My research investigates the functioning of the brain’s habit system. I use experimental and neuroscientific methods to advance our understanding of how and when habits are formed, how they can be broken, and how habit mechanisms contribute to compulsive behaviours.
My aim is to inform our understanding of behavior change in order to help people build healthier routines and overcome patterns that work against them. This includes everyday behaviors such as exercise, diet, or technology use. It also applies to clinical contexts, where rigid habits are a core feature of conditions like OCD and substance use disorders.
If you are interested in how recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are opening up new opportunities for personalized behavior change, you can read my feature review:
Leveraging cognitive neuroscience for making and breaking real-world habits
Buabang, E. K. et al.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences (2025)
Read Paper ↗
Current Research Themes
Habit Formation & Automatisation
How does a deliberate action transform into an automatic habit?
I investigate the neural architecture of habit formation in stable environments, focusing on the transition from goal-directed to stimulus-driven control. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and neural decoding, I track how the brain's representations of these two systems change. I also work to identify the key factors capable of accelerating the habit formation process.
Habit Expression & Control
Once a habit takes root, how is it triggered, and what does it take to stop it?
I examine the brain mechanisms underlying the expression and suppression of established habits. By isolating time-resolved neural signatures, I map the precise interplay between stimulus-driven habit activation and the goal-directed control required to override inappropriate responses.
Habits of Thought
Can beliefs and goals become habitual too?
Challenging the traditional view of habits exclusively as rigid stimulus-response links, my work demonstrates that expectancies and valued outcomes can also become rigid. I investigate how seemingly habitual behavior may also arise from the rapid retrieval of these well-established mental representations of beliefs and goals, what I call “habits of thought”.
Compulsivity & Clinical Applications
Why do certain behaviors become rigid and resistant to change in some individuals, but not others?
To answer this, I investigate how habit mechanisms drive compulsivity. My current work spans diverse clinical populations, including those with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome (TS), and body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs).
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2016
* denotes shared first-authorship
