Faculty

Hadley C. Bergstrom
Associate Professor of Psychological Science
Hadley Creighton Bergstrom wearing a white collared shirt and dark gray sweater against a gray background.

Hadley Bergstrom teaches courses in Psychological Science and Neuroscience. His research focuses on how changes in brain structure and function relate to the organization and expression of memory. 

BS, University of Oregon; MA, PhD, George Mason University
At Vassar since 2015

Contact

habergstrom@vassar.edu
845-437-7363
Olmsted Hall of Biological Sc
Box 118
Hours
By appointment
The Memory Neuroscience Lab

Research and Academic Interests

Learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, dendrite and spine structure 

Selected Publications

BOLD typeface indicates current or former Vassar student co-author

  • Bergstrom HC (2025) Basolateral amygdala memory in the fourth dimension. Biological Psychiatry. Volume 98, Issue 10, 726 – 727. PMID: 41106945
  • Rajani Subramanian, Avery Bauman, Olivia Carpenter, Chris Cho, Gabrielle Coste, Ahona Dam, Kasey Drake, Sara Ehnstrom, Naomi Fitzgerald, Abigail Jenkins, Hannah Koolpe, Runqi Liu, Tamar Paserman, David Petersen, Diego Scala Chavez, Stefano Rozental, Hannah Thompson, Tyler Tsukuda, Sasha Zweig, Megan Gall, Bojana Zupan, Hadley Bergstrom (2025). An infralimbic cortex engram encoded during learning attenuates fear generalization. The Journal of Neuroscience. e2120242025. PMID: 40147934
  • Lawson K, Scarlata M, Cho C, Mangan C, Petersen D, Thompson H, Ehnstrom S, Mousley AL, Bezek JL, Bergstrom HC (2022). Adolescence alcohol exposure impairs fear extinction and alters medial prefrontal cortex plasticity. Neuropharmacology. 211:109048. PMID: 35364101 
  • Geary CG, Wilk VC, Barton KL, Jefferson PO, Binder T, Bhutani V, Baker C, Fernando-Peiris AJ, Mousley AL, Rozental SFA, Thompson HM, Touchon JC, Esteban DJ, Bergstrom HC (2021). Sex differences in gut microbiota modulation of aversive conditioning, open field activity, and basolateral amygdala dendritic spine density. The Journal of Neuroscience Research. 99(7):1780-1801. PMID: 33951219 
  • Bergstrom HC, Lieberman AB, Graybeal C, Lipken A, Holmes A (2020). Dorsolateral striatum engagement during reversal learning. Learning & Memory. 27: 418-422. PMID: 32934094. Cover Illustration and featured article
  • Bergstrom HC (2020). Assaying fear memory discrimination and generalization: Methods and concepts. Current Protocols in Neuroscience. 91(1). PMID: 31995285
  • Sangha S, Diehl MM, Bergstrom HC, Drew MR (2019). Know safety, no fear. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. Volume 108, January 2020, Pages 218-230. PMID: 31738952
  • Scarlata MJ, Lee SH, Lee D, Kandigian AJ, Hiller AJ, Dishart JG, Mintz GE, Wang Z, Coste G, Mousley A, Soler I, Lawson K, Ng AJ, Bezek JL, Bergstrom HC (2019). Chemogenetic stimulation of the infralimbic cortex reverses alcohol-induced fear memory overgeneralization. Scientific Reports. 9(1): 6730 PMID: 31040357
  • Piantadosi PT, Lieberman AG, Pickens CL, Bergstrom HC, and Holmes A (2019). A novel multichoice touchscreen paradigm for assessing cognitive flexibility in mice. Learning & Memory. 26(1):24-30 PMID: 30559117 Cover Illustration and featured article
  • Prager EM, Chambers KE, Plotkin JL, McArthur DL, Bandrowski AE, Bansal N, Martone ME, Bergstrom HC, Bespalov A, Graf C (2018). Improving transparency and scientific rigor in academic publishing. The Journal of Neuroscience Research. In press. PMID: 30506706

Note: This article was co-published in the journals Brain & Behavior and Cancer Reports.

  • Jacques A, Wright A, Chaaya N, Overell A, Bergstrom HC, McDonald C, Battle AR, Johnson LR (2018). Functional neuronal topography: A statistical approach to micro-mapping neuronal location. Frontiers in Neuronal Circuits. 12: 84. PMID: 30386215
  • Pollack GA, Bezek JL, Lee SH, Scarlata MJ, Weingast LT, Bergstrom HC (2018). Cued fear memory generalization increases over time. Learning & Memory. 25(7): 298-308. Cover Illustration and featured article
  • Bergstrom HC, Lipkin AM, Lieberman AG, Pinard CR, Gunduz-Cinar O, Brockway ET, Taylor WW, Nonaka M, Bukalo O, Wills TA, Rubio FJ, Li X, Pickens CL, Winder DG, Holmes A (2018). Dorsolateral striatum engagement interferes with early discrimination learning. Cell Reports. 23(8):2264-2272
  • Jury N, Pollack G, Ward M, Bezek J, Ng A, Pinard C, Bergstrom H, Holmes A (2017). Chronic ethanol during adolescence impacts corticolimbic dendritic spines and behavior. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics. 41(7):1298-1308 PMID: 28614590
  • Ehlinger DG, Burke JC, McDonald CG, Smith RF, Bergstrom HC (2017). Nicotine-induced and D1-receptor dependent dendritic remodeling in a subset of dorsolateral striatum medium spiny neurons. Neuroscience. 356: 242-254 PMID: 28576726
  • Bergstrom HC and Pinard CR (2017). Corticolimbic Circuits in Learning, Memory, and Disease. The Journal of Neuroscience Research. 95(3): 795-796 PMID: 28094866. Cover Illustration
  • Bergstrom HC (2016). The Neurocircuitry of Remote Cued Fear Memory. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 71: 409-417 PMID: 27693699
  • Ehlinger DG, Bergstrom HC, Burke JC, Fernandez GF, McDonald CG, Smith RF (2016). Adolescent nicotine-induced dendrite remodeling in the nucleus accumbens is rapid, persistent, and D1-dopamine receptor dependent. Brain Structure and Function. 221(1): 133-145 PMID: 25257604
  • Bergstrom HC, Darvesh AS, Berger SP (2015). Inducible nitric oxide inhibitors block NMDA antagonist-stimulated motoric behaviors and cortical glutamate efflux. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 6; 292. PMID: 26696891
  • Castro-Gomes V, Bergstrom HC, McGuire JL, Parker CC, Coyner J, Landeira-Fernandez, Ursano RJ, Palmer AA, Johnson LR (2016). Lateral amygdala dendritic morphology and spine patterning in a fear memory resistant and susceptible mouse line. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. 127:64-71 PMID: 26642919.
  • Prager EM, Bergstrom HC, Wynn GH, Braga MF (2016). The basolateral amygdala γ-aminobutyric acidergic system in Health and Disease. The Journal of Neuroscience Research. 94(6): 548-67 PMID: 26586374

For a full list of publications visit Google Scholar

Grants, Fellowships, Honors, Awards

National Science Foundation

NSF (PI) “Major Research Instrumentation (MRI): Track 1 Acquisition of a Confocal Microscope for Research and Teaching at Vassar College.”
$884,934 (total costs)
10/1/2023 – 9/30/2026

National Institutes of Health

2R15MH127534-02 (PI), “Differentiating fear generalization and extinction neuronal ensembles in prefrontal cortex.”
$556,875.00 (total costs)
Pending

1R15MH127534-01 (PI), “Identification of neuronal ensembles mediating fear generalization in the infralimbic cortex.”
$438,107.00 (total costs)
6/1/2021 – 05/31/2025

P50AA017823 subaward (PI), “Neurodevelopmental consequences of binge alcohol drinking on fear extinction expression and medial prefrontal cortex plasticity.”
$113,972.00 (total costs)
9/2/2019 – 8/31/2021

In the Media

Two smiling people in a lab wearing gloves and holding lab containers.

Thanks to URSI, Scientific Research is Going Strong at Vassar

Deep cuts in government funding for scientific research have forced many colleges and other institutions to curtail or even eliminate many research programs. This has not been the case at Vassar. The College’s Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) ran right on schedule this summer.

Bald person smiling in front of a grey backdrop.

NSF Funds State-of-the-art Confocal Microscope for Research and Teaching at Vassar

Principal Investigator Hadley Bergstrom, Associate Professor of Psychological Science, and co-PIs Bojana Zupan, Associate Professor of Psychological Science, and Jennifer Kennell, Associate Professor of Biology, received a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant from the National Science Foundation to purchase a new state-of-the-art confocal microscope platform for basic research and teaching at Vassar, which will fundamentally transform faculty research, faculty-mentored undergraduate research, and advanced-level teaching.

The Corticolimbic System in Health: Implications for Learning, Memory and Disease

The corticolimbic system, which is made up of the prefrontal cortices, amygdala and hippocampus, processes a broad range of behavioral and cognitive functions, including motor programming and control, decision making, mnemonic function and emotional regulation. Recent work has illustrated the flexibility of the corticolimbic system; indeed, changing environmental factors such as stress- and fear-inducing stimuli might expose one to particular vulnerabilities, including the development of neuropsychiatric (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder or addiction) and neurological disorders (e.g., Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease). Yet, despite decades of progress unraveling the neuroanatomy and functionality of this system, much remains unknown.

Psychologists Explain Why Food Memories Can Feel So Powerful

Most of us have a memory of a food that takes us back to childhood. It can be as simple as a candy bar that we used to get as a treat during our youth, or more involved like a lemon bar recalling your first baking disaster. No matter the importance, memories involving food are vivid ― and they sometimes feel more evocative than other types of memories...
Huffington Post. May 10, 2017

Drinking during adolescence can alter brain cell nerve growth

The developmental period from adolescence to adulthood is accompanied by a greater vulnerability to addictions -- including alcohol use disorders -- than is seen in other periods of life. This increased risk may be due to genetic predisposition, poor impulse control, or heightened sensitivity of the still-developing brain to drug-related toxicity. This report describes a study in mice of the neurobehavioral impact of chronic, intermittent alcohol-vapor exposure during adolescence, in an effort to model periodic heavy drinking and compare it with similar drinking behavior during adulthood.

Photos

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Hadley Creighton Bergstrom wearing a white collared shirt and dark gray sweater against a gray background.
Credit
Karl Rabe/Vassar College
Hadley Creighton Bergstrom wearing a white collared shirt and dark gray sweater against a gray background.
Credit
Karl Rabe/Vassar College