My academic path has taken me from a PhD (Experimental Psychology) at the University of Sussex in the UK, to a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, followed by three years teaching full-time as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Dixie State University. I then took a two year career break to cycle from Alaska to Argentina (because there is more to life than academia!), and returned to take up my current role as the scientific manager of the Stress, Trauma and Anxiety Research Clinic in Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University, Detroit. I continue to teach as an adjunct professor at DSU.
I am a Translational Neuroscientist whose research focuses stress and trauma-related disorders. My work has utilized both a validated animal model of PTSD, as well as clinical populations recruited from specialist anxiety disorders clinics and veterans affairs hospitals. My current research projects include examining the impact of war and resettlement trauma in Syrian and Iraqi refugees, and assessing the clinical efficacy of using augmented reality to treat anxiety disorders and PTSD.
Publications:
Jensen C, Sloane C, Gates R, Cerchiari,,Jessica,N, Janson S, Erbe K, Winder L, Olson KJ, George SA. The Relationship Between Religious Fundamentalism, Conservatism, and Perceptions of Substance and Behavioral Addictions. The Journal of Psychology and the Behavioral Sciences. 2020; 27:70-79.
George SA, Sheynin J, Gonzalez R, Liberzon I, Abelson JL. Diminished Value Discrimination in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Prospect Theory Model of Decision-Making Under Risk. Front Psychiatry. 2019;10:469. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00469. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31338043; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6628634.
George SA, Rodriguez-Santiago M, Riley J, Abelson JL, Floresco SB, Liberzon I. D-Cycloserine Facilitates Reversal in an Animal Model of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Jul 16;347:332-338. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2018.03.037. Epub 2018 Mar 23. PubMed PMID: 29580893.
Chen CV, George SA, Liberzon I. Stress and Anxiety Disorders. Hormones, Brain, and Behavior, 3rd Edition. Editors in Chief: Donald W Pfaff Marian Joels. 2016 November; 3:251-274.
Vanderheyden WM, George SA, Urpa L, Kehoe M, Liberzon I, Poe GR. Sleep alterations following exposure to stress predict fear-associated memory impairments in a rodent model of PTSD. Exp Brain Res. 2015 Aug;233(8):2335-46. doi: 10.1007/s00221-015-4302-0. Epub 2015 May 28. PubMed PMID: 26019008; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4827610.
George SA, Rodriguez-Santiago M, Riley J, Abelson JL, Floresco SB, Liberzon I. Alterations in cognitive flexibility in a rat model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Behav Brain Res. 2015 Jun 1;286:256-64. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2015.02.051. Epub 2015 Mar 5. PubMed PMID: 25746511.
George SA, Rodriguez-Santiago M, Riley J, Rodriguez E, Liberzon I. The effect of chronic phenytoin administration on single prolonged stress induced extinction retention deficits and glucocorticoid upregulation in the rat medial prefrontal cortex. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2015 Jan;232(1):47-56. doi: 10.1007/s00213-014-3635-x. Epub 2014 May 31. PubMed PMID: 24879497.
George SA, Stout SA, Tan M, Knox D, Liberzon I. Early handling attenuates enhancement of glucocorticoid receptors in the prefrontal cortex in an animal model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Biol Mood Anxiety Disord. 2013 Dec 2;3(1):22. doi: 10.1186/2045-5380-3-22. PubMed PMID: 24289278; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4175489.
George SA, Knox D, Curtis AL, Aldridge JW, Valentino RJ, Liberzon I. Altered locus coeruleus-norepinephrine function following single prolonged stress. Eur J Neurosci. 2013 Mar;37(6):901-9. doi: 10.1111/ejn.12095. Epub 2012 Dec 20. PubMed PMID: 23279008.
Knox D, Fitzpatrick CJ, George SA, Abelson JL, Liberzon I. Unconditioned freezing is enhanced in an appetitive context: implications for the contextual dependency of unconditioned fear. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2012 May;97(4):386-92. doi: 10.1016/j.nlm.2012.03.002. Epub 2012 Mar 17. PubMed PMID: 22446013.
Knox D, George SA, Fitzpatrick CJ, Rabinak CA, Maren S, Liberzon I. Single prolonged stress disrupts retention of extinguished fear in rats. Learn Mem. 2012 Feb;19(2):43-9. doi: 10.1101/lm.024356.111. Print 2012 Feb. PubMed PMID: 22240323; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3262971.
Blagrove M, Seddon J, George S, Parrott AC, Stickgold R, Walker MP, Jones KA, Morgan MJ. Procedural and declarative memory task performance, and the memory consolidation function of sleep, in recent and abstinent ecstasy/MDMA users. J Psychopharmacol. 2011 Apr;25(4):465-77. doi: 10.1177/0269881110372545. Epub 2010 Jul 8. PubMed PMID: 20615932; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3604193.
Knox D, Perrine SA, George SA, Galloway MP, Liberzon I. Single prolonged stress decreases glutamate, glutamine, and creatine concentrations in the rat medial prefrontal cortex. Neurosci Lett. 2010 Aug 9;480(1):16-20. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.05.052. Epub 2010 May 28. PubMed PMID: 20546834; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2902659.
Liberzon I, George SA. SSRI-enhanced locus coeruleus activity and adolescent suicide: lessons from animal models. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2010 Jul;35(8):1619-20. doi: 10.1038/npp.2010.57. PubMed PMID: 20551898; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3055472.
George SA, Khan S, Briggs H, Abelson JL. CRH-stimulated cortisol release and food intake in healthy, non-obese adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 May;35(4):607-12. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.09.017. Epub 2009 Oct 13. PubMed PMID: 19828258; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2843773.
George SA, Hutson PH, Stephens DN. Differential effects of MPEP and diazepam in tests of conditioned emotional response and Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer suggests ‘anxiolytic’ effects are mediated by different mechanisms. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2009 Jun;204(3):499-509. doi: 10.1007/s00213-009-1479-6. Epub 2009 Feb 11. PubMed PMID: 19205667.
George S, Rogers RD, Duka T. The acute effect of alcohol on decision making in social drinkers. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2005 Oct;182(1):160-9. doi: 10.1007/s00213-005-0057-9. Epub 2005 Sep 29. PubMed PMID: 16032411.