Alessia Santor
Visiting Student (2017)

Contact: alessia.santori@uniroma1.it

Research. ​​​My research is focused on the interaction between stress hormones and the endocannabinoid system, evaluating its impact on emotional memory. During my research period at Dr. Matthew Hill’s lab (2017), I examined how circadian rhythm, stress intensity and sex differences influence endocannabinoid modulation of emotional memory. Currently, I am investigating whether endocannabinoids differentially regulate fear memory retrieval depending on the environment-associated emotional arousal and if any alteration of the hippocampus-basolateral amygdala functional connectivity interfere in their modulation of memory. To this aim, I am using a wide range of techniques, such as pharmacology, optogenetics, immunohistochemistry and behavioural tests.

​Hobbies. ​​​In my spare time, I love taking pictures, hiking, watching TV shows and having happy hours with friends.​​

Favourite paper. ​Favourite paper: “Creating a false memory in the hippocampus.” (Ramirez et al., 2013). Is there anything else in the reality that is more similar to Inception by Christopher Nolan?

Publications

List of publications​

Education

​​I completed my MSc in Medicinal Chemistry (2017) from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy). My enthusiasm for cognitive neuroscience grew in Prof. Patrizia Campolongo’s lab, where I first approached to the cannabinoid field. In 2018, I joined Prof. Ryan LaLumiere’s lab (University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA) for a research period abroad.