Former Lab Members

Sanjana Ventkatamaran - Graduate Student

Sanjana received her B.S. with honors in Psychology from the University of Illinois Champagne-Urbana in 2021. A cornerstone of her time there was spending over three years in Dr. Justin Rhodes' lab studying how motor behavior affects neuroplasticity in the hippocampus. Her research in the Lonstein Lab focused on how female reproduction and maternal experience alter expression of plasticity-restricting perineuronal nets (PNNs) in the cerebral cortex.

Erika Vitale - Graduate Student

Erika graduated from Florida State University in 2013 with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Chemistry and Child Development. During her time as an undergraduate she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Elaine Hull, where she assisted on a series of projects studying how androgen receptor activation during sexual experience attenuates stress responsiveness. In the Lonstein lab, Erika studied the how stress and serotonin receptors in the nucleus accumbens regulated maternal responsiveness and postpartum depressive and anxiety behaviors.

Zach Grieb - Graduate Student

Zach earned his bachelor's degree in Psychology (minors in Neuroscience and Music) from the University at Albany in 2013. At Albany he conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Christine Wagner, studying the effects of early-life exposure to maternal progestins on the development of sex differences in the hypothalamic GABAergic system. In the Lonstein Lab, Zach studied how the oxytocin system interacts with midbrain serotonin systems to influence maternal caregiving and postpartum affective behaviors.

Allie Holschbach - Graduate Student

Allie graduated from the University of Wisconsin in the Spring of 2010 with degrees in Psychology and Biology specializing in Neuroscience. While in Madison, she worked with Dr. Catherine Marler studying courtship and paternal behaviors of male California mice and the relationship between these behaviors and circulating testosterone levels. In the Lonstein Lab, Allie studied how female reproductive state influenced cell genesis and other aspects of plasticity in midbrain serotonin systems, and how midbrain serotonin release influences postpartum maternal behaviors in rats.

Christina Ragan - Post-Doc

Christina earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the Pennsylvania State University in 2011 under the guidance of Dr. Sonia Cavigelli. Her dissertation work at Penn State found that differences in maternal care received within a litter often produce the opposite effects that others have shown for maternal care received between litters. Stemming off of her graduate work, Christina's primary research interests in the Lonstein Lab were to determine how variance in maternal care during the first postnatal week played a role in sibling differences in maternal responsiveness and anxiety found later in life, with a particular focus on central serotonin systems.

Eman Ahmed - Research Associate Professor

Eman was a Research Associate Professor in the Lonstein Lab and holds both a Ph.D. in Physiology and a D.V.M. degree. Her general research interests were related to how steroid hormones influence brain structure and neurochemistry. In the Lonstein Lab, Eman worked on projects examining sex differences in catecholamine-synthesizing enyzmes in the monogamous prairie vole brain.

Katie Northcutt - Graduate Student

Katie graduated from Emory University in 2005 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Kim Wallen on a project investigating the effects of a synthetic progestin on female rat sexual behavior and progesterone receptor mRNA regulation. In the Lonstein Lab, she studied sex differences in tyrosine hydroxylase-immunoreactive cells in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the medial amygdala on sociosexual behavior in male prairie voles, and their role in monogamous behaviors.

Carl Smith - Graduate Student

Carl received his undergraduate degree in 2005 from Boston College, where he conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Numan studying how the preoptic area, nucleus accumbens, and ventral pallidum interact for the control of maternal behavior in rats. In the Lonstein Lab, Carl studied the role of norepinephrine in the control of maternal behavior and postpartum anxiety in rats. Among other things, his research revealed that pharmacologically increasing norepinephrine release in the BSTv increased anxiety in postpartum rats and greatly disrupted their maternal behavior.

Stephanie Miller-Smith - Graduate Student

Stephanie received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 2004 with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Biology. In the Lonstein Lab, Stephanie studied the effects of dopamine receptor activity in the medial preoptic area (mPOA) on maternal caregiving behavior, the source of dopaminergic projections to the preoptic area (mPOA), as well as role of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in reducing anxiety-related behaviors in postpartum female rats.

Breyanna Cavanaugh - Graduate Student

Breyanna received her B.S in Biological Sciences from Oakland University in Rochester, MI where she performed undergraduate research in the organic chemistry lab of Dr. Amanda Bryant Friedrich. In the Lonstein Lab, Breyanna studied the effects of reproductive state and the social environment on sex differences in tyrosine hydroxylase-synthesizing cells of the bed nucleus of the stria teriminalis (BST) and the medial amygdala (MeA) in monogamous prairie voles.

Katie Harding - Graduate Student

Katie graduated from the honors college at Oakland University (Rochester, MI) in 2011 with a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Biology. As an undergraduate, she worked in with Dr. Keith Williams studying the effects of alcohol on binge-like and withdrawal behaviors and their relationship with kappa-opioid receptors. In the Lonstein Lab, Katie studied how ingesting placenta when younger siblings are born and interacting neonates during juvenile life affected later maternal responsiveness, anxiety, and central serotonin in female rats.

Former Laboratory Technicians

Marcus Weera

Ray Figueira

Josh Olszewicz

Chris Piasecki

Mitch Peabody

Sarah Lansing

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