Stephanie Leal (Leal Memory Lab)

🚨Check out our latest paper from the lab! Great work @morales-calva.bsky.social !

Applying for a Ph.D.? These 10 tips can help you succeed Our Letters to Young Scientists columnists offer their advice

If you are applying to a PhD program, be sure to check out these tips! 👇👇👇

www.science.org/content/arti...

Make your voice impossible to ignore. If you support the Menopause Care Equity Act let @gavinnewsom.bsky.social know in the link below 👇🏼 #AB432

🚨Attending ISPNE in New Orleans?🚨

Be sure to stop by graduate student Beatriz Brandao’s poster today 9/3 5:30 - 8 pm.

She will be discussing results from her recently published Hormones & Behavior paper examining emotion regulation and memory in hormonal contraceptive users!

Check out a new preprint from Adi, postdoc working with me and Jeff Zacks. I’m *extremely* excited to finally, officially get this out into the world 🙂

These findings suggest that hormonal contraceptives influence both the ability to regulate emotions as well as subsequent impact on memory for those experiences in ways different than naturally cycling women.

When examining memory, we found that HC users who applied ER strategies during encoding showed reduced negative lure discrimination and increased positive lure discrimination.

Participants rated their negative and positive affect during encoding. Then, we tested participants memory for the images.

We found that HC users showed more successful ER use, particularly those using the distancing and immersion strategies.

We trained participants in several emotion regulation strategies (distancing and reinterpretation towards negative images and immersion towards positive images). Participants applied these strategies during encoding of an emotional mnemonic discrimination task.

Check out our latest paper published in Hormones & Behavior!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We found that hormonal contraceptive users were better able to apply trained emotion regulation strategies, which reduced negative memory!

Our department is seeking applicants for an Assistant Professor position with a focus on affective science. Please apply and/or pass this along to anyone who might be interested! facultypositions.stanford.edu/en-us/job/49...

What we discover at UCLA goes far beyond our lab - this work is meant to make an impact on society to change how we treat conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and PTSD. #ResearchPowersProgress
🧠🎼💙💛
newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/mus...

Congratulations @morales-calva.bsky.social! 2025 best article in CABN ❤️ If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to check it out. Link below 👇🏻

We’re hiring! Pls share widely:

In conjunction w/ the @bowers-wbhi.bsky.social, my team is recruiting a full-time clinical research coordinator to assist with research efforts at UC Santa Barbara. 1-2 yrs experience in MRI data collection preferred.

Submit apps to: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974

Fun chat with @theguardian about the power of music in stirring up our emotions and how that impacts our memories 🎶

Earlier Detection of Alzheimer’s Could Help Reduce Its Most Devastating Effects Heidi Jacobs, PhD, is a leader in Alzheimer’s disease research whose personal experience with the disease strengthens her passion for finding a cure — something she is well on her way to achieving.

Learn about our work towards earlier detection of Alzheimer's disease. Despite NIH-funding being delayed, terminated, and uncertain, we are fiercely committed to these goals! Link for donations to support our work is at the bottom of the page, or reach out.
giving.massgeneral.org/stories/earl...

Hi Alicia, would love to get involved in any way I can! Looks like a great opportunity for students.

🚨Attending SBN?🚨

Stop by graduate student Beatriz Brandao’s poster tomorrow Tuesday July 15 4:30-6:30pm (Poster Session 2, #32) examining the impact of hormonal contraceptive use on memory and emotion regulation! #SBN2025

Exciting to see our work featured in Forbes!

This is awesome!

GitHub - Kirwanlab/MR-compatible-clips: STL files for 3D printing MR-compatible clips for a Siemens scanner STL files for 3D printing MR-compatible clips for a Siemens scanner - Kirwanlab/MR-compatible-clips

Do you ever get tired of cables getting caught as you're putting a research subject into the MRI scanner? Do you wish you had a 3D-printable model of clips that slide into the slot on the side of your Siemens MRI scanner bed? Well look no further! github.com/Kirwanlab/MR...

🚨Check out our latest work published in The Journal of Neuroscience! We examined post-encoding music impacts on memory and found gist verses detail tradeoffs in memory that depended on music-induced emotional arousal. 🎼

Everything, everywhere, all at once: Inside the chaos of Alzheimer’s disease To truly understand Alzheimer’s disease, we may need to take a systems approach, in which inflammation, vascular injury, impaired glucose metabolism and other factors interact in complex ways.

Electric art by Saiman Chow for today's essay: Everything, everywhere, all at once: Inside the chaos of Alzheimer’s disease. by Michael A. Yassa @thetransmitter.bsky.social: www.thetransmitter.org/alzheimers-d... #sciart

Same 🫠

10 more minutes to stop by!

🚨Attending APS 2025?🚨

Be sure to stop by @morales-calva.bsky.social poster TODAY from 4-5pm! Fernanda will be presenting her work examining cultural impacts on perception and memory. Details below. #APS25DC

Join us in beautiful Santa Barbara! We're hiring a full-time junior specialist/research technician to play a central role in data collection & analysis of brain imaging studies of pregnancy & menopause.

Learn more & apply at: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974

Or help us spread the word 💫

So incredibly proud of the two graduates from the lab today!! Lorena is the first PhD student to graduate from my lab, and Maddie received her Masters along the way to her PhD! Enjoy and celebrate these moments! 💙

Love this, that’s a great idea!

Summer Research Program in Neuroscience & Computation For undergrads interested in exploring the brain and learning how to code No prior experience necessary! June - August 2025 UCSF Mission Bay campus 25-30 hours/week commitment Learn more & apply: http://tiny.cc/ucsfcompneuro/ Students from backgrounds historically underrepresented in STEM are encouraged to apply!

New opportunity for Bay Area undergrads to gain computational neuroscience exposure and training!

I’m teaming up with @neuronush.bsky.social to offer this to students in our communities 💕🧠🧪

Please share with any students who might be interested!

Tiny.cc/ucsfcompneuro