Layla Banihashemi, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Bioengineering

Areas of Expertise

  • Mood Disorders
  • Anxiety, OCD & Trauma Disorders
  • Basic & Translational Neuroscience
Layla Banihashemi, PhD
Expertise & Interests Selected Publications Education & Credentials Related News

Expertise & Interests

Research Interests

Stress-related neural circuitry; Childhood threat and deprivation; Infant neurodevelopment and emotionality

Clinical Interests

Mood and anxiety disorders; Trauma-related disorders; Childhood adversity

Education Interests

Research mentorship; Graduate student education; Medical student education

Selected Publications

  1. Zhang Y, Banihashemi L, Versace A. et al. Associations among white matter microstructural changes and the development of emotional reactivity and regulation in infancy. Mol Psychiatry 30, 31683174 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-025-03025-w
  2. Sibbach BM, Karim HT, Lo D. et al. Manual segmentation of the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and the dorsal and ventral bed nucleus of stria terminalis?using multimodal?7?Tesla?structural?MRI: probabilistic atlases for a stress-control triad. Brain Struct Funct 229, 273283 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-023-02713-z
  3. Banihashemi L, Schmithorst VJ, Bertocci MA, Samolyk A, Zhang YJ, Lima Santos P, Versace A, Taylor M, English G, Northrup JB, Lee VK, Stiffler R, Aslam H, Panigrahy A, Hipwell AE & Phillips ML, Neural network functional interactions mediate or suppress white matter emotional Behavior relationships in infants, ISSN 0006-3223, Biological Psychiatry, Volume 94, Issue 1, 2023, Pages 57-67, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.03.004.
  4. Banihashemi L, Peng CW, Anusha R, Karim HT , Wallace ML, Sibbach BM , Singh J, Stinley MM, Germain A & Aizenstein HJ. Childhood threat Is associated with lower resting-state Connectivity within a central visceral network, Frontiers in Psychology, Volume 13 - 2022 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.805049
  5. Banihashemi L, Peng CW, Verstynen T, et al. Opposing relationships of childhood threat and deprivation with stria terminalis white matter. Hum Brain Mapp. 2021; 1 16. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25378

Education & Credentials

Education & Training

Education
PhD, Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh
Postdoctoral
Functional Neuroimaging of Stress Reactivity, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Postdoctoral
Cardiovascular Behavior Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Professional Affiliations

  • Member, Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine
  • Member, Society of Biological Psychiatry

Selected Honors & Awards

  • Paul D. MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine, Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine
  • Fellow, Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine
  • Top Poster Award, Society of Biological Psychiatry
  • MacLean Scholar Award, American Psychosomatic Society

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