Amy Silvestri Hunter, Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Psychology

My research investigates the importance of sleep from various perspectives: its role in emotional memory in animals, its relationship to memory errors in humans, and its alteration in individuals with concussion. I have interests in the basic science aspects of this work - such as the role of sleep in emotional memory in animals and memory errors in humans - as well as translational work with applications to disorders involving impairments of memory such as PTSD and concussion.

For decades my research focused on understanding the basic mechanisms of sleep and emotional memory in laboratory animals. I discovered that short-term REM sleep deprivation produces a memory impairment that is comparable to one of the fundamental symptoms of PTSD. More recently, I have been collaborating with Marianne Lloyd, Ph.D., to investigate the relationship between sleep and sleep disturbances to memory errors in humans. I am also working with Sona Patel, Ph.D., of the School of Health and Medical Sciences to better understand how sleep is altered after concussion.

In addition, I have a line of pedagogical research investigating how various syllabus features affect student perceptions of faculty members, partly conducted in collaboration with Elizabeth McCrea, Ph.D., of the School of Business.

I have been at Seton Hall since 2003. Courses that I frequently teach include Biological Psychology (and lab), Undergraduate Teaching Experience in Psychology, Research Methods, Neuropsychology of Religious Experience, and Orientation to the Psychology Major. Prior to my arrival at SHU I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where I conducted research on the neural mechanisms of sleep and emotion, and as an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Purdue University - Fort Wayne in Indiana.