About Clue
The estrogen drop: How the menstrual cycle shapes fear, memory, and trauma risk
Does the menstrual cycle affect PTSD? Recent studies using brain imaging and cycle tracking show that the drop in estradiol...
Jennifer Stevens, PhD
Jennifer Stevens, PhD
Dr. Jennifer Stevens is an expert in translational neuroscience. She is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University where she uses neuroimaging approaches to probe brain function in healthy individuals, and neurobiological pathways promoting stress vulnerability or resilience. Dr. Stevens has investigated individual differences in these circuits in normative and trauma-exposed populations of adults and children. A major theme of her research has been to understand sex differences in emotion-related brain function, and the brain basis of women’s increased risk for trauma-related psychopathology. She is Co-Director of the Grady Trauma Project, a long-standing NIMH-funded study of civilian trauma and PTSD. The Grady Trauma Project is a central contributor to a growing group of laboratories focused on the biological underpinnings of women’s mental health following trauma exposure, and has a major focus on developing a cadre of next-generation neuroscientists studying how traumatic stress impacts women’s brain health over the lifespan.