Kareem I. Al-Khalil is a Multimodal Imaging Scientist at the Institute on Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison, with extensive expertise in human development, family sciences, and neuroscience. He earned his Ph.D. in Human Development & Family Sciences, focusing on differences in brain activation and connectivity among college students with varying mathematical abilities, and holds dual M.Sc. degrees in Psychology and Experimental Psychology, as well as a B.Sc. in Biology. His professional trajectory spans postdoctoral research and associate positions at Duke University School of Medicine and the Mind Research Network, where he contributed to understanding neurocognitive processes in psychiatric and behavioral contexts. He has also served as a research analyst, teaching assistant, and graduate instructor, gaining substantial experience in experimental design, psychometrics, and cognitive neuroscience. Al-Khalil’s research contributions include peer-reviewed publications on connectomics, brain network disruption in HIV and substance use, and structural connectivity alterations associated with chronic cannabis use. His work has garnered a total of 201 citations, with an h-index of 8 and an i10-index of 7, reflecting his influence in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging. Through his research, he advances understanding of brain function, network connectivity, and cognitive processes in health and disease, integrating behavioral science with multimodal imaging approaches.
Featured Publications
Al-Khalil, K., Vakamudi, K., Witkiewitz, K., & Claus, E. D. (2021). Neural correlates of alcohol use disorder severity among nontreatment‐seeking heavy drinkers: An examination of the incentive salience and negative emotionality domains of the … Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 45(6), 1200–1214.
Hou, J., Rajmohan, R., Fang, D., Kashfi, K., Al-Khalil, K., Yang, J., & Westney, W. (2017). Mirror neuron activation of musicians and non-musicians in response to motion captured piano performances. Brain and Cognition, 115, 47–55.
Niehuis, S., Reifman, A., Al-Khalil, K., Oldham, C. R., Fang, D., & O’Boyle, M. (2019). Functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in response to prompts of romantically disillusioning events. Personal Relationships, 26(2), 209–231.
Gonzales, J. U., James, C. R., Yang, H. S., Jensen, D., Atkins, L., & Thompson, B. J. (2016). Different cognitive functions discriminate gait performance in younger and older women: A pilot study. Gait & Posture, 50, 89–95.
Calderon-Delgado, L., Barrera-Valencia, M., Noriega, I., & Al-Khalil, K. (2020). Implicit processing of emotional words by children with post-traumatic stress disorder: An fMRI investigation. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 20(1), 46–53.
Noriega, I., Trejos-Castillo, E., Chae, Y., & Calderon-Delgado, L. (2021). Emotional memory processing in post‐traumatic stress disorder affected Colombian youth. International Journal of Psychology, 56(3), 387–393.
Kashfi, K., Al-Khalil, K., Hou, J., Fang, D., Anderson, R., Rajmohan, R., & Syapin, P. (2017). Hyper-brain connectivity in binge drinking college students: A diffusion tensor imaging study. Neurocase, 23(3–4), 179–186.
Kashfi, K., Fang, D., Hou, J., Al-Khalil, K., Anderson, R., Syapin, P. J., & O’Boyle, M. W. (2017). Spatial attention in binge-drinking and moderate-drinking college students: An fMRI investigation. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 35(3), 260–278.
Swartz, M., Burton, F., Vakamudi, K., Al-Khalil, K., Witkiewitz, K., & Claus, E. D. (2021). Age dependent neural correlates of inhibition and control mechanisms in moderate to heavy drinkers. NeuroImage: Clinical, 32, 102875.