About

Dr. Erin Campbell is a research assistant professor at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her research focuses on early language and cognition among children born deaf and/or blind, examining how perceptual experiences such as seeing, hearing, and touch, along with language input, influence early language development. She also investigates how children and adults learn words for things they cannot directly experience. Dr. Campbell employs multiple methodologies, including eye-tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), behavioral studies, and corpus work, and works with both spoken and signed languages. She earned her PhD in cognition and cognitive neuroscience from Duke University, where her dissertation research on the influence of early sensory and linguistic experience on lexical development was published in respected journals. Her scholarly work explores sensory language acquisition, vocabulary development in children with sensory impairments, and the impact of early sensory and linguistic experiences on language learning. Dr. Campbell's background includes a BA in Speech Language Pathology & Audiology, Deaf Studies, and Disability Studies from Towson University, and her research contributes to understanding language development in populations with sensory impairments.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Medicine
• Biology
• Psychiatry
• Philosophy

Selected publications

• Sex differences in neural circuits driving binge drinking: A female-specific role for an amygdalo-striatal pathway

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2026-02-12

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Background Rates of binge drinking have converged significantly between the sexes over recent decades, driven by increased rates of alcohol misuse in women. However, understanding of fundamental circuitry and neurobiology driving alcohol use in females, or how this may differ from male subjects remains underexplored. Methods We quantified c-Fos expression across 40 brain regions in alcohol naïve, alcohol anticipating and binge drinking male and female mice. In vivo fiber photometry examined sex differences in basolateral amygdala (BLA) activity changes to alcohol intake. Chemogenetic BLA inhibition investigated a functional role in binge drinking. We then assessed sex differences in BLA efferent projection activation following binge drinking. Finally, we functionally interrogated the BLA to nucleus accumbens core (AcbC) projection in binge drinking. Results Binge drinking reduced network modularity (number of communities with similar activation patterns) in both sexes relative to alcohol naive and anticipating same-sex counterparts. Female binge drinking mice had increased BLA c-Fos expression compared to female naïve and male binge drinking counterparts. In vivo fiber photometry revealed greater and more prolonged BLA responsivity at the onset of alcohol intake in females. Global BLA inhibition reduced reward intake in both sexes. However, the BLA to AcbC projection was preferentially activated in female binge drinking mice, and inhibition of this pathway reduced binge alcohol intake exclusively in females. Conclusions We identified sex differences in the neural circuits engaged in binge drinking, highlighting the BLA to AcbC projection may in part underpin sex differences in alcohol misuse. This provides further evidence of distinct neurobiological drivers of alcohol-related behaviors between the sexes.

  PublisherDOI

• 107. Examining the Role of Hypothalamic Corticotrophin Releasing Hormone Neurons in Behavioural Dysfunction Relevant to Stress Related Disorders

  Biological Psychiatry · 2026-04-25

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Oil and Gas Development and Adverse Birth Outcomes: A Qualitative and Quantitative Bias Analysis of the Epidemiologic Literature

  Current Environmental Health Reports · 2026-03-10

  article
  PublisherDOI

• MDMA alters fear extinction, and reduces alcohol consumption in inbred alcohol preferring iP rats but not outbred Wistar rats

  Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026-03-27

  articleOpen access

  Comorbidity between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use is common and mutually-reinforcing, yet there are no pharmacological strategies that specifically target trauma-linked escalation of alcohol intake. We evaluated whether 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), given in a therapy-adjunctive fashion (30 min before fear extinction), could facilitate extinction of conditioned fear and reduce alcohol consumption in a rat model that combines fear conditioning, binge-like alcohol access, abstinence, and re-exposure. Inbred alcohol-preferring (iP) and outbred Wistar rats of both sexes underwent auditory fear conditioning, voluntary ethanol drinking, and subsequently fear extinction after MDMA or vehicle administration, with drug-free extinction recall and alcohol consumption assessed thereafter. Fear conditioning increased voluntary alcohol intake only in iP rats, suggesting a genotype-related fear-alcohol contingency. MDMA acutely reduced freezing during extinction, but ultimately reshaped across-session freezing patterns in a strain- and sex-dependent manner. There were no lasting MDMA treatment effects on next-day drug-free recall. MDMA also altered on-drug fear-expression during extinction without affecting later recall in an iP rat cohort without prior alcohol exposure, indicating the effect is not secondary to drinking history. Critically, MDMA prevented the shock-related increase in alcohol consumption but only in iP rats. These data suggest MDMA's most reliable action in this model is to disrupt trauma-linked escalation of alcohol intake in genetically- and experientially- vulnerable rats, rather than to globally enhance fear extinction.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Examining the predictive validity of alcohol‐seeking following punishment‐imposed abstinence in mice

  Alcohol Clinical and Experimental Research · 2025-05-27 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: A defining feature of alcohol use disorder that has captured the attention of fundamental researchers is "persistent use despite negative consequences." The last two decades have seen the preclinical field adopt the use of punishment to model the adverse consequences associated with alcohol use. However, existing research has focused on rats as the model of choice and alcohol consumption as the prevailing outcome measure. Additionally, the predictive validity of these models, that is, testing currently approved FDA treatments, is yet to be realized. METHODS: Here, we examined punishment-imposed abstinence in mice using foot shock and measured reinstatement of alcohol-seeking following exposure to alcohol-associated cues and environmental contexts. RESULTS: We showed that mice voluntarily abstain from alcohol use when it is paired with a foot shock. Alcohol-associated cues and environmental contexts produced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior. Finally, the predictive validity of our model was tested using naltrexone and varenicline, two medications to treat alcohol use disorder. Both naltrexone and varenicline reduced reinstatement of alcohol-seeking in male and female mice. CONCLUSIONS: Together, these data suggest that mice can display reinstatement of alcohol-seeking behavior following voluntary abstinence, and this model could be used to identify new medications for relapse prevention induced by environmental cues and contexts.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Effect of Serotonin 5‐HT _2C Receptor Modulation on Binge Drinking and Alcohol‐Seeking in Female Mice

  Addiction Biology · 2025-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT Alcohol misuse remains a leading cause of preventable death worldwide, prompting research into novel pharmacotherapies for alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study investigated the therapeutic potential of full agonism or positive allosteric modulation of the serotonin 2C receptor (5‐HT 2C R) in addressing alcohol binge drinking and seeking behaviours in mice. Using a drinking‐in‐the‐dark paradigm and a context‐induced reinstatement model following punishment‐imposed abstinence, we assessed the acute effects of 5‐HT 2C R ligands lorcaserin, CYD‐1‐79, VA012 and CTW0415 on alcohol intake and seeking behaviours in mice. Results showed that while lorcaserin effectively reduced both alcohol consumption and seeking behaviours, the 5‐HT 2C R positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) did not significantly alter these behaviours over the range of doses examined. These findings suggest that 5‐HT 2C R PAMs, at the tested doses, may lack intrinsic efficacy in modulating alcohol use. However, our lorcaserin data demonstrate that targeting 5‐HT 2C R remains a valid approach to reduce behaviours associated with AUD.

  PublisherDOI

• Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for alcohol use disorder – can parameter selection be leveraged to optimise treatment?

  2025-04-14

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  As technology rapidly advances, the evidence for the efficacy of brain-based therapeutics, such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for the treatment of numerous neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions continues to grow. Indeed, promising therapeutic results to date have led to several international regulatory bodies approving the use of rTMS for the treatment of depression, tobacco smoking cessation, migraines and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is encouraging, as the use of rTMS could be successfully expanded to treat other indications such as alcohol use disorder. This review outlines the current clinical literature on the use of rTMS to treat alcohol use disorder with a focus on rTMS parameters. We aim to understand if stimulation parameter flexibility may open the door to tailored treatment for alcohol use disorder. We emphasize that whilst rTMS presents as a promising new therapeutic option for alcohol use disorder, the current evidence for its efficacy and our understanding of optimal treatment parameters are limited. Finally, we highlight the gaps that need to be filled when considering the use of rTMS to treat alcohol use disorder.

  PublisherDOI

• Proximity of public K-12 schools to oil and gas development in the U.S.: Implications for environmental justice and children’s health

  ISEE Conference Abstracts · 2024-07-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Optogenetic recruitment of hypothalamic corticotrophin-releasing-hormone (CRH) neurons reduces motivational drive

  Translational Psychiatry · 2024-01-08 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Impaired motivational drive is a key feature of depression. Chronic stress is a known antecedent to the development of depression in humans and depressive-like states in animals. Whilst there is a clear relationship between stress and motivational drive, the mechanisms underpinning this association remain unclear. One hypothesis is that the endocrine system, via corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN; PVN CRH ), initiates a hormonal cascade resulting in glucocorticoid release, and that excessive glucocorticoids change brain circuit function to produce depression-related symptoms. Another mostly unexplored hypothesis is that the direct activity of PVN CRH neurons and their input to other stress- and reward-related brain regions drives these behaviors. To further understand the direct involvement of PVN CRH neurons in motivation, we used optogenetic stimulation to activate these neurons 1 h/day for 5 consecutive days and showed increased acute stress-related behaviors and long-lasting deficits in the motivational drive for sucrose. This was associated with increased Fos-protein expression in the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Direct stimulation of the PVN CRH inputs in the LH produced a similar pattern of effects on sucrose motivation. Together, these data suggest that PVN CRH neuronal activity may be directly responsible for changes in motivational drive and that these behavioral changes may, in part, be driven by PVN CRH synaptic projections to the LH.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Changes in traffic-related air pollution exposures and associations with adverse birth outcomes over 20 years in Texas

  International Journal of Epidemiology · 2024-12-16 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Billions of dollars have been spent implementing regulations to reduce traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) from exhaust pipe emissions. However, few health studies have evaluated the change in TRAP emissions and associations with infant health outcomes. We hypothesize that the magnitude of association between vehicle exposure measures and adverse birth outcomes has decreased over time, parallelling regulatory improvements in exhaust pipe emissions. METHODS: Using birth records in Texas from 1996 to 2016, we calculated residential exposure measures related to TRAP: nitrogen dioxide (NO2, a marker of the TRAP mixture), vehicle miles travelled within 500 m of homes (VMT500), a measure of traffic volume, and highway proximity. Using an accountability study framework, our analysis examined term birthweight, term low birthweight (TLBW) (<2500 g), preterm birth (PTB) (<37 weeks) and very preterm birth (VPTB) (<32 weeks). We implemented linear and logistic regression models to examine overall and time-stratified associations, including trends by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic groups. RESULTS: Among exposures for 6 158 518 births, NO2 exposures decreased 59% over time but VMT500 remained relatively stable. TRAP-related exposure measures were persistently associated with harmful birth outcomes [e.g. OR1996-2016 of 1.07 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.08) for TLBW comparing the highest vs lowest NO2 quintile]. The magnitude of associations decreased for total VMT500 and TLBW (-60%, OR1996: 1.08 to OR2016: 1.03 for the highest vs lowest quintile) and PTB (-65%) and VTPT (-61%), but not for term birthweight. CONCLUSIONS: We observed evidence of small improvements in birth outcomes associated with reductions in exhaust pipe emissions over a 20-year period in Texas.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Christopher V. Dayas

  University of Newcastle Australia

  150 shared

• Gavan P. McNally

  Hunter Medical Research Institute

  138 shared

• Caitlin S. Mitchell

  Tufts University

  136 shared

• Brett A. Graham

  136 shared

• Simon D. Fisher

  Monash University

  134 shared

• Amy J. Pearl

  Hunter Medical Research Institute

  134 shared

• Elizabeth E. Manning

  University of Calgary

  134 shared

• Jaideep S. Bains

  University of Calgary

  132 shared

Labs

• Wheelock College of Education & Human DevelopmentPI

Education

• PhD (Anatomy)

  University of Newcastle

  2016

• Bachelor of Psychology (Hons 1)

  University of Newcastle

  2012