Jennie Stevenson

Education

• B.S., Neuroscience, Davidson College
• Ph.D., Neurobiology, University of North Carolina

My Research

Why we need each other. One of my research areas is understanding how and why having social support and bonds makes us healthy. In my lab we study prairie voles, a complexly social rodent that forms life-long bonds, to understand the benefits of having bonded partners. To understand this, my students and I analyze their behavior, as well as cellular, and neurobiological measures.

Connectedness. Though we are often unaware of it, we are inseparable from everything around us. To be here reading this, everything else also had to be: your parents, their parents, and so on, all the way back; the nutrients that make and sustain you (which requires the whole natural world); and all the people that have made you the person you are and brought you to this moment. Our existence is so complexly interconnected. Connectedness is the feeling or sensation of being connected. It’s the feeling you get when you feel safe and understood with a good friend or family, the ease and contentment you feel snuggling with your dog, the peace and vitality you experience in your favorite place in nature. In my lab, we are working to understand what connectedness is on both a psychological and physiological level and why connectedness is so important to our health and wellbeing. For this research, students and I work together to collect and analyze self-report and physiological data from people in our community. 

Recent Courses Taught

• NEUR 254 Behavioral Neuroscience
• PSYC 250 Biopsychology
• PSYC 341/NEUR 310 Neurophysiology of Wellbeing
• PSYC 368/NEUR 368 Social Neuroscience
• PSYC 290 Advanced Research Methods in Biopsychology
• Foundation Seminar: FOUN098 Connect Yourself
• Integrated Perspectives Course: UNIV200 Drugs and Consequences