Dr. Holsen is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Research Associate in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Holsen is a clinical neuroscientist working at the intersection of stress, eating behaviors, hormones, and brain, and sex differences therein. Her research focuses on the biological mechanisms — neural, neuroendocrine, and genetic — behind abnormal food motivation; stress response functioning and emotion regulation in individuals with major depression; the role of ghrelin and other metabolic hormones in mesolimbic circuitry responsivity, stress-related food intake, and cognitive functioning; and investigations of neural mechanisms of successful long-term weight loss maintenance. Research in Dr. Holsen’s lab uses functional MRI and neuroendocrine assessment in mood disorders, eating disorders, and obesity, with a goal of ameliorating the negative health outcomes of these conditions through identification of modifiable neurobiological targets that drive appetite, eating behaviors and cognition, and weight change.