Jamie Pierson is the Senior Research Principal of the Translational OCD Laboratory at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital and an Instructor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh.
Jamie earned her PhD in Psychology with a Neuroscience focus from Miami University, where she studied the neural mechanisms of fear and anxiety. She then joined the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC as a staff scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Susanne Ahmari, where she investigates the neural circuits underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
She has been a faculty member in the Department of Neuroscience since 2018, where she teaches Brain and Behavior. Jamie also mentors undergraduate and graduate trainees, supporting their development in laboratory research, scientific writing, and career planning.
Her current research investigates the circuit-level mechanisms that drive compulsive behaviors and seeks to identify novel strategies for intervention. Jamie is committed to combining research and education to advance understanding of the biological bases of psychiatric illness while preparing the next generation of neuroscientists and clinician-scientists.
Courses Taught at Pitt
- NROSCI 0080 - Brain and Behavior
Representative Publications
Pierson JL, Pullins SE, Quinn JJ. Dorsal hippocampus infusions of CNQX into the dentate gyrus disrupt expression of trace fear conditioning. Hippocampus. 2015 Jul;25(7):779-85. doi: 10.1002/hipo.22413. Epub 2015 Jan 20. PMID: 25565270.
Beeman CL, Bauer PS, Pierson JL, Quinn JJ. Hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex contributions to trace and contextual fear memory expression over time. Learn Mem. 2013 May 17;20(6):336-43. doi: 10.1101/lm.031161.113. PMID: 23685809.
Quinn JJ, Pittenger C, Lee AS, Pierson JL, Taylor JR. Striatum-dependent habits are insensitive to both increases and decreases in reinforcer value in mice. Eur J Neurosci. 2013 Mar;37(6):1012-21. doi: 10.1111/ejn.12106. Epub 2013 Jan 9. PMID: 23298231; PMCID: PMC3604187.
Crummy EA, Chamberlain BL, Gamboa JP, Pierson JL, Ahmari SE. Persistent Threat Avoidance Following Negative Reinforcement Is Not Associated with Elevated State Anxiety. J Neurosci. 2025 Jan 8;45(2):e0815242024. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0815-24.2024. PMID: 39505409; PMCID: PMC11714351.
Piantadosi SC, Manning EE, Chamberlain BL, Hyde J, LaPalombara Z, Bannon NM, Pierson JL, K Namboodiri VM, Ahmari SE. Hyperactivity of indirect pathway- projecting spiny projection neurons promotes compulsive behavior. Nat Commun. 2024 May 24;15(1):4434. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48331-z. PMID: 38789416; PMCID: PMC11126597.
Manning EE, Geramita MA, Piantadosi SC, Pierson JL, Ahmari SE. Distinct Patterns of Abnormal Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Activity During Compulsive Grooming and Reversal Learning Normalize After Fluoxetine. Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Jun 1;93(11):989-999. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.11.018. Epub 2021 Nov 27. PMID: 35094880.
O'Reilly, Kally & Connor, Michelle & Pierson, Jamie & Shuffrey, Lauren & Blakely, Randy & Ahmari, Susanne & Veenstra-VanderWeele, Jeremy. (2021). Serotonin 5-HT1B receptor-mediated behavior and binding in mice with the overactive and dysregulated serotonin transporter Ala56 variant. Psychopharmacology. 238. 10.1007/s00213-020-05758-8.