Presentation

My general interests are in how the environment can influence our affective state (or how we “feel”) and how that affective state can influence how we perceive and respond to our environment.

I approach these questions through a combination of self-report, behavioral, and psychophysiological (i.e., facial electromyography) approaches.

Background

My background is in substance abuse research, where I studied the associations formed between environmental stimuli and drugs of abuse, including the types of responses these drug cues come to elicit in healthy humans. I also explored individual variation in cue responding and relationship between other risk factors for drug use, including subjective drug response, personality factors, and drug use history.

Research interests

My current research interests are in exploring involvement of neurotransmitter systems, including endocannabinoid and opioid systems, in affect regulation using both genetic and pharmacological approaches.

I’m also interested in how environmental factors (e.g., stress, social rejection, social touch) can influence affective responding in both healthy and clinical populations, and how dysregulation of affective responses can contribute to clinical pathologies.

Publications
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2019

News
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Improved treatment for PTSD

People with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, often also develop a dependency disorder. LiU researchers are seeking answers to how these conditions are related and how they best can be treated – both individually and when they arise together.

New medication may improve effects of treatment for PTSD

A medication that boosts the body’s own cannabis-like substances, shows promise to help the brain un-learn fear memories when these are no longer meaningful. This according to an early-stage, experimental study on healthy volunteers at LiU.
An illustrated brain against a blue background

Leah Mayo gets prestigious brain research grant

Leah Mayo, postdoc at CSAN, has been awarded the NARSAD Young Investigator Grant for the period 2019-2021. The grant is awarded by the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

Organisation
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IKE-CSAN-puff

Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience

CSAN integrates knowledge and methodology from different areas of basic and clinical neuroscience. CSAN unites research groups in adult psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, neurobiology, clinical neurophysiology and neuroeconomics.
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Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine

The Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, IKE, is one of the largest departments at Linköping University with affiliation mainly to the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Education
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  • Ph.D. in Neurobiology, University of Chicago, 2015
    Advisor: Harriet de Wit
    Thesis title: A multidimensional approach to de novo drug conditioning in healthy humans: combining self-report, behavioral, and psychophysiological measures.
  • M.S. in Molecular Pathogenesis & Molecular Medicine, University of Chicago, 2013
  • B.S. in Neuroscience, University of Michigan, 2009
    Advisors: Shelly Flagel, Terry Robinson, Huda Akil
    Thesis title: Characterizing individual variation to reward-related cues in animals selectively bred for locomotor response to novelty.

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