Summary
Dr. McKim joined the Department of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno in 2023. She teaches Introduction to Data Science and advises neuroscience students.
Dr. McKim earned her Ph.D. in Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher on a collaborative project at the Uniklinik Würzburg and TU Dresden in Germany. Across her research experiences, she studied how the prefrontal cortex, in the front of the brain, is important for cognitive control. She used multiple perspectives to examine how 1) noninvasive brain stimulation in humans could be used to change habitual addictive behaviors, 2) similarities and differences between how the brain functions in humans and nonhuman primates, and 3) the relationship between brain growth during development and behavior change across the lifespan.
Dr. McKim is passionate about scientific outreach and uses science communication to engage the community in learning about neuroscience. She advocates for making science accessible to all and supports diversity and inclusivity in STEM.
When she’s not teaching, Dr. McKim enjoys spending time outdoors in a hammock, hiking, yoga, baking, and knitting.
Education
- Ph.D. in Behavioral and Integrative Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016
- B.S. in Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, 2010
Postdoctoral Experience
- Postdoctoral Researcher, Uniklinik Würzburg / Technische Universität Dresden, 2021-2023
- NRSA (F32) Research Fellowship (NIDA), Brown University, 2017-2021
Selected publications
- Yusif-Rodriguez, N., McKim, T.H., Basu, D., Ahuja, A., & Desrochers, T.M. (2023). Specific monkey dorsolateral prefrontal cortex regions monitor abstract sequential information during a no-report task. Journal of Neuroscience.
- McKim, T.H. & Desrochers, T.M. (2022) Reward value enhances sequence monitoring ramping dynamics as ending rewards approach in the rostrolateral prefrontal cortex. eNeuro.
- Trach, J.E., McKim, T.H., & Desrochers, T.M. (2021) Abstract sequential task control is facilitated by practice and embedded motor sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition.
- McKim, T. H., Dove, S.J., Robinson, D.L., Frohlich, F., & Boettiger, C.A. (2020) Addiction history moderates the effect of prefrontal 10Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation on habitual action selection. Journal of Neurophysiology.
- Desrochers, T.M. & McKim, T. H. (2019) What is a sequence? The neural mechanisms of perceptual, motor, and task sequences across species and their interaction with addiction. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, ed. Murray Sherman. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- McKim, T. H., Bauer, D.J., & Boettiger, C.A. (2016) Addiction history is associated with a propensity to form habits. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
- McKim, T. H., Shnitko, T.A., Robinson, D. L., & Boettiger, C.A. (2016) Translational Research on Habit and Alcohol. Current Addiction Reports.