Benjamin Samuels

Benjamin Samuels is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University – New Brunswick, specializing in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience. His research focuses on understanding how chronic stress exposure alters behavior in both sexes and identifies neural circuits underlying maladaptive effects of stress. He leads the Samuels Lab, which develops chronic stress paradigms for rodents, investigates stress-induced changes in motivation and reward behaviors, and explores antidepressant treatment resistance mechanisms.

Research Interests: Chronic stress effects on neural circuits, sex differences in stress responses, antidepressant mechanisms, and translational rodent behavioral models. The lab uses cutting-edge techniques like fiber photometry and optogenetics to study brain regions such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and dentate gyrus.

Publications highlight translational research in stress-induced behavioral deficits, CRH signaling pathways, and novel chronic stress paradigms effective in both male and female mice. Current projects include studying Activin signaling in antidepressant response modulation and how chronic stress interacts with genetic conditions like autism.

Lab members include postdocs and graduate students recruited through the Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience PhD program. Collaborations with labs like Dr. David Barker’s and Dr. Troy Roepke’s expand research into neural circuit dynamics and stress-related psychiatric disorders.