Dr. Danielle Stolzenberg heads the Epigenetics of Maternal Behavior Laboratory at UC Davis in the Department of Psychology and is an affiliated faculty member with the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience, which seeks to understand the function of the human brain in health and in illness. She is also a faculty member of the UC Davis Molecular, Cellular, Integrative Physiology Graduate Group; the UC Davis Biology, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Graduate Group; and the UC Davis Neuroscience Graduate Group. 

The overall goal of Professor Stolzenberg’s research is to advance our understanding of the neurobiology of parental behavior. The question of how experiences that occur throughout the lifetime produce enduring effects on brain and behavior is a fundamental part of this research program. She focuses on motherhood as a significant experience gained in adulthood, which robustly affects brain and behavior. Her research suggests that the experience of becoming a mother results in a sustained sensitivity toward infants that is mediated by epigenetic mechanisms in the brain. Her laboratory uses behavioral, neuropharmacological and molecular techniques to explore the mechanisms by which infant interactions induce and sustain high levels of parental responding.