Email: ssmoy@med.unc.edu

Phone: (919) 966-3082





Education:

A.B., Sociology/Psychology, Duke University
M.A., Psychology, East Carolina University
Ph.D., Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research Interests:

Dr. Moy is a Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UNC, and serves as Director of the Mouse Behavioral Phenotyping Laboratory, a core facility of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD).  Dr. Moy holds a doctorate in Experimental and Biological Psychology, with a focus on behavioral pharmacology, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Brain and Development Research Center at UNC.  Her area of expertise is the development and testing of rodent models for human clinical syndromes, including models for autism, schizophrenia, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.  Current efforts include using magnetic resonance and diffusion tension imaging to identify alterations in neuroanatomy and regional brain connectivity in mouse models of autism spectrum disorders, and determining changes in responses to social challenge across development in a mouse model of NMDA receptor hypofunction, relevant to schizophrenia.  Dr. Moy is also conducting preclinical efficacy studies to evaluate oxytocin as a treatment for social deficits, abnormal repetitive behavior, and other phenotypes that reflect core symptoms in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Representative Publications:

1. Moy, S.S., Nikolova, V.D., Riddick, N.V., Baker, L.K., Koller, B.H. (2012).  Preweaning sensorimotor deficits and adolescent hypersociability in Grin1 knockdown mice.  Developmental Neuroscience 34: 159-173.

2. Moy, S.S., Nonneman, R.J., Shafer, G.O., Nikolova, V.D., Riddick, N.V., Agster, K.L., Baker, L.K., Knapp, D.J. (2012).  Disruption of social approach by MK-801, amphetamine, and fluoxetine in adolescent C57BL/6J mice.  Neurotoxicology and Teratology, in press.

3. Ryan, B.C., Young, N.B., Crawley, J.N., Bodfish, J.W., Moy, S.S. (2010). Social deficits, stereotypy, and early emergence of repetitive behavior in the C58/J inbred mouse strain. Behavioral Brain Research 208: 178-188.

4. Duncan, G.E., Inada, K., Farrington, J.S., Koller, B.H., Moy, S.S. (2009).  Neural activation deficits in a mouse genetic model of NMDA receptor hypofunction in tests of social aggression and swim stress.  Brain Research 1265: 186-195.

5. Moy, S.S., Nadler, J.J., Young, N.B., Nonneman, R.J., Grossman, A.W., Murphy, D.L., Crawley, J.N., Magnuson, T.R., Lauder, J.M. (2009). Social approach in genetically-engineered mouse lines relevant to autism. Genes, Brain, and Behavior 8: 129-142.