Psychological Sciences
Education and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Linley received her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience in 2011 from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) under the direction of Dr. Katherine Hughes where her graduate work focused on studying the neurobehavioral effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in rats and the neuropsychological consequences of its use in humans. She completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Vertes, where continued as a Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at FAU. During her time there, she examined the anatomical and physiological functioning of monoaminergic systems and identified thalamocortical interactions in affective and executive functioning.
Dr. Linley recently served as a visiting faculty member in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of North Georgia, where she concentrated her efforts on teaching neuroscience and psychology coursework.
Dr. Linley’s research focuses on unraveling the neurocircuitry of emotion and cognition. At the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Linley’s translational neuroscience lab will use a multi-modal (brain, behavior, environment) and multispecies (rat, human) approach to examine the neurobiological, behavioral and contextual mechanisms in attention, flexible thinking behavioral inhibition and emotional processing. The lab is particularly interested in examining how individual differences in behavioral regulation, cognition and sleep can help identify predictive markers that contribute to long-term cognitive outcomes, with the overall aim to model how alterations of these systems impact the symptomology of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Linley has taught a wide array of neuroscience and cognitive psychology courses. At UNC, she is currently teaching Behavioral Neuroscience and Sensation and Perception.
A.K. Rojas, S.B. Linley, and R.P. Vertes (2024). Chemogenetic inactivation of the nucleus reuniens and its projections to the orbital cortex produce deficits on discrete measures of behavioral flexibility in the attentional set-shifting task.. Behavioural Brain Research, 115066. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115066.
R.P. Vertes, S.B. Linley, A.K. Rojas, K. Lamothe & T.A. Allen (2024). Diencephalic modulation of the hippocampus in affective and cognitive behavior. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 57, 101377. doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2024.101377
R.P. Vertes, W.B Hoover, M.P. Witter, M.F. Yanik, A.K.P. Rojas, and S.B. Linley (2022). Projections from the five divisions of the orbital cortex to the thalamus in the rat. Journal of Comparative Neurology, doi: 10.1002/cne.25419.
R.P. Vertes, S.B. Linley, and T.D. Viena, T. D. (2022). Nucleus Reuniens: Circuitry, Function, and Dysfunction. In Electrophysiological Recording Techniques (pp. 55-101). Humana, New York, NY.
R.P. Vertes, S.B. Linley, and A.K. Rojas (2022). Structural and functional organization of the midline and intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.964644.
T.D. Viena, R.P. Vertes, and S.B. Linley (2021). Discharge characteristics of neurons of nucleus reuniens across sleep-wake states in the behaving rat. Behavioural Brain Research, doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2021.113325.
S.B. Linley, A.C. Athanason, A.K.P. Rojas, and R.P. Vertes (2021). Role of the reuniens and rhomboid thalamic nuclei in anxiety-like avoidance behavior in the rat. Hippocampus, doi.org/10.1002/hipo.23302.
R.P. Vertes and S.B. Linley (2021). No cognitive processing in the unconscious, anesthetic-like state of sleep. Journal of Comparative Neurology: https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24963.
R.P. Vertes and S.B. Linley (2020). Serotonergic regulation of hippocampal rhythmical activity. Handbook of the Behavioral Neurobiology of Serotonin, 2nd ed. (Vol. 31, pp. 337-36), Müller and Cunningham (Eds.). Academic Press, UK.
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