Category: Research Publications

Estrogen treatment during menopause increased right hippocampal volumes in women without depression. In women with depression, decreases in right hippocampal volumes predicted decreases in mood symptoms following estrogen treatment.

We investigated how different breathing techniques impact electrical activity in the brain.

Adolescence is a critical period of developmental changes in neurobiological and psychological systems, rendring it both a period of vulnerability for the emergence of risk factors associated with psychopathology and a period of opportunity for the implementation of targeted prevention and interventions. Anhedonia (i.e., the reduced ability to anticipate or...

Background: Neuroimmune dysfunction in alcohol use disorder (AUD) is associated with activation of myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MyD88)-dependent Toll-like receptors (TLR) resulting in overexpression of the chemokine monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2). MCP-1 overexpression in the brain is linked to anxiety, higher alcohol intake, neuronal death, and activation of microglia...

Our laboratory has previously shown that chronic ethanol exposure elicits enhanced working memory performance in female, but not male, adult Sprague-Dawley rats, indicative of a fundamental sex difference in cortical plasticity. Recent studies have furthermore revealed that females display markedly reduced HCN-mediated channel activity in inhibitory Martinotti interneurons after chronic...

This study investigates the impact of allopregnanolone ([3α,5α]3-hydroxypregnan-20-one or 3α,5α-tetrahydroprogesterone (3α,5α-THP); 10 mg/kg, IP) on fractalkine/CX3-C motif chemokine ligand 1 (CX3CL1) levels, associated signaling components, and markers for microglial and astrocytic cells in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of male and female alcohol-preferring (P) rats. Previous research suggested that 3α,5α-THP enhances...

Mindful Self-Compassion for Teens, an 8 session program which focuses on cultivating self-compassion as a coping skill for teens, was determined to be feasible, acceptable, and efficacious in preventing the development of clinically significant depression in adolescents with some depressive symptoms.

Peer group mentoring facilitated by senior faculty represents an effective approach. We explored motivations, benefits, and challenges for facilitators enrolled to deploy an intervention in the context of a randomized controlled trial that tested two peer group mentoring strategies for underrepresented early career researchers.

We studied cognitive development and psychopathology in children 4 and 6 years old who where at familial risk for developing schizophrenia and found delayed cognitive development and high rates of symptoms such as anxiety and attention problems, earlier than has previously been described. This indicates that risk for schizophrenia is...

A large cohort of 706 women sexual assault survivors presenting to emergency care were recruited nationwide and followed over one year post-assault. Our findings suggested that the vast majority of women rated their research experience as positive (95-97%), denied drawbacks (84-89%), and reported participating was worth it (93-95%), and these...