Ekaterina Likhtik

Ekaterina Likhtik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY). Her research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying learning and emotional processing, particularly in relation to anxiety disorders. She combines approaches from learning theory and neuroscience to investigate cortical-subcortical communication, including interactions between the amygdala, basal forebrain, and prefrontal cortex.

• Education:
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University Medical Center (2015)
  • PhD, Rutgers University (2008)
  • BA, Barnard College, Columbia University (1999)

Her lab employs multi-site recordings, optogenetics, pharmacology, anatomical, and computational methods to study how neural communication is altered in anxiety states. Research projects include prefrontal-amygdala interactions during fear discrimination, mechanisms of inhibitory control, and the role of oscillations in emotion regulation.

The trends in her publications highlight a focus on amygdala-prefrontal cortex dynamics, theta-gamma coupling, fear extinction, and neuro-glial communication. These studies model behaviors relevant to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

• Lab: Likhtik Lab