James W Antony

James Antony head shot

Assistant professor (starting July 2027)

Research Interests

The various prongs of my research surround one central question: How do memories persist? Episodic memory – or memory for specific events – changes over time, as some features are forgotten, while others become more resistant to forgetting. Crucially, this process of memory change is modulated by the precise way in which these memories are formed and reactivated. My research centers on how long-term memory retention relies on reactivation during both sleep and wake (e.g., during re-learning of previously encoded memories) as well as factors at encoding, such as surprise and interactions among memories (e.g., temporal, spatial, semantic, causal). I tackle these questions using a variety of methodologies (e.g., behavior, eye tracking, electroencephalography, naturalistic neuroimaging, autobiographical questionnaires) while using advanced computational techniques (e.g., computational modeling, graph theory, multivariate analyses, real-time designs).

I plan to take graduate students this cycle (to start in Fall 2027).

Professional positions

  • (incoming) Assistant professor, University of California, Davis, starting 2027
  • Assistant-associate professor, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, 2022-present
  • Assistant Project Scientist, University of California, Davis, 2020-2022
  • C.V. Starr (Postdoctoral) Fellow, Princeton University, 2015-2020

Education

  • PhD, Northwestern University, neuroscience, 2009 – 2015
  • BA, Lawrence University, Biochemistry & Music (Concentration: Neuroscience), 2005 – 2009

Honors and awards

  • UC Irvine Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, External Fellow, 2026
  • Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS), Early Career Impact Award, 2025
  • Early Career Award for Achievement in Scholarship, Cal Poly, College of Liberal Arts, 2024
  • Elected Member, Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS), 2022
  • Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science, 2022
  • Fellow, Psychonomic Society, 2020
  • Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS) Cermak/Corkin Postdoc Award, 2019

Selected publications

Antony, J. W., Abbas, S., Babb, M. S., Reagh, Z., & Ranganath, C. (2026). Causality organizes episodic memory and neural reinstatement. bioRxiv, 2026-07.

Antony, J.W., Lozano, A., Dhoat, P., Chen, J., & Bennion, K.A. (2024) Causal and chronological relationships predict memory organization for non-linear narratives. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 36(11), 2368-2385. 

Antony, J.W., Liu, X., Zheng, Y., Ranganath, C., & O’Reilly, R.C. (2024) Memory out of context: Spacing effects and decontextualization in a computational model of the medial temporal lobe. Psychological Review, 131(6), 1337.

Antony, J.W., van Dam, J., Massey, J. R., Barnett, A., & Bennion, K.A. (2023) Long-term, multi-event surprise correlates with enhanced autobiographical memory. Nature Human Behavior, 7(12), 2152-2168.

Antony, J. W., Romero, A., Vierra, A., Luenser, R., Hawkins, R. D., & Bennion, K. A. (2022). Semantic relatedness between initial and later learning retroactively benefits memory and promotes interdependence. eLife, 11, e72519.

Antony, J. W., Hartshorne, T., Pomeroy, K., Gureckis, T., Hasson, U., McDougle, S., & Norman, K. A. (2021). Behavioral, physiological, and neural signatures of surprise during naturalistic sports viewing. Neuron, 109(2), 377-390.E7.

Antony, J. W., Piloto, L., Wang, M., Pacheco, P., Norman, K. A., & Paller, K. A. (2018). Sleep spindle refractoriness segregates periods of memory reactivation. Current Biology, 28(11), 1736-1743.e4.

Antony, J. W., Ferreira, C. S., Norman, K. A., & Wimber, M. (2017). Retrieval as a fast route to memory consolidation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(8), 573-576.

Antony, J. W., Gobel, E. W., O’Hare, J. K. Reber P. J. & Paller, K. A. (2012). Cued memory reactivation during sleep influences skill learning. Nature Neuroscience, 15, 1114-1116.