Dr. Erin Hisey

Biography

Erin E. Hisey is an Assistant Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Her long-term research interests focus on how early life experiences shape adult behavior and how trauma can change previously adaptive behaviors into maladaptive ones. As a postdoctoral fellow under Kerry Ressler, she developed a model using juvenile chronic social defeat stress in mice to understand the effects of physical trauma during childhood. Currently, Dr. Hisey's research employs optogenetic techniques, in vivo imaging, and RNA manipulation to explore specific neural circuits altered by early life trauma, with the aim of examining the impact of such trauma on the encoding and recall of fear memories in adulthood. Given that childhood abuse rates vary from 25% to 50% among civilian and veteran populations, Dr. Hisey is highly motivated to identify the neural circuits reshaped by early life trauma, ultimately seeking novel targets for reducing trauma-related symptoms. Her work contributes to advancing the understanding of how early life trauma influences behavior and helps in the development of interventions for trauma-based disorders.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards