Dr. Benjamin Suarez Jimenez
Understanding how experiences and trauma exposure alter the brain may improve diagnosis and targeted care of conditions such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I have. Dr. Benjamin Suarez Jimenezan assistant professor of neuroscience, has been researching this topic for the past several years and has awarded a new $3.5 million grant to examine the circuitry of threat, reward, and cognitive mapping using virtual reality and MRI. it was done PTSD, traumaWhen Resilience.
Over the next five years, this funding from the National Institute of Mental Health will: ZVR lab To build on the work of investigating brain regions that construct spatial maps, distinguishing areas of the environment that are particularly relevant to emotions.The latest from Suarez Jimenez research We identified changes in saliency networks (mechanisms in the brain used for learning and survival) in people exposed to trauma (with or without psychopathologies such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety).his Previous research Those with anxiety revealed increased activation in the insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. This indicates that their brains associated known safe areas with danger or threat.
“This RO1-supported project will investigate whether neural processes identified in the past are threat-specific or extend to reward processing,” said Suarez-Jimenez. We are also investigating how the allocation of attention to several visual cues in a virtual reality task changes from pre-task experience to post-task experience. We hope it will help identify better ways to diagnose PTSD and improve treatment.”
Suarez-Jimenez came to college in January 2021. Neuroscience Diversity Committee and served as a mentor NEyouOCITY program.
