Dr. Robert M. G. Reinhart is a distinguished cognitive neuroscientist whose pioneering work has significantly advanced our understanding of neural mechanisms underlying human cognition. He currently serves as Associate Professor at Boston University with dual appointments in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, where he directs the Cognitive & Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory. Reinhart completed his doctoral training at Vanderbilt University under the mentorship of Geoff Woodman, Jeff Schall, and Sohee Park, establishing a strong foundation in cognitive neuroscience methodologies. Demonstrating remarkable confidence in his capabilities, he forwent traditional postdoctoral training and joined Boston University as a faculty member in 2016, where he has since established a world-class research program investigating the neural basis of cognitive processes.
Reinhart's groundbreaking research has fundamentally transformed our understanding of how synchronized brain rhythms support cognitive functions across the lifespan and in neuropsychiatric conditions. His seminal 2019 Nature Neuroscience paper, Working memory revived in older adults by synchronizing rhythmic brain circuits, demonstrated that targeted electrical stimulation could restore working memory capacity in older adults to levels comparable with younger individuals. His innovative laboratory combines advanced electrophysiological techniques including EEG with novel noninvasive neuromodulation methods such as tDCS and tACS to elucidate causal brain-behavior relationships in attention, working memory, and executive control. This rigorous approach has yielded significant insights into cognitive impairments in schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and age-related memory decline, establishing new paradigms for understanding and addressing these conditions.
Dr. Reinhart's contributions have been recognized with prestigious awards including the 2022 Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 2023 Innovator Award from the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, and the 2024 Randolph Blake Early Career Award from Vanderbilt University. His laboratory serves as a training ground for the next generation of cognitive neuroscientists, with postdoctoral associates and graduate students employing sophisticated methodologies to investigate cognitive aging and neural plasticity. Rather than remaining confined to theoretical frameworks, Reinhart actively translates his laboratory discoveries into practical interventions, building network-based therapeutics to address a wide variety of brain disorders. His continued research promises to further illuminate the causal neural mechanisms of cognition while developing novel approaches to restore cognitive function across diverse clinical populations.
