Nathaniel Stafford

Dr. Stafford's research focuses on the behavioral and neurophysiological responses to stress exposure using preclinical and human subjects models. His work has previously demonstrated individual differences in innate stress resilience in a model of long-term substance abuse using a behavioral economics approach. He is currently investigating individual differences in stress coping strategies and associated serotonin neurobiology using rodent ultrasonic vocalizations as a predictive marker of stress resilience. Future studies will expand upon sex differences and the role of additional monoamine and inflammatory systems between vocalizing-resilient and nonvocalizing-vulnerable subjects. Dr. Stafford's human subjects research investigates the association between rat ultrasonic vocalizations and resilience in the clinical model. The current hypothesis in the vocalization field asserts crying in humans is an evolutionary equivalent to 22-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations which predicts anxiety and depression. His lab is currently developing a series of experiments to validate crying as a predictor of performance on a stressful task utilizing concomitant biofeedback and circulating stress hormone concentrations measures.