Steve Maren

Steve Maren is a behavioral neuroscientist who specializes in the neurobiology of learning and memory, particularly memory for fearful experiences. His work has driven new empirical and theoretical work in the field and has been foundational to understanding the basic synaptic and circuit mechanisms underlying both normal and pathological fear memories. His current research focus is on the contextual regulation of memory encoding and retrieval and the impact of stress on and the extinction of fear (a model of exposure therapy in humans). His laboratory uses behavioral and systems neuroscience methods to understand the brain mechanisms of fear and anxiety in rodent model, including calcium imaging, in vivo electrophysiology, and optogenetics in behaving animals.  Maren's group has identified a triad of interconnected brain areas including the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex that are critical for these processes. Dysfunction in these circuits  contributes to fear and anxiety disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). More recent work has explored the role for locus coeruleus noradrenergic transmission in stress-induced impairments in extinction learning. This work has shown that a common blood pressure medication, propranolol, can facilitate extinction learning under stress, suggesting a new approach for improving exposure therapy in stressed people. 

Maren is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and Association for Psychological Science, Past-President of the Pavlovian Society, and a member of the scientific council of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1995. He began his research career as an undergraduate honors student in here at Illinois working with Dr. Michael Gabriel, first in the Psychology Building and later the Beckman Institute when it opened its doors in 1989.  He went on to receive his doctorate in neurobiology from the University of Southern California in 1993 working with Dr. Richard F. Thompson and obtained postdoctoral training with Dr. Michael Fanselow at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has held faculty positions at the University of Michigan (1996-2012) and Texas A&M University (2012-2024), where he was University Distinguished Professor and Charles H. Gregory Chair of Liberal Arts. In 2024, he returned to the University of Illinois to become the Director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.