معرفی
Ruth E. Grahn serves as Professor of Psychology and Co-Chair of the Department of Psychology at Connecticut College, where she has held a faculty position since 1999. Her research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying stress responses and anxiety disorders using rodent models.
Her educational background includes:
- B.A. from Mount Holyoke College
- M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado
Dr. Grahn's research employs functional neuroanatomy to investigate how specific brain regions mediate behavior, with emphasis on serotonin pathways in the dorsal raphe nucleus. Her work established learned helplessness as a model for depression, anxiety, and PTSD, and currently explores defensive behaviors through predator odor exposure and models of generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and OCD. Supported by an NIMH undergraduate research grant, her lab integrates protein immunohistochemistry with behavioral assays to examine stress-induced neural changes.
Recent publications demonstrate consistent focus on anxiety neurobiology, utilizing predator odor paradigms to map Fos expression and serotonin activity. Her collaborative publications with undergraduate students highlight hands-on research training in behavioral neuroscience methods, spanning defensive behavior analysis, stress physiology, and translational models of human anxiety disorders.
Dr. Grahn actively mentors undergraduate researchers, supervising honors theses and individual studies while teaching core courses including Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychopharmacology, and Psychology of Stress. Her research program receives funding from the National Institute of Mental Health specifically designed for undergraduate research initiatives, enabling student participation in all experimental phases from behavioral testing to neural analysis.
She leads the behavioral neuroscience research team within Connecticut College's Psychology Department, utilizing specialized facilities for rodent behavioral testing and neural tissue analysis. Current projects investigate panic disorder models and serotonin modulation of defensive behaviors, with methodology emphasizing undergraduate involvement in cutting-edge neuroscience techniques.
