral Vectors Core. The lab has recently collaborated with Caleb Kemere on a research seed grant from the John S. Dunn Collaborative Research Awards to develop a platform for neuroscience experiments involving mice navigating virtual reality environments using acoustic landmarks.