Caitlin Orsini, Ph.D. has been selected as the 2015 Thomas H. Maren Junior Investigator Post-doctoral Awardee.
Caitlin is a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Dr. Barry Setlow and Dr. Jennifer Bizon. Dr. Orsini received her Bachelor’s of Science from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She then went on to receive her PhD from the University of Michigan in the laboratory of Dr. Stephen Maren, in which she investigated the neural circuitry underlying the persistence of fear. After the completion of her doctoral degree, she began post-doctoral training at the University of Florida. Stemming from her graduate work, one line of research that Dr. Orsini is pursuing is how the basolateral amygdala and its interactions with other limbic structures contribute to risky decision-making. In addition to understanding the neural circuitry subserving risk-taking in adulthood, her research focuses on how it may become altered during normal aging. In a broader therapeutic context, results from these projects could have important implications for understanding how the brain balances rewards and risks, and how this balance may change during the aging process
