Caitlin Orsini

Interests

neuroendocrinology, decision making and executive function, substance use, long term impact of stress on behavior and the brain

Biography

I received my B.S. in Psychology with a Behavioral Neuroscience concentration from Washington College in Chestertown, MD, after which I began my graduate training in the Biopsychology area of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. During my graduate training, my research centered on elucidating the neural circuitry that mediates the persistence of fear memories after extinction learning, with a particular focus on interactions between the basolateral amygdala, ventral hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. After receiving my M.S. and PhD. at the University of Michigan, I began a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Florida where I explored whether these same circuits involved in pathological fear are also recruited during active choice behaviors and whether similar dysfunction in these structures and pathways underlies maladaptive decision making associated with substance use. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at UT Austin, my research uses animal models to continue my focus on uncovering how neural mechanisms, at both a cellular and a systems level, that normally govern adaptive decision making become compromised in pathological conditions including substance use and post-traumatic stress disorders. In addition, my lab tackles the question as to how gonadal hormones regulate different forms of decision making and whether dysfunction in this regulation also contributes to deficits in decision making in psychiatric diseases.

Dr. Orsini is currently seeking undergraduate students who are interested in gaining neuroscience research experience.

Courses