Dr. Anthony P. Pawlak

Anthony Pawlak is a research analyst and statistician for the behavioral and psychophysiology laboratory of Dr. Marsha E. Bates at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies (CAS) at Rutgers University. He graduated cum laude from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA with a BA in psychology. Dr. Pawlak received a MS in Psychology (Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience Program) at Rutgers University with a project that involved the electrophysiological recording of single neuronal units in the basal ganglia in a rodent behavioral pharmacology paradigm that investigated the psychomotoric effects of cocaine on behavior. For this study, he developed an innovative application of multilevel statistical modeling to disentangle the effects of the average firing rates of neurons observed across the study versus the firing rates present during individual movement trials. Dr. Pawlak received his PhD in Education (Concentration in Applied Statistics & Psychometrics) with a dissertation project that focused on utilizing item response theory (IRT) to assess the individual criteria of the DSM-IV diagnostic category for a major depressive episode.

As part of his current position, Dr. Pawlak performs statistical and psychometric analyses, data management, and research design consulting at the CAS. He also assists in the reporting of the methodology and results of statistical analyses for peer-reviewed publications. His statistical and methodological interests include structural equation modeling, latent class analysis, multivariate analyses, and linear mixed models.

BOOKS & ARTICLES: 

Stamos, J.P., Ma, S., Pawlak, A.P., Engelhard, N., Horvitz, J.C., & West, M.O. (2022). Reward versus motoric activations in nucleus accumbens core of rats during Pavlovian conditioning. European Journal of Neuroscience, 56(1), 3570-3590. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15680

Lesnewich, L.M., Pawlak, A.P., Gohel, S., & Bates, M.E., (2022). Functional connectivity in the central executive network predicts changes in binge drinking behavior during emerging adulthood: an observational prospective study. Addiction, 117, 1899–1907. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15828

Im, S., Fitzpatrick, S., Hien, D.A., Lopez-Castro, T., Pawlak, A., & Melara, R.D. (2022). Frontal Alpha Asymmetry in Children with Trauma Exposure. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 53(5), 418-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/15500594221076346

Price, J. L., Bastes, M. E., Morgano, J., Todaro, S., Uhouse, S. G., Vaschillo, E., Vaschillo, B., Pawlak, A., & Buckman, J. (2022). Effects of arousal modulation via resonance breathing on craving and affect in women with substance use disorder. Addictive Behaviors, 127, 107207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107207

Leganes-Fonteneau, Bates, M.E., Muzumdar, N., Pawlak, A., Islam, S, Vaschillo, E., & Buckman, J.F. (2021). Cardiovascular mechanisms of interoceptive awareness: Effects of resonance breathing. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 169, 71-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2021.09.003

Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Bates, M.E., Pawlak, A., & Buckman, J.F. (2021). Does alcohol affect emotional face processing via interoceptive pathways? Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 226, 108845. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108845

Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Buckman, J.F., Suzuki, K., Pawlak, A., & Bates, M.E. (2021). More than meets the heart: systolic amplification of different emotional faces is task dependent. Cognition & Emotion, 35(2), 400–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2020.1832050

Leganes-Fonteneau, M., Buckman, J., Pawlak, A., Vaschillo, B., Vaschillo, E., & Bates, M. (2021). Interoceptive signaling in alcohol cognitive biases: Role of family history and alliesthetic components. Addiction Biology, 26(3), e12952. https://doi.org/10.1111/adb.12952

Norton, S.A., Gifford, J.J., Pawlak, A.P., Derbaly, A., Sherman, S.L., Zhang, H., Wagner, G.C., & Kusnecov, A.W. (2020). Long-lasting behavioral and neuroanatomical effects of postnatal valproic acid treatment. Neuroscience, 434, 8–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.02.029

Klein, S.D., Beacher, N.J., Kulik, J.M., Estrin, D.J., Pawlak, A.P., & West, M.O. (2020). Emergence of negative affect as motivation for drug taking in rats chronically self-administering cocaine. Psychopharmacology, 237(5), 1407–1420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05468-1