Dr. Mihaela Iordanova

Biography

Mihaela Iordanova completed her undergraduate studies at the University of New South Wales, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with Honors in 2001. She pursued her doctoral studies on the role of accumbal opioid dopamine transmission in error-correction during fear conditioning under the supervision of R. Frederick Westbrook. During her doctoral research, Mihaela visited the laboratory of Simon Killcross at Cardiff University, focusing on the role of dopamine in predicting fear. After earning her PhD in 2006, she underwent post-doctoral training at the School of Psychology at Cardiff University, collaborating with prominent scientists on neurocircuitry and mnemonic integration. Mihaela's research has included examining how neurons change their firing patterns in response to environmental stimuli. She held appointments at the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Drug Abuse, studying how cells in the central nucleus of the amygdala modulate firing under conditions of reward. In 2014, Mihaela was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University, where she joins the Centre for Studies in Behavioral Neurobiology.

Research Interests