Leah Mayo

Our work combines behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging methods to gain better insight into how we perceive and react to stressful situations and emotional stimuli. I am particularly interested in the role of the endocannabinoid system, a neuromodulatory system involved in both stress reactivity and emotion processing. In healthy populations, we are exploring how external factors (e.g. stress, drugs of abuse) influence the endocannabinoid system. In clinical populations, we are interested in how the endocannabinoid system becomes dysregulated and contributes to impairments in stress and emotional reactivity. Our overall goal is to determine if the endocannabinoid system can serve as a novel target in the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).