Dr. Eike Buabang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Gillan Lab at Trinity College Dublin. His research is multidisciplinary, spanning cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychopathology, with a central focus on understanding the functioning of the brain’s habit system. He uses 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 behaviors. Specifically, he investigates the neural architecture of habit formation, focusing on the transition from goal-directed to stimulus-driven control. Using EEG and neural decoding, he tracks how the brain’s representations of these two systems change as habits develop and identifies factors that accelerate habit formation. He also examines the expression and suppression of established habits, mapping the time-resolved interplay between stimulus-driven habit activation and the goal-directed control required to override inappropriate responses. This work extends across clinical populations, including those with obsessive-compulsive disorder, tic disorders, and body-focused repetitive behaviors. Eike is a recipient of the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Irish Research Council and serves as an Editorial Fellow at the Association for Psychological Science (Perspectives on Psychological Science). His research has been featured in major media outlets including The Economist, BBC Science Focus, and the Irish Independent.
Full publication list on Google Scholar
Email: eike.buabang@tcd.ie | LinkedIn | Bluesky
Featured Publications
Buabang, E. K., Suddell, S., Donegan, K. R., Grogan, J. P., Rafei, P., O’Connell, R. G., & Gillan, C. M. (2025). Neural dynamics of covert habit activation and control in humans. bioRxiv. Link
Buabang, E. K., Donegan, K. R., Rafei, P., & Gillan, C. M. (2025). Leveraging cognitive neuroscience for making and breaking real-world habits. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. Link
Buabang, E. K., Köster, M., Hogarth, L., & Moors, A. (2025). Critical review of the habit theory in substance use disorder and application of Moors’ goal-directed theory. Current Addiction Reports. Link
Buabang, E. K., Köster, M., Boddez, Y., Van Dessel, P., De Houwer, J., & Moors, A. (2023). A goal-directed account of action slips: The reliance on old contingencies. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Link
Buabang, E. K., Boddez, Y., Wolf, O. T., & Moors, A. (2023). The role of goal-directed and habitual processes under stress after outcome devaluation with taste aversion. Behavioral Neuroscience. Link
Buabang, E. K., Boddez, Y., De Houwer, J., & Moors, A. (2021). Don’t make a habit out of it: Impaired learning conditions can make goal-directed behavior seem habitual. Motivation Science. Link
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