Marie Monfils

Dr. Marie Monfils is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin, where she leads the Monfils Memory Lab in the Department of Psychology within the College of Liberal Arts. Her research focuses on understanding fear memory mechanisms and developing interventions to attenuate maladaptive fear memories.

Dr. Monfils received her Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. Her work bridges basic rodent models with translational applications for anxiety, trauma-related, and addiction disorders.

Her research program investigates three primary streams:

• Post-consolidation manipulations that can persistently attenuate fear memories
• Factors underlying affiliative kinship and social transmission of information
• Individual differences and their impact on fear attenuation

Her work integrates behavioral, neural, and molecular approaches to understand memory modification processes, with particular focus on reconsolidation and extinction mechanisms.

Dr. Monfils' publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding fear memory mechanisms. Her recent work examines CO2 reactivity as a biomarker for treatment response, social transmission of fear in rodent models, and optimizing fear attenuation techniques through reconsolidation-extinction interactions. Her research spans both basic neuroscience and clinical applications, with implications for improving exposure therapy for anxiety disorders.

• 2025: Published work on neural mechanisms of social learning, mechanisms of change in exposure therapy, and social context as a source of variability
• 2024: Published research on fear attenuation collaborations, carbon dioxide reactivity predicting fear expression, and social transmission dynamics
• 2023: Published updates on reconsolidation-extinction interactions, estrous cycle effects on behavior, and retrieval-extinction effects on alcohol seeking

Dr. Monfils actively mentors graduate students and is accepting applicants for Fall 2026 and 2027. Her lab follows rats through their lifespan with a commitment to humane treatment, euthanizing only when necessary to minimize suffering or at the end of life. She acknowledges the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island where her research takes place, specifically recognizing the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo.