He holds one of two Presidential chair positions and is director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon and co-director of the Neurons to Minds Cluster of Excellence.
[2] As a graduate student at Stanford University, McCormick discovered that the cerebellum was essential for Classical Conditioning of learned movements.
[2] Following his promotion, McCormick found that when one introduces slow oscillation signals into brain tissue, it creates a feedback loop as the changes in electrical field guide neural activity.
[8] The McCormick laboratory revealed the neural mechanisms of the Yerkes-Dodson Curve, which posits that there is an optimal level of arousal or attention for performance.
[15] In 2020, McCormick started teaching Happiness: a Neuroscience and Psychology Perspective which has become one of the largest and most popular elective classes at the university.