Marie-France Marin holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Montreal and completed postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Quebec in Montreal, an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction at the University of Montreal, a researcher at the Montreal Mental Health University Institute Research Centre, and a research member of the Réseau intersectoriel de recherche en santé de l’Université du Québec. Her expertise focuses on the impact of stress and stress hormones on the modulation of emotional memories. During her postdoctoral training, she furthered her knowledge of the modulation of memory processes, with a particular focus on fear-related and traumatic memories. In 2016, she founded the Stress, Trauma, Emotions, Anxiety, and Memory Lab (STEAM Lab). She and her team pursue two main research axes: one focusing on the mechanisms by which stress and sex hormones influence fear and safety learning and the other focusing on the intergenerational transmission of the risk for psychopathologies in families with a parent suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Overall, supported by major funding agencies, her research aims to document the environmental and biological factors that increase one’s vulnerability to developing various stress or fear-related psychopathologies. Recently, she was awarded a Canada Research Chair in hormonal modulation of cognitive and emotional functions.
Experience
2018–present
Professor, University of Quebec in Montreal
2018–present
Adjunct professor, University of Montreal
2016–present
Researcher, Montreal Mental Health University Institute Research Centre
2016–2018
Research assistant professor, University of Montreal
2015–2016
Assistant researcher, Massachusetts General Hospital
2015–2016
Instructor, Harvard Medical School
Education
2023
University of Quebec in Montreal, Prix du mérite – Recherche et création – catégorie relève
2023
Government of Quebec, Prix du Québec – Prix Relève scientifique
2022
University of Quebec in Montreal, Excellence in Research Award – Young Researcher
2019
Société québécoise pour la recherche en psychologie , Prix Émergence en Recherche
Publications
2023
Morphologic Alterations of the Fear Circuitry: The Role of Sex Hormones and Oral Contraceptives, Frontiers in Endocrinology
2023
When asking ‘are you stressed?’ is not enough: Hair cortisol, subjective stress, and alcohol use during the first year of the pandemic, Psychoneuroendocrinology
2023
The role of sex hormones, oral contraceptive use, and its parameters on visuospatial abilities, verbal fluency, and verbal memory, Hormones and Behavior
2023
Parent-Child Physiological Concordance Predicts Stronger Observational Fear Learning in Children with a Less Secure Relationship with Their Parent, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
2023
Using unconditioned responses to predict fear acquisition, fear extinction learning, and extinction retention patterns: Sex hormone status matters, Behavioural Brain Research
2023
Vulnerability to anxiety differently predicts cortisol reactivity and state anxiety during a laboratory stressor in healthy girls and boys, Journal of Affective Disorders
2022
Pre-pandemic socio-emotional vulnerability, internalizing and externalizing symptoms predict changes in hair cortisol concentrations in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in children, Psychoneuroendocrinology
2022
The impact of Canadian medical delays and preventative measures on breast cancer experience: A silent battle masked by the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Journal of Nursing Research
2022
The Association of Childhood Maltreatment, Sex, and Hair Cortisol Concentrations with Trajectories of Depressive and Anxious Symptoms Among Adult Psychiatric Inpatients, Psychosomatic Medicine
2022
A longitudinal investigation of psychological distress in children during COVID-19: The role of socio-emotional vulnerability, European Journal of Psychotraumatology
2022
A Year Through the COVID-19 Pandemic: Deleterious Impact of Hormonal Contraception on Psychological Distress in Women, Frontiers in Psychiatry
2020
Relationship security with father predicts vicarious fear transmission in children more sensitive to anxiety, Frontiers in Psychology
2020
Vicarious conditioned fear acquisition and extinction in child-parent dyads, Scientific reports
2020
Multimodal Categorical and Dimensional Approaches to Understanding Threat Conditioning and Its Extinction in Individuals With Anxiety Disorders, JAMA Psychiatry
2019
High cortisol awakening response in the aftermath of workplace violence exposure moderates the association between acute stress disorder symptoms and PTSD symptoms, Psychoneuroendocrinology
Grants and Contracts
2022
Modulation hormonale des fonctions cognitives et émotionnelles
Role:
Principal investigator
Funding Source:
Canada Research Chairs
2021
Laboratoire Hormones, Cognition & Émotions
Role:
Principal investigator
Funding Source:
Canadian Foundation for Innovation
2021
Intergenerational transmission of vulnerability to PTSD: When children learn fear from their parent
Role:
Principal investigator
Funding Source:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
2020
Long-lasting effects of oral contraceptive use during adolescence: An investigation of neural, endocrine, and cognitive systems
Role:
Principal investigator
Funding Source:
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
2018
Interaction between stress and sex hormones on fear and extinction memories
Role:
Principal investigator
Funding Source:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Professional Memberships
Outgoing president of the Société québécoise pour la recherche en psychologie
Associate Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Research Member of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology