Heather Brenhouse

Heather Brenhouse is a professor and director of Graduate Studies for the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University. She received her BS in Psychobiology from Binghamton University, her MS in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience from Rutgers University, and her PhD in Experimental Psychology from Northeastern University. She did her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, and in 2012 joined the Behavioral Neuroscience faculty at Northeastern.

Research in Dr. Brenhouse’s lab—the Developmental Neuropsychobiology Lab—focuses on the the dynamic interaction between the brain, the body, and the environment throughout early life and adolescent development. Adverse or traumatic experience during early life is a known risk factor for the development of mental illness; however, the manifestation of disease does not typically occur until years after the adverse events occur. Using animal models with genetic, behavioral, and pharmacological manipulation, the laboratory investigates in why this occurs, and how it might be prevented.

Specifically, they research how early life stress alters the development of inhibitory interneurons within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Since stress plays an important role in the interaction of the brain with the immune system, researchers measure how early life stress affects inflammatory responses and subsequently leads to PFC interneuron damage and behavioral dysfunction later in life. By manipulating early environment, receptor expression, or inflammatory molecules within the PFC, they can shed light on how (and when) the brain responds to developmental disturbances, and how these responses translate into vulnerability to psychiatric disorders.