March 29, 2024

Huff receives National Research Service Award

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa graduate student Mary Huff, a native of Greenfield, was recently awarded a National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institutes of Health to fund her research on the roles of different neural pathways during memory consolidation in fear conditioning.

Huff, a doctoral student in psychology at the UI, is focusing her research on the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a small area of the brain that has long been implicated in disorders such as phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder. The BLA has also been shown to modulate memory consolidation for many types of learning.

A fourth-year scholar in the behavioral and cognitive neuroscience program, Huff decided to attend the UI for her graduate education because of its reputation for academic excellence, specifically in the psychology department, and the proximity to her family.