Maylen Perez Diaz, Ph.D.

Dr. Maylen Perez Diaz joined the London Laboratory in January 2018 as a postdoctoral research scholar with an interest in the use of multi-modal neuroimaging approaches to study the neural substrates of nicotine addiction, as well as its cognitive, endocrine, and behavioral correlates. Her current work focuses specifically on sex differences in brain glutamate, resting-state connectivity, and cue-induced craving, as well as in the relationships between these measures with smoking-related states and sex hormones. Her graduate work was completed in the laboratories of Drs. Leonard Howell and Mark Wilson at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, where she examined the relationships between compulsive and addictive behaviors in a non-human primate model. Her thesis work focused on the long-term impacts of methamphetamine and high caloric food intake on compulsive behavior, and the role of serotonin 5-HT2C receptors. Dr. Perez Diaz manages the smoking neuroimaging studies in the lab.