Camila Demaestri, Ph.D.
My interest in studying the neural basis of fear and anxiety began during my undergraduate training in Dr. Heather Brenhouse’s lab at Northeastern University, where I earned my B.S. in Psychology. Collaborating with Dr. Jennifer Honeycutt, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the time, we investigated how early life adversity alters corticolimbic circuitry in rats to contribute to sex-biases in anxiety-like phenotypes. I furthered my training on animal models of pathology under Dr. Kevin Bath at Brown University where I earned my M.S. in Psychology and subsequently earned my Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. Adopting a developmental and translational perspective, I explored the role of central amygdala corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons in gating exaggerated fear responding following early life adversity as well as the influence of sex on these processes in mice. Now, as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Dr. Jamie Maguire’s lab, I will continue examining how factors, such as environmental challenges, alter the engagement of stress networks that underlie emotional and behavioral disturbance in psychopathology. The overarching goal of my work is to understand how biology and environment interact to shape neural adaptations that give rise to individual differences in functional and dysfunctional outcomes.