Seth D. Norrholm, PhD, is a translational neuroscientist with over 2 decades of research experience in furthering the understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying fear-, anxiety-, trauma-, and stressor-related disorders and the psychiatric conditions with which these disorders are co-morbid. Dr. Norrholm has trained in both the “classical” bench-based neurosciences as well as within clinical arenas dedicated to the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. Together with a network of collaborators, Dr. Norrholm has employed objective, psychophysiological methods to study the underpinnings of mammalian fear processing as well as the mechanisms mediating effective treatments for fear and anxiety. Dr. Norrholm has spent 20 years working within VA and DoD to develop effective treatment strategies for mood and anxiety disorders with interventions spanning pharmaceutical, surgical, behavioral, and alternative domains. He is a recognized world leader in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Fear and recently joined our faculty as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in 2022.

When not working, Dr. Norrholm enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and their menagerie of animals as well as cheering on his beloved Florida State Seminoles and Philadelphia Eagles.

B.A. in Psychology (1995) – University of Maryland at College Park, College Park, Maryland

M.A. in Neuroscience (1998) – University of Hartford/University of Connecticut Health Center, Hartford/Farmington, Connecticut

Ph.D. in Neuroscience (2001) – Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

Postdoctoral Fellow (2001-2003), College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky

Postdoctoral Fellow (2003-2004), Department of Anatomy, University of South Florida

Postdoctoral Fellow (2004-2007), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine

Ph.D. Respecialization in Clinical Psychology (2014-2019) – Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

2007 – 2008: Associate in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

2008 – 2018: Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

2018 – 2019: Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

2014 – 2019: Full-time Faculty Member, Graduate Program in Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

2009 – 2019: Program Analyst/Principal Investigator, Atlanta VA Health Care System, Decatur, Georgia.

2019 – present: Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan

2019 – present: Scientific Director, Neuroscience Center for Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma (NeuroCAST), Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan

Recognized World Expert, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Expertscape, (2019)

Recognized World Expert, Fear, Expertscape, (2019)

Distinction in Scholarship Certificate, American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology (2018)

Emory School of Medicine Researcher Appreciation Day Recognition (2018)

Military Medicine Article of the Year Award (2017)

National Institutes of Health, National Advisory Mental Health Council Workgroup on Tasks and Measures for Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), Recommended Paradigm, Acute Fear Construct, https://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/advisory-boards-and-groups/namhc/reports/behavioral-assessment-methods-for-rdoc-constructs#section-ii-a (2016)

Distinguished Scientific Contribution, Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (2015)

Assessing the acquisition and extinction of learned fear using psychophysiological techniques (e.g., fear-potentiated startle, skin conductance, heart rate variability, and eye-tracking)

Clinical Psychopharmacology

Integrating objective measures of fear and anxiety during the implementation of cognitive behavioral therapies for mood and anxiety disorders

Virtual reality solutions for assessing the degree of and pathophysiological expression of fear

Imaginal and VR-based Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Learning and Memory