Tressa Pantalena

About

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers​​

Languages: English

​Tressa Pantalena is a PhD student in neuroscience at Stony Brook University. Her research focuses on cognitive deficits associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia, which she investigates through neonatal learning behavior and electrophysiology. Her long-term goal is to advance the field of psychiatry by improving our understanding of how these deficits emerge during neurodevelopment and by identifying novel
pharmacological targets for complex neuropsychiatric dysfunction. She is deeply passionate about research on neurodevelopmental, mood, and psychotic disorders.

Before beginning graduate school, Tressa earned a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Neuroscience from Quinnipiac University. During her undergraduate training, she participated in research for three academic years and one summer fellowship. Her primary laboratory studied the neural mechanisms underlying motivated behavior, Pavlovian learning, depression-relevant thalamic activity, and effort-based decision making. She also worked with a second PI to study chronic and early-life stress, hippocampal-prefrontal circuit dysfunction, fear memory reactivation, and sex-specific hormonal influence on learning and stress responses. The extensive guidance and mentorship provided by her PIs allowed her to develop proficiency in experimental design and advanced laboratory techniques early in her scientific career.

Additionally, Tressa completed a full-time summer internship through the University of Connecticut Health Center’s Summer Research Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, where her contributions to the laboratory’s research culminated in her first scientific publication. Tressa's passion for scientific research and science communication is rooted in a deep commitment to reducing the stigma surrounding mental health disorders by advancing our understanding of the biological mechanisms underlying human behavior and disease. She believes that fostering a greater biological understanding of psychiatric illness will not only encourage broader participation in medical and scientific research, but also bring essential perspectives, advocacy, and inclusivity to the field of psychiatry.