Knox received his graduate training in the psychobiology program at The Ohio State University, where he examined the effects of physiological arousal on cortical activity and the role of basal forebrain corticopetal cholinergic neurons in modulating fear memory. His postdoctoral work, in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School, focused on the effects of traumatic stress on fear and extinction memory, and on neurobiological processes relevant to post-traumatic stress disorder. Knox continues to address these and related topics, using a combination of behavioral, molecular and electrophysiological methods.